Change Management - Managing Resistance to Change - Research Paper Example

Change Management - Managing Resistance to Change TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY …………………………………………… 3 Framing of the Research ………………………………………. 4 LITERATURE REVIEW ……………………………………………. 5 Resistance to Change ………………………………………… 5 Managing Resistance to Changes ……………………………. 6 Why to manage resistance ……………………………………… 9 Methods to manage resistance …………………………………. 10 PERSONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT MODEL ………………….. 12 Power of Resistance, or Resource-based view of Resistance ……. 12 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ………………………………….. 14 ‘Power of Resistance’ as an effective resistance managing tool…. 14 Evaluative Conclusion ………………………………………….. 16 Recommendation for further research ……………………………. 17 APPENDIX ……………………………………………………………… 18 REFERENCES ………………………………………………………… 19 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Change in the business has recently become a significant aspect of its life. The magnitude, unpredictability, speed and the impact of the changes, for the society at large, are greater than ever before. Globalization, technology advancement, fierce competitive environments, need to control costs and increase efficiency triggered by increased awareness of the customers are some of the signals for change in the organization in order to survive. Due to the complexities and challenges in today’s business and market environments, organizations appear to have evolved a whirlwind of changes. Change, thus, has become pervasive and persistent in recent years. As the pace and degree of change increases, leaders and managers are largely in need of influencing the process and outcomes of the change. Change management is not to be confined to a figurehead at the top or a particular level of the management who drives for the changes. But rather, managers and leaders should be capable of using their intellects to become transformational influencers and to enhance organizational development by establishing effective strategies that can help everybody become accustomed with the changes. In managing changes effectively, one of the major impediments is that some or many people dislike change and they may resist it. A sound and efficient system of Change Management is not only identifying the areas to be changed and implementing changes thereto, but also, finding the dislikes and resistance to it among the people and managing it by influencing to get them involved. Framing of the Research This piece of research paper relates to managing resistance to changes in an organization. Based on reviewing various literatures and experts’ findings, the paper presents different approaches to resistance to change and analyzes effective methodologies or managerial functional areas that can be used for managing resistance to changes. Implementing changes or even finding the resistance behavior from the people may be an easy task, but, managing the resistance and encouraging or influencing them to be participated is more or less a difficulty task that many mangers fail with. This paper aims to draft various models and system approaches that management can depend to manage resistance as part of its ‘change management’ functions. The main issue being discussed in this research paper is managing resistance to change. The paper explains how different models for managing resistance can be successfully used to influence the people so as to manage their resistance to change. As Palmer, Dunford and Akin (2009) noted, resistance in an organization is one of the nastiest cancer that can kill ‘changes’ (p. 159). This paper finds that viewing resistance as opportunity, power and resource is one of the most successful models to manage resistance as well as to manage change. Some literatures (Ford and Ford, 2009, Palmer, Dunford and Akin, 2009 etc) highlighted that resistance itself is a power and that can manage resistance and change as well. This research paper finds that viewing resistance as resource is a more effective and rather applicable concept that change management experts can use it for creating a positive environment in the workplace that will, as a result, help organization get its people involved in the change process. LITERATURE REVIEW Resistance to Change When there is a thrive for a change, let it be in family, social, community or organizational levels, people will either be for it or against it. People may support or dislike it. People’s response to changes vary widely, ranging from ‘commitment’ to ‘aggressive resistance’. Involvement, support, apathy, passive resistance and active resistance are the other five levels (Spector, 2010, p. 9). There are different ways that people response to changes and it means that resistance depends on the type of change proposed. Getting people involved with a change process is highly critical to the success. The change management process requires to focus on strategic planning and strategic thinking in order to explore the levels of resistance that is likely to occur within the organization and find ways to get them ‘supportive’ to the changes, either by influencing them positively or managing the resistance through any possible effective approaches. A general assumption is that all changes are resisted. Researches and experiences have proved that ‘people resist change inherently’ because, inclination to oppose change is partially offset by those factors as desire to experience a new thing breaking away from routine and reward value of the changes (Saiyadain, 2009, p. 213). But, Dijk and Dick (2009) argued that people do not resist change for it is a change, but rather the anticipated consequences or expected effects associated with the change like loss of status, loss of pay, or loss of comfort and these cause ‘resistance’ (p. 144). People usually resist changes due to a number of factors including status quo, threat or fear of anticipated consequences, threat to personal security, less confidence to the ability to accustom with the change etc (Bruckman, 2008, p. 212). As Bruckman (2008) analyzed, common negative impacts of changes can be classified psychological, physiological, societal and corporate factors (See appendix-1) Managing Resistance to Changes Resistance almost always accompanies change, because change alters the current situation or balance of the people. Resistance is the major impediment to effectively implementing changes, and therefore, managing resistance is at the heart of change management. No change management can find its way successful unless it found ways to strategically deal with resistance and thus to get people committed or involved or even supported. Barriers to change include poor leadership, lack of management support for change, lack of trust between people, internal conflict for resources, lack of reward or recognition, lack of commitment to changes etc (Gilley, Godek and Gilley, 2009, p. 5). These are some of the factors that can restrict change or increase its severity. An effective management should consider all these sort of factors so that resistance can be lessened. Effective leadership, collaboration, employee involvement, appropriate communication and motivation are some of the factors that can directly lessen ‘resistance’. Managing resistance is thus a system approach to identifying major factors that cause or play behind people’s resistance and taking strategic measures that can help management encourage people to get committed towards the change process. Change Management team has to play significant roles in managing the resistance. Palmer, Dunford and Akin (2009) highlighted a ‘Resistance- management’ model through six-methods, they are a) education and communication, b) participation and involvement, c) facilitation and support, d) negotiation and agreement, e) manipulation and cooptation and f) explicit and implicit coercion (p. 172). It is always important that management should communicate to the people why change is necessary and what benefits are likely to accrue as results of change and how these factors can benefit employees and other people involved in the workplace. More specifically, as Kondalkar (2009) pointed, a free flow of information and two-way communication are highly critical to managing resistance and thus to managing changes too (p. 173). Management is expected to understand that workers are key element of any organization and therefore their involvement in each and every aspect of change is required, from the stage of strategic planning to the implementation and evaluation of the changes. Holbeche (2005) identified three steps-managerial functions in relation to the Resistance-Management system. They are: 1. Identifying the reasons why people do resist the proposed changes, 2. Understand people’s fears and concerns, and 3. Reassure people, where possible, making them aware of the fact that organization is aiming to support them with the changes being proposed (p. 70). Identifying reasons and understanding the fear and concerns of people may seem easy efforts, but, reassuring them that these changes are in turn to support them seems to be a difficult task, especially when there are aggressive resisters or the resistance is likely to lead to destructive behavior. Szabla (2007) argued that organizational researchers and practitioners know little about the multifaceted nature of human resistance, despite the claim that resistance is the major cause for organizational change failure (p. 526). It is mainly because, as Szabla (2007) argued, organizational researchers have struggled with conceptualization of resistance and resistance to change has not been studied in multidimensional way (p. 526). This shows that, rather than knowing the resistance that occurs within an organization, the management is required to realize and explore the multifaceted and multidimensional features of resistance. Resistance often leads to destructive managerial behaviors (Ford and Ford, 2009, p. 99) and therefore managing it effectively can help organization achieve its specific goals of implementing changes in order to maintain sustainable competitive advantages. When it comes to change management, especially people’s resistance to change, there are both soft and hard issues of change. When there are aggressive resistance, it in turn is considered to be hard issues of changes and managing change in such environment will be extremely a difficult task. Sirkin, Keenan and Jackson (2005) argued that managing change is difficult, but part of the problem is that there is little agreement on what factors influence transformation initiatives (p. 110). Often, mangers are focusing on soft issues like culture, leadership and motivation. These elements are also important for success, but managing these factors alone is not sufficient to implement changes. Attitude or relationship, for instance, are hard issues of change management as they are deeply ingrained in organization and its people. Why to manage resistance As detailed above, managing resistance is the key element of managing changes. As there are ways in which a proposed change and its implementation may cause resistance to change, there are also techniques that can help an organization purposefully build support and participation (Spector, 2010, p. 12) and this explains why there is a need to manage resistance. ‘To get the people involved’ to participate in making changes has become increasingly important. Managing resistance is increasingly important because, identifying what specific factors lead people to resist to the changes and creating an awareness that such factors, for instance fear of security, status quo, anticipation of loss of pay or loss of better working environment, are not directly affected by the proposed change can eventually create a positive environment to implementing changes. Organization change can bring about a range of outcomes, including organizational survival and profitability, heightened levels of organizational change cynicism (Brown and Cregan, 2008, p. 667), sustainable competitive advantages, customer focus and customer loyalty, increased productivity and adoption of advanced technology and so on. If the underlying reasons for resistance in an organization were not identified properly, the proposed change and its positive sides are not communicated effectively and more appropriate methodologies to manage the resistance are not considered, resistance will certainly kill the ‘change’ and the outcome will be that it cannot adjust with changing business environment that ultimately leading the business to failure. As Lawrence (2001) noted, the key to the problem is to understand the true nature of the resistance, and also to realize what employees resist is usually not technical change but social impacts that those proposes changes are likely to cause (p. 4). Methods to manage resistance Some of the useful models for managing resistance are detailed below: 1- Thought-Self Leadership Leading the people, motivating them and influencing them are useful ways, and often done by managers as normal ways, to manage resistance. Palmer, Dunford and Akin highlighted that Thought-Self Leadership, as an effective way to manage resistance, is a process of influencing or leading people through the purposeful control one’s thoughts (p. 174). They described various propositions to explain this. People’s perceptions are the primary determinant of how they respond to changes and these perception can be largely influenced by Thought-Self Leadership, by using belief, assumption and self-talk. Self-leadership is comprised of self direction, self-support, self achievement and self aspiration (Wart, 2007, p.90). no matter whether the individual who resists, within an organization, is an employer, or manager or worker or senior executive, the should be able to rely primarily on himself and this will make sensible about his behavior and actions. A Thought-Self Leadership will be an effective tool to manage resistance in the workplace. 2- The power of resistance Resistance itself can be considered as a tool to manage resistance. Palmer, Dunford and Akin found that, based on Maurer’s argument, rather than treating resistance to change as something that must be overcome, the power of resistance can be used to create support for change (p. 177). Instead of finding and viewing resistance as something as ‘against approach’, showing respect to those who resist and considering it as feedback or otherwise opinions can in turn create stronger relationship among the people and thus to improve the flow to bring changes. 3- Participation Msweli-Mbanga and Potwana (2006) emphasized that participation can yield positive results in bringing change and also in managing resistance. When people feel that they are participated and involved, they in most cases will not show resistance to changes. Based on Lewin’s points, Msweli-Mbanga and Potwana (2006) argued that participation is useful is beneficial in changing conduct and behavior during the process of a change in the organization (p. 22). 4- Boost awareness Ford and Ford (2009) are of the opinion that when managers are ready to address a change to the people, the management must have opportunities to process what it will mean for them as individuals. As there are different levels of people and work in the managerial hierarchy, probably those who propose changes will not think of its consequences to the down levels of workers (p. 100). It is thus advisable that managers should drop down and evaluate the impacts of those changes to them as well. it is thus a preventive method, because, before the change is proposed or communicated, management must be able to evaluate its position and structure out it accordingly, so that likely resistance can be avoided. PERSONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT MODEL As discussed earlier, managing resistance and dislikes of people in an organization is a critical element of change management. There are many different methods and models for managing change, and similarly, there are various strategic and effective tools for managing resistance as well. People resist changes inherently, especially older workers. Resistance occurs due to various reasons like status quo, threat to work security, anticipation of loss of pay etc and therefore management requires to take effective methodologies to discover the basic reasons behind the resistance and to develop models that can help management conduct effective communication of changes to influence them. Power of Resistance, or Resource-based view of Resistance Out of various models and methods for managing change, I found ‘resistance as resource’ or ‘power of resistance’ as most effective, due to the fact that, it helps consider resistance positively, takes resistance itself to manage resistance and helps avoid likely errors in the proposed changes. The management should be able to predict the resistance, find out its major causes, develop changes in a manner that do not cause aggressive dislikes from its people and to communicate how the proposed change will create positive work environment or yield individual benefits to every body in the organization. All these are commonly practiced and most change management are well aware of these managerial functions, but, they often fail to consider the ‘resistance’ itself as a resource to manage change. Palmer, Dunford and Akin highlighted five-steps to use the power of resistance to mange the resistance. 1. Focus clearly on the objective without de-motivating the immediate reaction and resistance. 2. Find out more about the resistance and recognize the levels and reasons for it. 3. Show respect to those who resist, thinking that they do resist for good-sake. 4. Resist the temptation to push back, because, resistance may cause hatred among those who propose changes and therefore relaxation can help them learn more and adjust with the conditions. 5. Join with the resistance by listening some points and establishing some common ground for it (p. 177). Ford and Ford (2009) viewed the power of resistance as a ‘resource’. Those who propose changes should ask two questions, ‘why we see this particular behavior as resistance’ and ‘what can we learn if we view them as feedback’. Ford and Ford (2009) stated that, if these two questions are answered properly, the resistance can be viewed as a ‘resource’ (p. 100). When a change has been addressed to the people and they show dislike or resistance, change management experts should take it as opportunity and they should gather their opinion, their feelings and their responds so that what factors cause them to resist can be understood more appropriately. It is assumed that, some time people, who resist to the change, can give more valuable inputs to the change. People are the most valuable and powerful assets an organization has and therefore their knowledge, skills, experiences and talents can be used positively to bring changes even when they show dislikes to it. People in an organization, including both managers and workers, need to be part of the process and they need to be heard (Laura-Georgeta, nd, p. 623). When change management experts communicate to the people about the proposed change and its likely impacts on their work environment, there can be various views and opinions from the employees. These views, rather than taking it as resistance, must be heard and evaluated in respect to its significance. Some of their opinions and feedback will eventually help improve the change process, avoiding any defects or eliminating its negative impacts on work environment or physical or psychological aspects of workers. This is one of the most effective and successful way to manage resistance. Resistance should not be de-motivated, but rather, it is a resource and it can improve the change if carefully managed. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ‘Power of Resistance’ as an effective way to manage resistance Various literatures have focused on the ‘power of resistance’ as an effective tool to manage resistance. Many researchers suggested that resistance should be considered as a resource (Ford and Ford, 2009) and resistance itself has a power to mange it (Palmer, Dunford and Akin, 2009). McKenna (2000) strongly suggested that encountering resistance to change should be used as an opportunity to re-examine the proposal for change (p. 503). As he noted, resistance can be constructive if it forces managers to interact more frequently with subordinates, to evaluate and review the proposed changes and also to explore alternative ways to meet the objective. As stated earlier, human capital is perhaps one of the most powerful, productive and valuable assets that an organization has. Their knowledge, skills and experience can play significant roles in bringing success to the business. Why some organizations provide additional rewards to the older workforces to retain them back? It is because, they are more knowledgeable and experienced and their expertise and knowledge will be transferred to the younger people. When it comes to managing resistance by viewing it as a resource, opportunity and power, the knowledge, expertise and experience of workers, no matter how lower-levels they work in, are valued, considered and used as a resource for further improving the proposed change. When a change has been proposed and communicated to the people, as discussed earlier, they do inherently resist it. Why do they resist and what factors led them think that way? This question relates to explore their knowledge and experiences. Workers are the people who directly involved with workplace environment and they are more concerned about changes that are likely to cause ‘workplace discomforts or dissatisfaction’. Managers may not know about it. When people resist those changes, their resistance should be considered as feedback that can help form better changes, eliminate defects and improve further yet. When their opinions are valued, they will be more prompted and motivated to get involved and participated in the ‘change process’. Viewing resistance as ‘power’ is thus key element to success by making people encouraged, motivated and getting them involved. Evaluative Conclusion This piece of research paper has addressed a number of basic concepts and theoretical aspects of change management and managing resistance to change. The major issue being discussed is resistance to change as a great impediment to successful change management. Based on various researches and literatures, the paper has addressed various models of change management and managing resistance to change such as participation, Thought-self leadership, resistance as power and resource view and boosting of awareness. Approaching resistance as resource, opportunity and power has been chosen as personal model for change management because it is not only a positive system approach but also a successful way to motivate, encourage and help people get involved and participated in the change process. Main finding of the paper: Most changes are resisted as people inherently resist changes. Resistance to change is one of the main obstruction to implementing change and therefore no change can be effectively implemented unless resistance has been effectively managed. Various models are there to manage resistance, such as participation, Thought-self leadership, boosting awareness and approaching resistance as power. Viewing resistance as power, opportunity and resource helps create a positive environment in which people would respond positively to the change and will get involved in the change process. Resistance is an impediment, but, if change management experts take it as a resource to manage itself, then resistance to change is a power and not an obstacle. It shows that, managing an obstacle effectively means that it will eventually turn to be a power. Recommendation for further research A better way to manage change and manage resistance to change is creating an environment by which people themselves encourage their colleagues to take part in the change process. Further research is required and suggested to explore how people can be motivated to become themselves managers of change, by making them spread of it. Rather than managers do communicate about the proposed change to the people, if managers can create an environment that people themselves are highly motivated and communicate it to their colleagues to gain support will be a vey useful model for managing change as well as managing resistance. 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