Resistance to Change at the Workplace - Essay Example

? Resistance to Change Topic: Resistance to Change Change often requires individuals at the work place to adjust to the new conditions by moving from their comfort zone in order to fit in the new work environment (Ron and Burnes, 2001). Organizational change also required individuals to think and act differently in order to achieve the specified goals and objectives of the change process. This often a difficult task if the employees are not prepared well enough to face the impending organizational change. Organizational change produces uncertainty and anxiety among employees who are likely to lose a sense of security in their jobs and they would rather prefer the status quo. Resistance to the change may be their best option. Resistance to change is considered a natural reaction of employees to the uncomfortable situation the change introduces. Resistance to change slows down the change process and may in some case prevent the change from taking place (Ron and Burnes, 2001). Most managers consider resistance to change as a negative force opposed to the change. Resistance to change however presents a good opportunity for the management of an organization to learn more about the new change, interact and engage with their employees, and improve the impending change. Resistance to change is in fact positive and beneficial to the change itself and the organization. Resistance to change should be incorporated in to the process of managing change in order to have a successful change process. One main benefit of resistance to change is that it leads to feedback from employees and stakeholders in the organization about the new change (Ron and Burnes, 2001). The management can use resistance to change as an opportunity to collect feedback about the new systems to be implemented. The feedback can then be used to improve the change processes. Apart from this, resistance to change is also beneficial for the organization because it helps the management to explain in detail about the change itself and need for change. This will help the employees to understand more about the change. Through this understanding, the employees may finally accept the change. Resistance to change also creates an opportunity for the management to engage and interact with their employees. Through these interactions, the two groups will be able to understand each other and work together effectively on the impending change and even on future change projects of the organization. Employees are likely to resist change to the extent that they are not involved in the whole process (Ron and Burnes, 2001). It is true that most of organizational changes come from external forces and employees play a very minimal part in initiating the change processes, even though they are the most affected. Major policy changes in an organization for instance are generated by the management and given to the employees for implementation. A policy to introduce new technology will in most cases originate from the management. It is possible to determine if employees have been successful in resisting change if they reject it completely while positive impact of resistance can be seen when the management and the employees come to an agreement on the way forward. Resistance to change can be minimized of managed if all employees are engaged and involved throughout the process. Topic: Importance of leadership Team leaders help their teams to develop visions and plans for the future as well solving any conflicts that may emerge among team members. Team leaders therefore have to posses the necessary skills required to mobilize their members to work as a team and move forward towards achieving their goals. Among desirable leadership traits for team management include decision making skills, conflict resolution skills, communication skills and relationship skills among others (Ron and Burnes, 2001). Problem solving activities can be delegated to different individuals within the team while the team leader remains the most responsible for all the processes within the team. Teams are made up of individuals with different skills, ideas, and personalities who come together to put their differences aside to ensure the team achieves the common good. The responsibility of the leader is to ensure the differences and the diversity in the team does not hinder the team from achieving its objectives. Given this diverse nature of team membership, disagreements are bound to occur on some important issues that require the team to act as one. A leader has to use their decision making skills for the good of the team in such cases. In case there is no consensus on a particular matter, a leader should make a decision on the way forward taking in to account the various divergent views and settling on the most appropriate decision for the team. In a scenario where a decision for a venue for a conference is required by the end of the day and there is no consensus yet, a leader has to settle on one location, using a fair decision making criterion such as voting, or trying to persuade the members to settle on a specific city within the required time. If both methods do not yield fruits then the leader must make a singular decision for the benefit of the entire team. Topic: Response to a colleague- Emergency group Emergency situations create a lot of confusion and elicit a wide range of emotions from both the victims and the public. I concur with my colleague that in these emergency situations, there are two groups of people most affected. One is the victims of the situation and the other is the emergency rescue teams who confront the situation to arrest the situation and recue the victims. In most public and academic discourses, a lot of attention has been given to the victims trying to educate them how to handle emergency situations in future, taking them through counseling to help them overcome the unfortunate and unexpected emergencies. While this is good, the rescue teams have been neglected. There is limited research conducted about rescue teams and how they react to the emergency situations, both emotionally and professionally. The rescuers are just normal human beings and can also be overcome with emotions depending on the magnitude of the emergency at hand. Even though they have the necessary knowledge, skills and training of handling difficult situations, they can be overwhelmed by other situations, since the rescue job is all about putting one’s life at risk in order to protect the life of the other. I also agree with my colleague’s sentiments that a lot more needs to be done in terms of research and scientific investigations about various rescue teams. This would help minimize cases of psychological damages for rescuers and also offer guidelines to help prevent accidents and other emergencies in the future. References Ron C. and Burnes, B. (2001) "Managing organisational change in the public sector - Lessons from the privatisation of the Property Service Agency", International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 14 Iss: 2, pp.94 – 110. Read More