The Famous examples of resistance to change - MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: 1. Why is resistance to change frequently demonized by managers, as a problem that must be managed? 2. Why Employees Resist Change? 3. What are the ethical implications of this and how else can resistance is understood? Answer: Answer 1 Organisational change management (OCM) is defined as the process of managing any change in a corporation relating to its culture, structure or business process. It focuses on effectively managing human resources during an organisational change. In todays competitive world, top-level executive of a corporation takes up the responsibility of incorporating change within a firm that is aimed to increase positive outcomes (Jabri, 2012). The managers have to implement a systematic method to ensure that an entire corporation is benefited by the implementation of organisational change policies. Organisational change requires members of an enterprise to learn new skills and change their behaviour as per the requirements. During an organisational change, managers face the issue of resistance from employees which increase the obstacles to the implementation of change plan. This essay will focus on analysing the role of resistance in organisational change and why executives are required to effec tively manage resistance in order to implement an organisational change plan. Further, the essay will discuss ethical implications of resistance from the example of different organisations and how it affects managers decisions. Organisational change is necessary for a firms growth since it assists employees in increasing their productive performance and directs them towards achieving corporate objectives. Organisational change is divided into two parts: evolutionary and transformational. Incremental or evolutionary change is referred as small-scale changes that focus on improving quality of a companys framework. Transformational or revolutionary changes are radical, and they completely transform corporations basic framework. The primary objective of radical change is to increase a companys potential to compete in a market which results in increasing its profitability and performance (Langley, Smallman, Tsoukas Van de Ven, 2013). Change includes two forces, one is driving force that pushes the company towards new direction and second is restraining force which prevents organisational changes from occurring. Google is a good example; the company did not focus on five-year plans, instead it implements policie s as per rapidly changing technologies. The companys effective change management program provides them competitive advantage over others (Re:Work with Google, 2014). These factor influence the change policy in a corporation and managers have to consider these factors while formulating change strategies. Effective organisational change strategy assists corporations in increasing engagement with employees, improve their productive performance, reduce operating costs, and enhance innovative approach which provides corporations a competitive advantage and sustain their future growth (Shin, Taylor Seo, 2012). Answer 2 Kotter defined employee resistance as a pathology that is necessary to be understood by managers in order to effectively implement organisational change program. Choi (2011) provided that it is managers responsibility to assess employees behaviour before implementing change policies since resistance is a natural action. Manager focus on addressing the issue of employees resistance since it assists in implementing necessary organisational changed. In todays competitive world, corporations have to implement their policies as per rapidly changing market conditions to ensure that they are able to offer trending products and services. The companies that change their organisational policies as per marketing conditions are able to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors (Erwin Garman, 2010). Therefore, managers focus on tackling the issues of employees resistance while implementing new organisational policies. There are various obstacles faced by managers while implementing eff ective organisational change policies such as lack of employee involvement, lack of effective communication strategy, unknown current state, culture shift and complexity. Employee resistance is one of the biggest obstacles faces by managers while implementing organisational change policies. There are a large number of factors which influence an employee to resist change. The employees resistance to change is a natural reaction, and managers can take various steps to address this issue. There are various reasons due to which employees resistance change in an enterprise. For example, loss of job is a major reason because of which employees resist organisational change. Managers introduce new machinery or innovative processes which result in decreasing the requirement of human resource in a firm that causes huge layoff or job losses, due to which employees resist change (Fugate, Prussia Kinicki, 2012). Bad communication strategy also results in increasing employees resistance because workers did not have proper knowledge of the policies which increases their fear. Many employees fear lack of competence during an organisational change since new transform ation requires workers to learn new skills (Fleming Spicer, 2007). Employees are hesitant to learn new skills or routine, and they express their unwillingness by resisting the change. For example, introduction of Uber application in London caused resistance from taxi drivers because they fear that it will make them jobless (Bouquet Renault, 2014). Lack of proper rewards or incentives schemes also causes employees resistance. Employees feel discouraged in case company did not provide enough incentives to workers for new changes which make them discouraged to cooperate with the change policies (Bouckenooghe, 2010). Social constructions also increase employee resistance because employees did not prefer to leave their comfort zone and lack of support system also increases this issue (Burr, 2015). Office politics also play a role in employees resistance, for example, some workers might resist change if they also resist the person leading the change. Lack of trust and support from top-level executives increases employees resistance which makes it difficu lt for them to implement change program. These factors increase the employee resistance during the implementation of the change program. Behavioural Impact of Employees Resistance Resistance influence the outcomes of an employees psychological state and factors relating to it such as emotions and attitude. The employees might act selfishly because they might feel that organisational change program did not incorporate their interest. As per Kotter, the change program must incorporate individual self-interest along with organisational interest in order to increase efficiency (Appelbaum, Habashy, Malo Shafiq, 2012). The manager has to ensure that employees are not acted selfishly while working in a corporation, and they focus on achieving common organisational objectives. The managers also face the issue of cognition during a change program because lack of communication makes it difficult for employees to understand the change policies (Hon, Bloom, Crant, 2014). They might also face emotional reactions such as fear of potential loss, future risk, job loss, status or other. Some employees might not have appropriate capacity to deal with the changes which cause t hem to feel powerless or sceptical. These factors increase organisational issues which reduce employees performance and their trust in the corporation. Answer 2 Relationship between Power and Resistance Traditionally, resistance and power are preserved differently in which power was a dominating factor and resistance was considered as diffusing, or multidimensional. But, in recent years, many experts have provided that there are no relations of power without employees resistance. Weber defined power as coercion and manager use it to implement new changes which might not incorporate interest of employees (Thompson, 2013). Power and politics influence each part of an organisation partly because employees have different taste, interest, perspective, or experience and different access to various forms of power. Foucault provided that both power and resistance are linked with each other in a complex web which influences everyday operations in a corporation (OFarrell, 2008). Power is never complete, and the resistance of employees open the possibility for promoting preferred meaning in a firm. Therefore, even though senior managers have right to implement organisational change, it is difficult to guarantee that such policy will prevail without proper negation with employees. For example, former Microsofts CEO, Steve Ballmer, provided on the launch of iPhone that this phone will never succeed and he resisted to invest in modern smartphone technology (Heyl, 2015). The struggle between managers and employees is not necessarily repressive or negative, instead, it provides managers a creative potential to use the power-resistance relationship to their advantage and negotiate the terms of change (Thomas Hardy, 2011). Therefore, while implementing organisational change, managers analyse power-driven resistance from employees which has a negative influence on a change initiative. Ethical Issues Linked to Power and Resistance While dealing with power-driven resistance, managers have to ensure that the actions taken by them are ethical and did not negatively influence the corporation or its entities. Managers face various ethical issues while implementing organisational change (Erkama, 2010). Factors such as organisational culture, office politics, and ethical standing affect the change management process in a firm. The organisational change is considered as unethical when individuals use power and political behaviour to implement them, and they only serve their self-interest. The managers have to ensure that there is no personal gain involved in organisational change, and they are also required to monitor different stakeholders that are affected by the change policies to ensure that their interest is not affected by the strategy. Ethical implications provide that organisational dimensions include various entities such as employees, communication, teamwork and other stakeholders, and they are all affected by the change policies (Agboola Salawu, 2010). It is important that managers assess organisational change impacts and determine how it influences the interest of different stakeholders. A leader who uses political influences to forcefully implement an organisational change program upon companys stakeholders that is not in the common interest of objects, goals, and corporation is also considered unethical (Fiedler, 2010). The managers have to assess the political pressure and power of different leaders to ensure that change program is implemented successfully. Since top-level executive management fundamentally initiates the change program, there is a common perception that change is based on power relationship between top and middle-level executive (Battilana Casciaro, 2012). The low-level employees often feel like their interest is not included in the change program which makes them resist the change policies. There are various ethical dilemmas rises during the implementation of a change program such as misrepresentation, coercion, misuse of data, conspiracy, deception, promising unrealistic outcomes, conflict of values, and professional ineptness. Lack of communic ation channels and transparency increases employees resistance which creates obstacles to the implementation of change policies. Implications for Achieving Effective Change Management Program As provided by Thomas Hardy (2011), managers can implement Foucauldian approach which focuses on establishing power relationships in a corporation that are nurtured by effective communication channels which assist in reducing employee resistance. Ethics plays a crucial role during the change process, and effective communication is necessary to establish between the company and its stakeholders. The communication channels must have to be transparent and easily available to each stakeholder to ensure that they are able to collect all the necessary information regarding the change policies. Effective communication avoids unethical behaviour of managers, and it increases stakeholders trust in the company. Due to poor planning, the resistance of employees increases because managers did not take appropriate measure to avoid their resistance. The manager should incorporate employees knowledge and expertise in the change program which assists in effectively implementing change program (Choi , 2011). The managers should also invite employees to participate in the formulation of change program which assist them in understanding the policies, and they will also be able to add or remove policies from the program which contradicts with their interest. The issue of power and resistance relation can also be reduced by increasing the contribution of the employees in the change program. Before formulating change policies, the manager should also consider the interest of each stakeholder to ensure that change policies did not contradict their interest, and they are suitable for their future growth. For example, Royal Dutch Shell analyse the interest of its employees and provided that appropriate knowledge about the change program which avoid employee resistance (Shell, 2017). Managers are required to hire External change agents which gather data and provide analysis of the change program that assists managers in formulating policies as per stakeholders interest (Oreg, Vakola Armenakis, 2011). Managers should also focus on establishing a positive organisational culture which promotes and supports the change program. Effective culture automatically reduces employees resistance because it maintains transparency in the operations. Managers should also act ethically while implementing organisational change policies. Ethical behaviour includes constructive criticism, clea r communication, workplace respect, department openness, and conformity of policies (Jabri, 2012). The enterprise should also establish a code of ethics in the company that provides provisions for the effective implementation of change program; it will assist in reducing employees resistance and effectively implanting the change policies. In conclusion, employee resistance is a critical issue faced by managers during the implementation of the organisational change program. There are various factors which increase employees resistance such as lack of communication, fear of future, lack of competence, lack of reward programs, absence of support program, and many others. While addressing these issues, managers have to understand the relationship between power and resistance because it creates obstacles and reduces the effectiveness of change program. The managers have to address various ethical issues while implementing organisational change programs such as contradiction with interest, misuse of power and many others. In order to address issues relating to organisational change program, the managers can implement various policies such as effective communication channels, the establishment of a code of ethics, positive working environment, the involvement of employees in the decision-making process and many others. 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