Resistance to Change

Resistance to Change

Introduction

Many organizations over time and under the influence of external circumstances do not change, and thus effectively contribute to their own demise. This is true even in those organizations in which the need for change is obvious even to outside observers. This suggests that the nature of organizations and individuals have a psychological factor that impedes such steep turns. Often, resistance to change comes from the fact that people need to abandon old habits and learn to act in new ways. To do this, they need different norms and values. However, in the process, they often find that their status and power in the organization are evaluated differently. These changes lead to the age-old conflict between the human desire for permanence and search for a new one. Resistance is the first reaction to the change, as people need time to assess the costs and benefits of change for themselves. For this reason, new management initiatives often cause controversy among his subordinates.

The resistance to change of those who must make decisions at any level of the organizational hierarchy can be explained by evolutionary factors human, according to the principles that guide the choices over officers of certainty and consistency. It is, in fact, by far preferable to a situation known, although not satisfactory, rather than an uncertain situation, even if this promises to be advantageous. Many experimental studies show the human propensity to choke uncertainty, inconsistency. Resistance to change comes, among others natural fear of novelty, lack of knowledge of the principles on which it will be introducing changes to the learning dislike, dislike to the person responsible for the change.

Discussion

Resistance in an organizational setting is an expression of reservation which arises as a response or reaction to change. It can be defined as a direct consequence of leadership and management failure. According to research there are three recurring reasons behind this failure. The first is “Gap”: this can be described as the gap between the “big picture” strategic vision and the successful implementation. The second is “Resistance”. Resistance is the hidden and built in resistance to change and a lack of processes and change management methodologies. Finally there is “Impact”. Impact includes the failure to take full account of the impact of changes on those who are affected.

According to the article of Ford, Ford, & D'Amelio (2008) Self-interest is the main reason that people resist change at the organizational level. This is associated with a certain measure of self-interest inherent in every person, people; because of their human nature put their own interests above the interests of the organization. Such behavior is due to its versatility and naturalness is not very dangerous, but its development will lead to the emergence of informal groups whose policies will aim to ensure that the proposed change could be implemented.

Misunderstanding usually occurs because people are not able to assess the impact of the strategy. Often the reason is the lack of sufficient information on the objectives and ways to ...