Resistance to Change

Resistance to Change

Most people don't like change because they don't like being changed. When change comes into view, fear and resistance to change follow. People fight against change because they fear to lose something they value, don't understand the change and its implications don't think that the change makes sense, or find it difficult to cope with either the level or pace of the change. Resistance emerges when there's a threat to something the individual values. The threat may be real or it may be just a perception. It may arise from a genuine understanding of the change or from misunderstanding, or even almost total ignorance about it. There is no way we can remove resistance to change, the only thing we can do is to minimize resistance to change. However, change is unavoidable and here are some strategies which can be used to overcome this resistance to change.

One proven method is education and communication. This is of highest priority and first strategy for change. Employees can be informed about both the nature of the change and the logic behind it before it takes place through reports, memos, group presentations, or individual discussions. It improves urgency to change and reduces uncertainty (fear of unknown). Training can be given to provide new knowledge and skills. This includes coaching and action learning. It helps break old routines and adopt new roles. Another important component of overcoming resistance is to include employee participation and involvement in the planning, decision-making, and monitoring stages of the change strategy and this includes task forces and search conferences. It increases ownership of change and people who are involved in decisions understand them better and are more committed to them.

What are the barriers to change?

When Woolworths' CEO Michael Luscombe took over from previous CEO, Roger Corbett in 2006 the management style changed. Corbett had an autocratic, stubborn and conservative leadership style whilst Luscombe placed great emphasis on team-work. When such a drastic change occurs there may be many barriers that could affect the success of this change. Many believe that this specific change has been better by moving forwards a 21st century management style but with this drastic change comes the responsibility of Woolworths in making sure this change is managed effectively and the barriers can be avoided.

In all organisations the professional decisions eventually impact stakeholders and managing change is one of the most difficult tasks facing managers today. There are many reasons for the need to implement change. These include the desire to improve productivity, maximise shareholder value, globalisation, broken communication system and technological advances . When several barriers are evident when a change is implemented, the possibility of failure is significantly increased and this can be caused by not managing change effectively. Failures include lack of commitment, poor management