Here is how successful people decoded organizational change and its resistance
Life is all about moving on, accepting challenges and looking forward to what makes you stronger and more complete. But the fact is that change is not easy to accept, both on an individual as well as on an organizational level. There is always some resistance to change. There may be several reasons for resistance to change of which, the key pointers are mentioned below.
- Individual resistance to change
- Team resistance to change
- Organizational level resistance to change.
In this Transformation Tuesday, let us look at the factors affecting resistance to change at an individual level:
-
Fear of Unemployment – For example, in an organization, if there is any change in the technology, employees fear that the change might lead to technological unemployment. Generally, any new technology needs skill enhancements and hence, the employees resist change. Apart from this, the employees also fear that the change will create an impact on their stream and their technology or work methods have been outdated and that as a result they will be pushed out of the workforce.
-
Fear of loss of income – Change is bound to make employees and team members insecure about their financial situations. In organizations where pay or salary is linked to employee productivity, employees fear change as they feel that change might lead to decrease in productivity and that it might further lead to loss of income. Since finances are related to livelihoods of the people, a degrade in the lifestyle as a result of the loss of employment also gives birth to resistance.
-
Inertia – Human beings are habitual of their daily lifestyle and are quite resistant to change their daily routine. They feel more comfortable in their routine and likes to stay away from complications that threaten their comfort. Moreover, we tend to depend on the programmed responses of our minds rather than exploring the unexplored for difficult situations. Hence, when confronted with the change, individuals resist it fearing that the new environment will be more cumbersome to handle and getting accustomed to.
-
The sense of being unsafe – Change creates a sense of unsafeness or insecurity in an individual. One is likely to feel insecure about his job when confronted with change. Furthermore, the unclear picture of how things will be after the change is also that forces the individuals to resist changes. Unknown things and aspects of work culture are bound to threaten security and hence produce resistance.
-
Improper Communication – Communication drives everything. An improper or inefficient communication between departments about change and controls might create chaos and hence push the employees to resist the change. A clear communication is a necessity in order to get the word out clear to everyone.
-
The magnitude of change – The magnitude of the change that is being carried out in the organization also influence the kind of resistance the organization will face from the employees. If there is a small change that hardly affects the daily routine of the unit, it is likely to go through the system without even being noticed. However, a change concerning a greater number of people is likely to face more and greater amount of resistance.
SO! This was all for this Transformation Tuesday. Stay tuned for the next article of the series – Resistance to Change in our next blog!
Happy Transforming!
