Due to the uncertain nature of change, employees tend to resist change. They do not perceive change as a necessity, especially if they suspect that the change might affect them negatively In the current harsh economic times, organisations are forced to make changes that involve downsizing their workforce and reducing the salaries. As a result, most employees resist these changes. There are numerous ways of resisting change, and some of them are considered successful, while others are not. The management has to understand that the employees may resist change, and thus, they should apply strategies to deal with the resistance. When employees resist change, they may fail to meet deadlines, support the change and attend meetings. Resistance to change adversely affects the performance of an organisation. Employees are also unable to develop wholly as they do not change with the dynamics of their industry. In order to understand resistance to change by the workers, the current paper will put emphasis on the effective approaches used by the employees to resist change.

This research conducted by the business assignment writing service aims to fully reveal the mentioned issues.

Change is an inevitable part of modern organisations. Organisational change is the process through which the organisations optimise their performance as they strive to achieve their ideal states (Senior Fleming 2006). It is a movement of an organisation from a present state to a desired future state in order to increase its effectiveness (Blankstein 2010). Change is usually constant both in the private and professional lives. Whenever there is an organisational change, it affects the employees, either positively or negatively. In most cases, the effect of the change is unknown. As a result, the employees tend to resist the change. Additionally, most employees view the top management as people whose intentions are to make the employees’ working life difficult. As a result, the employees’ first reaction to proposed change is resistance (Cawsey Deszca 2007). The management has to implement strategies of overcoming the resistance from the employees and ensuring that the change is successfully adopted. Just like change, resistance may also be described as inevitable. People will always rush to defend the status quo whenever they suspect that their status or security is under threat. As expressed by the Lewin’s Force Field Analysis, the force driving the change has to fight the resistance especially due to the status quo. Figure 1 below shows the Lewin’s Force Field Analysis. Mostly, organisational change generates resistance and scepticism among the employees, and at times, it hinders the change implementation process (Mills, Dye Mills 2009).

Change resistance is the employees’ behaviour, which seeks to disrupt, challenge, or invert prevailing assumptions, power relations and discourses (Harvey Broyles 2010). Organisational change can take various forms. There may be planned or unplanned change. When change is planned, the resistance is usually less than when unplanned change is implemented (Floyd 2002). It results from the planned change which involves the employees. However, not all changes can be planned. Therefore, when there is an unplanned change, it may face resistance and ultimately failing. Therefore, it is important to understand the change resistance concept and the approaches of change resistance that may be successful. Additionally, the approach used by the employees to resist change may not succeed if the management has effective resistance management measures in place (Helms-Mills, Dye Mills 2009). Therefore, the paper focuses on investigating the employees’ change resistance concept, and identifying the approaches of resistance that may be effective.

Resistance to Change

Resistance to change is a tri-dimensional concept that involves behavioural, affective, and cognitive components (Palmer, 2004). The affective component involves an individual’s feelings towards change. For instance, they may be angry or sad towards the change. The cognitive component entails what an individual thinks about change. For instance, they may think that the change is unnecessary. The behavioural component entails individual’s actual actions towards the change. It is the behavioural concept that expresses the actual resistance or acceptance to change. Symptoms of resistance to change ought to be distinguished from the causes of the resistance. Resistance may be passive or active. Some symptoms of active resistance include appealing to fear, manipulating, finding fault, and ridiculing. On the other hand, symptoms of passive resistance include feigning ignorance, procrastinating, agreeing verbally but not acting, failing to implement change, withholding information or support, and allowing change to fail. People resist change for a number of reasons. For instance, they may dislike the change. People always seek to protect and maintain the status quo. They may also resist change due to the uncertainty that comes with change. Since the repercussions of change are usually uncertain, most people resist it due to the fear that the change may bring unfavourable results.

Ways that Employees May Offer Effective Resistance to Change

Missing Deadlines

Deadlines are an important component in ensuring the success of an organisation in meeting its objectives. When the employees do not meet deadlines, the organisation cannot achieve its objectives within the expected time, and it has a ripple effect to other parts of the organisation (Boje, Burnes Hassard 2012). For instance, failure to meet deadline delays the beginning of new projects or assignment of new duties. When employees are required to meet a given deadline in order to be assigned new duties, their failure to meet the deadline leads to delays. Keeping time in an organisation is essential for the clients’ satisfaction. Failure to meet the deadlines may have detrimental effects and may lead to failure in the change implementation process.

Advantages of Meeting Deadlines

Meeting the deadlines offers the organisation good credit. When an organisation meets its deadlines, it can also meet its credit deadlines. As a result, when the business needs funds in the future, it is easy for it to get the credit.

It also ensures that the productivity of the organisation is kept on track. The organisation can keep up with the overall strategy and business plan.

The employees who meet deadlines acquire the necessary personal skills. Consequently, they become reliable and responsible.

Meeting deadlines also keeps the clients satisfied. In case when the clients require delivery of their services or products on time, it is vital to meet the deadlines.

Disadvantages of Failure to Meet Deadlines

The organisation loses the clients. When the clients are not served in time, they may not be willing to transact with the organisation in future. As a result, when employees resist change through failure to meet deadlines, the organisation may be forced to withdraw the change.

Failure to meet the deadlines also results in reduced employees’ morale. The employees who fail to meet the deadline do not have the morale to work. Additionally, failure to meet deadlines results in failure to meet the schedule, which demoralises other employees.

Failure to Adopt the Change

Resistance may be expressed through failure by the employees to adopt the new changes (Harvey Broyles 2010). Some employees may be slow when adopting the new changes. For instance, an organisation may change the procedure of operations. However, some employees may continue using the old procedures. It can be attributed to anger, frustration and resentment among the employees. Failure to adopt the changes may be detrimental to the performance. It will also lead to conflicts as the employees are following different avenues to meet the schedules.

Advantages

When employees fail to adopt change, they give the management time to assess the impact of the new change. It may be realised that the change is not necessary for the organisation.

Slow adoption or failure to adopt change also makes the management understand the importance of inclusion of employees when making decisions about change. Successful change implementation should involve all the stakeholders.

It also gives the staffs a chance to have their sentiments heard by the management. If their reasons for failing to adopt the change are valid, the organisation may delay or scrap the process.

Disadvantages

Failure to adopt change delays the implementation process, which in turn delays the achievement of the organisational objectives.

It may lead to the failure of a change initiative, which may resut in wastage of resources. When the change initiative fails to be adopted, the resources used in its implementation are wasted.

Missing Meetings

Meetings are essential in an organisation, and they determine the success of the organisation’s practices. It is during the meetings that information is given to the people, and employees deliver previously agreed information. However, a change in the organisation may lead to the employees missing the meetings. It is one way of resisting change, especially when they feel that the new change will result in them being fired (Erwin Garman 2010). Additionally, they may miss the meetings if they have a feeling that their contribution is ignored.

Advantage

When employees miss meetings, the employer has to find out the reason for absenteeism. It gives an opportunity to table the issue of change resistance, and the employer can explain its importance while the employees contribute their perception on the changes.

Disadvantages

Failure to attend meetings may lead to firing of employees due to low performance. Therefore, rather than making a point on their dissatisfaction with the change, employees who fail to attend meetings may be fired.

It may lead to the poor performance within the organisation. Meetings are essential in order to ensure that communication flows within the organisation. Poor communication leads to poor organisational performance.

Breakdown in Constructive Communication

When employees do not support change, they may fail to ensure the flow of information within the organisation (Lewis 2011). Vital information may not be reaching the top management. There might also be an increase in rumours, which is detrimental to organisational performance.

Advantage

If the organisation conducts regular audits of the employees, it is easy to identify communication failure. Therefore, it is easy to get the reasons for the problem and find solutions.

Disadvantages

Communication is essential within an organisation. Failure to have a continuous flow of vital information may lead to the failure to achieve organisational targets.

Poor communication also reduces sharing of vital information that may assist an organisation in the improvement of its conditions.

Summary

Every organisation has to undergo change frequently. Consequently, it is vital to make sure that the employees are supportive of the change. However, there are cases when the management needs to implement change without employees’ involvement. In such cases, the employees may resist such change. Resistance to change is common when the employees feel that the change will not favour them (Oreg 2006). Change is also associated with negativity. For instance, people may think that change will lead to lay-offs, and others will have to do more work at the same remuneration. When people work in an organisation for a long time, they get used and attached to the organisational identity or culture. As a result, whenever change is implemented or proposed, the employees express resistance. Additionally, change is associated with perceived breach of the psychological contract. Once the employees begin working for an organisation, they form a belief in regarding the nature of the reciprocal association between them and the employer, which is a psychological contract.

When an employee feels that the employer is not honouring their part of the deal, it results in resistance. During other times, the employees lack the conviction on the importance of the change. Whenever employees do not find the change necessary, they tend to resist it (Herscovitch 2005). Additionally, they may resist if they feel that the change is inappropriate, or its implementation is done at the wrong time. Employees may also resist change if they feel that the new changes conflict with their personal or organisational ethics. As a result, the employees express their resistance through various ways including failure to attend meetings, adopt the changes, communicate, and meet the deadlines. These change resistance approaches are effective, and they make the employees focus on the importance of change in the organisation, and the reasons for the employees’ resistance.

Conclusion

Since change is an important and inevitable part of every organisation, it should be implemented in a way that will guarantee success. One of the ways that resistance can be avoided is consultation with the employees. When employees are consulted, they feel that their views have been incorporated prior to the implementation of a change program (Hultman 1998). As a result, they adopt the new change. Additionally, if the change may be unnecessary, consultation will lead to the identification of such issues. Moreover, the management should prepare the employees for change. When the employees are prepared, they can adopt the change easily, than when it is implemented without prior notice.