Question

The book is Managing Organizational Change (3rd Edition) Under chapter eight page 272 (Reflections for the practicing change manager)

Which of the various causes of resistance to change do you believe to be the most common? What are the “top three” causes in your experience?

From your experience as a change manager, what are the three main pieces of advice that you would give to someone new in this role concerning diagnosing and managing resistance?

Answer 1

answer-

Organizational change is about the process of changing an organization's strategies, processes, procedures, technologies, and culture, as well as the effect of such changes on the organization.The various causes of resistance to change i believe to be the most common are-

Job Loss

Job loss is a major reason that employees resist change in the workplace. In any business, there are constantly going to be things moving and changing, whether it is due to the need for more efficiency, better turnaround times, or the need for the employees to work smarter.

Poor Communication and Engagement

Communication solves all ills. But a lack of it creates more of them. This is another crucial reason why employees oppose change. How the change process itself is communicated to the employees is very important because it determines how they react. If the process of what needs to be changed, how it needs to be changed and what success would look like cannot be communicated, then resistance should be expected.

Lack of Trust

Trust is a vital tool to have when running a successful business. In organizations where there is a lot of trust in management, there is lower resistance to change. Mutual mistrust between management and employees will lead to the company going into a downward spiral, so trust is a must.

The Unknown

We already mentioned communication, and a lack of it causes employees to feel like they don’t know what’s going on. If companies are constantly experiencing times where the future is unknown, there is also a good possibility that employees won’t respond to change well.

Poor Timing

Timing is one of the biggest problems when it comes to change. A lot of the time, it’s not the act itself that creates the resistance, but how and when it is delivered.

In my experience, i will say, the top three causes would be insecurity feeling of losing job because whenever change happens like merger or acquisition or technological change. employees started to think if they have their job or not in this new change.

Poor communication is another top cause because if top management does not communicate that change is for good and there is no loss of job then employees will be tensed and resist the new change.

and the third top most cause is Timing because if timing is wrong then everything will be wrong. for example if change happens to be in past 2 years but company is changing now then it would be bad for because timing has to be perfect to make correct and acceptable change.

I would advise as a Change manager -

Effectively engage employees

Listen, listen, listen. If there is another piece advice that a company should take, it’s to receive and respond to the feedback that is provided by the employees. They are the ones making sure that all the clients are happy and that all the work gets done, so keeping them in the loop is vital. Ask employees probing questions: Is the change working? What can we do to make it work better? Do employees have any questions or concerns? These are all great questions to ask, but if feedback is going to be collected, it actually needs to be read and utilized. These answers can be used to change the plan accordingly, and show employees that their ideas and concerns are being heard.

Communicate change effectively

The best way that you as an employer can communicate change is to explicitly tell employees what is going on. Using a blend of formal and informal communication allows you to ensure that all employees receive the news about the change in some way or another. With all the communication outlets such as email, company intranets, town halls, and face-to-face meetings, the message is going to get across the company. Employing several different ways to communicate change helps explain the vision, goals and expectations for what needs to happen and why.

Implement change in several stages

Change doesn’t happen all at once. Companies should first prepare for the change, then take action on the change and make a plan for managing the change, and third, support the change and assure that all is going as planned.