Overcoming Resistance: Managing Change in Organizations - Essay Sample

Resistance to Change

A manager trying to implement a difference, no matter how small, should expect to encounter some resistance from within the organization. Resistance to change is average; people cling to habits and the status quo. To be sure, managerial actions can minimize or arouse opposition. People must be motivated to shake off old habits. This must take place in stages rather than abruptly so that "managed change" takes on the character of "natural change." In addition to the usual inertia, organization change introduces anxieties about the future. If the future after the change comes to be perceived positively, resistance will be less.

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Education and communication are, therefore, key ingredients in minimizing adverse reactions. 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. Another critical component of overcoming resistance is inviting employee participation and involvement in both the design and implementation phases of the change effort. Organized forms of facilitation and support can be deployed (Cummings & Worley, 2014). Managers can ensure that employees will have the resources to bring the change about; managers can make themselves available to provide explanations and to minimize stress arising in many scores of situations.

Some companies manage to overcome resistance to change through negotiation and rewards. They offer employees real incentives to ensure their cooperation. Other companies resort to manipulation or using subtle tactics such as giving a resistance leader a prominent position in the change effort. A final option is a coercion, which involves punishing people who resist or using force to ensure their cooperation. Although this method can be useful when speed is of the essence, it can have lingering adverse effects on the company. Of course, no way is appropriate to every situation, and several different techniques may be combined as needed.

Techniques of Managing Change Effectively

Managing change requires moving the organization from its current state to a future desired state at minimal cost to the organization. Key steps in that process are:

1. Understanding the current strategic state of the organization which involves identifying challenges being faced by the company, offering a sense of essence to every employee, and analyzing efforts needed to solve the issues.
2. Engaging competence in envisioning and strategizing the desired future state of the organization. This move involves picturing the ideal situation for the firm after the change is implemented, endorsing this strategy clearly to everyone involved in the change effort, and creating a means of revolution to a better state. The critical part of the stratification should be maintaining stability and steadiness in implementation of some things, for example, the company's primary objective or the major executives should remain constant amid turmoil to help reduce people's anxiety.
3. Implementing the change in an orderly manner. This involves managing the transition effectively. It might be helpful to create a plan, effective management of resources, and appoint a key person to take charge of the change process (Rugman & Verbeke, 2011). The company's leaders should try to generate enthusiasm for the change by sharing their goals and vision and acting as role models. In some cases, it may be useful to work for small victories first to pave the way for later successes.

The Internet Vs. Newspaper and Challenges

Change is natural, of course. Proactive management of change to optimize future adaptability is invariably a more creative way of dealing with the dynamism of industrial transformation than letting them happen willy-nilly. That process will succeed better with the help of the company's human resources than without.

Industries are in a great struggle over time because of competition that comes up every day. There is a big challenge in maintaining the quality of the services being offered and at the same time, make the industry adapt to the changes in the environment. The most prominent example of such a company is the IT industry, which has had significant technological change. The internet is competing daily with offline sources of information such as the newspapers (Fricker &Schonlau, 2013). In the current world, the internet has advanced, and it is hard to tell the innovations in the communication department that have not been done yet. There is the evolution of the computing software to small applications that are useful in daily living. The use of the internet has exposed a lot of people to cyberbullying and even the dangers of losing privacy. It has led to world terrorism and mafia funding.

References

Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2014). Organization development and change. Cengage Learning.

Dent, E. B., & Goldberg, S. G. (1999). Challenging "resistance to change". The Journal of applied behavioral science, 35(1), 25-41.

Fricker, R. D., & Schonlau, M. (2013). Advantages and disadvantages of Internet research surveysEvidence from the literature. Field methods, 14(4), 347-367.

Harris, R. T., & Beckhard, R. (2015). Organizational transitions: Managing complex change. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.

MacLean, D & Maclntosh, R. (2012). Strategic change as a creative action. International change management, 4.1. 80-97. A

Rugman, A. M., & Verbeke, A. (2011). Subsidiaryspecific advantages in multinational enterprises Strategic Management Journal, 22(3), 237-250.

Bamford, D. R., & Forrester, P. L. (2013). Managing planned and emergent change within an operations management environment. International journal of operations & production management, 23(5), 546-564.