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Abstract
Change has become the essential role in the competitive business market. The fast pace
or at least to survive. However, changing is the long path with various challenges from both outside
worlds to internal companies. This paper will analyse literature review in organisational change,
focusing on individual resistance which can be seen as the top obstacle in resistance change. It
shows that employees understand the need for change but resistance still happens due to poor
communication, lack of desire to learn, habit, preference of stability, fear of moving on to a new
system and so on. Communication, management support, employee participation and involvement
are key issues for overcoming resistance change. A critique will be addressed in the second section
of the paper, based on two main approaches from the literature review.
Literature review
Hammer and Champy (2009) estimates that the rate of failure in change is from fifty to
seventy percent. Many authors (Maurer, 1996; Strebel, 1994; Waddell and Sohal, 1998) indicate
that resistance to change is one of the key reasons for change initiatives failure. Ansoff (2007) states
that resistance to change creates surplus costs and delays in business process, however, it is also a
source of information that needs to be explored for achieving better business implementation (Beer
Studies conducted by Piderit (2000) analysed the term resistance to change and focused on
behaviour reaction and attitudinal resistant. Zander (1950), Folger and Skarlicki (1999) and Piderit
(2000) shared a similar concept of behaviour which is intended to protect an individual from the
effects of real or imagined change (cited in Dent & Goldberg, 1999, p. 34). Lewin (1951) had also
developed a concept theory called force-field theory describing the resistance in organisational
change.
According to Lewin (1951), there are two different types of forces in an organisation: one of
them is in favour of changes while the other opposes it. The inertia represents the organisation
status when the two forces are balance. In order to achieve the new status which called
organisational change, forces for change need to be stronger than resistance to change.
Managements role in organisational change is to weaken the impact of resistance force while
There are many reasons why individuals resist when it comes to change. Holt et al. (2007)
believe that people have feelings of fear and anxiety when something changes. He also argues that
those who prefer stability with higher needs of security have the possibility to resist the change
since their safety is being threatened. Fear of losing jobs, fear of the unknown, fear of lowering
social status, and being uncertain causes resistance. Besides, employees occasionally think change
is a mistake and they do not see any reason why the company needs to change when the current
situation is still good enough. Moreover, people tends to keep relationship with familiar things and
easily get connected with each other by the old method, generally speaking, in a loyalty way. Dent
(1999) perceives communication as the key to any organisational change because people are
sensitive regarding how they receive the information. If one gets the information from a third-party,
organisation to other paths, for better or worse. Instead of focusing on employees, many authors
have been shifted their view toward the role of management. Flower (1962) states that changes
experience failure due to misunderstanding in a change process. He argues that management tends
to perceive change as an essential part which is quite straight forward and some managerial actions
failed because of the lack of communication. Watson (1988) shares the same point with Flower
(1962) in pointing out that managers tend to see negatively in employees resistance to change,
which perceived as disobey. When changes are introduced, employees experiences differ from their
managers who initiate the change: they tend to avoid being change. Moreover, if management does
not communicate and listen to employees, resistance will easily increase due to the feeling of being
unheard especially from those who work in the organisation for a long time. Employees also might
individual level, De Jager (2001) examines resistance in general concept based on psychology. He
divided resistance into two categories: rational and irrational resistance. However, irrational
resistance does not have a clear definition until now, which raises a concern of mislabelled or
ignored (De Jager ,2001). Rational resistance, in his theory, can be addressed with a compelling
argument to facilitate change. It is divided into two sub-categories as justified and unjustified
resistance. Yukl (2002) suggests that those personal fear as mentioned above can be put in
unjustified section because it can harm their ideal or culture (Recardo, 1995; Yukl, 2002). Justified
resistance, on the other hand, happens when a real threat exists, not spiritually but present negative.
De Jager (2001) also points out that justified resistance is the source for organisations benefits if a
removed for the development of an organisation (Waddell and Sohal, 1998). However, recent
studies have evaluated resistance as an essential part of business processes rather than perceiving it
as a barrier to success. Graetz et al. (2010) agree that resistance can be a positive and necessary
force that can benefit the organisation. They suggest using resistance as a source of alternative
different angles provided by employees, and some of the angles might show bad aspects of a change
initiative. Waddell and Sohal (1998) also highlighted that resistance can be used as a tool to
understand employees thought, and from that point, management can revise their decision in
implementing changes.
the method researched by Self (2007). He illustrated that management of readiness shapes the
attitude of employees towards the change so that the organisation can reduce the rate of resistance
behaviour. Firstly, leaders need to show everyone the difference between the current situation and
desired state of development, which lead to the need for change. Change agents role is to show the
benefits created by the change and demonstrate that members are the important factor to make it
Supporting the research conducted by Self (2007), Robbins and Judge (2017) suggest 7
strategies to help dealing with resistance: education and commitment between employees and the
firm, everyones participation and involvement, being supportive, developing good relationship
within the organisation, consistency in changes, manipulation if needed, and using direct threats on
opponents. However, the last tactic of forcing employees to change is not highly recommended.
During literature review, we have researched various approaches from authors in different
economic periods started with Lewin (1951) to recent research by Robbins and Judge (2017). As
analysed above, there have been two main approaches regarding resistance to change: negative and
positive. Each of them has its own advantages and disadvantages in their perception.
First of all, authors who have a negative approach towards resistance in change perceive it
as a reason for change initiative failure, which is absolutely true. However, they describe it solely as
a factor that needs to be eliminated for the development of a firm and believe that resistance is a
problem that prevents us from moving forward. As we can see that each individual is unique, thus
their behaviour causing resistance has different roots, nevertheless requires change agents handle it
in a proper way suitable for each situation. Since they see resistance as a negative factor, they have
Thuy Linh Nguyen
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Organisation Change Management
completely ignored the positive elements in it. Therefore when it comes to solutions, almost all of
those research focus on how to eliminate resistance especially from employees rather than
managing it properly.
Regarding the positive approach by the authors who support the positive elements in
resistance, we conclude that even though they see challenges in resistance of change, they still come
up with an idea of how to positively transform it into business process for a common goal. These
authors have inspired us to think about resistance as a crucial part of development, it might be a hint
for change agents to look at the scenario thoroughly from both sides of the problem. However, a
The one common issue witnessed in both negative and positive approach is the important
role of communication in an organisation. The findings reinforce the idea that lack of
Conclusion
Organisations experiencing the necessity of change should also be well-prepared for the
challenges occur during implementation. Resistance, which can be seen as an obstacle by many
authors, is becoming a key issue for management as well as change agents. Leaders should
understand that a group of employees will support the change while others might resist it. There are
two main approaches when researching the impact of resistance in change. Opponents see it solely
as a bad factor while advocates propose a positive perspective and solution for managing change.
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Organisation Change Management
De Jager (2011) examines the differences in individuals behaviour which allows change agents to
apply other theories into change plans. Understanding resistant behaviours and having a proper
method of communication within organisations can reduce the extreme attitude on any change
initiative.
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