Employee Resistance In the economy today change is inevitable in any organization in the world. This is because each and every organization strives to remain strong in the market as well as being relevant. The only way the organizations can achieve this is through evolving so as to ensure that they are at the same level with the rest of the world. Changes occur even in big organizations like Samsung electronics. Samsung electronics is among the largest phone makers in the world and change is inevitable for them. This is because there is a lot of evolution in the world of electronics and Samsung has to undergo changes within the organization that will ensure what they produce is exactly what the world wants. It is very difficult for Samsung to avoid change as it is the new ideas that promote its growth as an organization.

There are many reasons that can lead to change in organizations such as like staff roles, an increase or decrease in funds, acquiring new technology, new missions or goals and reaching new members or clients. Change happens continuously and it often occurs in rapid speed. Change has become an integral part of the everyday dynamics within Samsung electronics which can lead to the creation of new opportunities for the employees. However, in most cases these changes are criticized, and are often faced by resistance from employees (Nadler & Tushman, 1995).

Employees who resist change can actually cripple the organization and are a big challenge to organizations that want to continuously evolve. This paper looks at the reasons why employees often resist change within Samsung electronics. It will also look at change management techniques that can be employees by Samsung electronics to ensure that change is taken in by employees no resistance at all. It will also look at the influences of external environment as well as internal management and the corporate culture at Samsung electronics.

Why employees resist change

Resistance is a response that is inevitable in cases of the occurrence of major change; employees often strive to defend their status quo if they feel as though it is threatened. There are many causes that can lead to resistance to change from the employees within Samsung electronics such as poor communication. Changes taking place within Samsung electronics start with the key decision makers who have the responsibility of passing the details of the changes to the rest of the team; particularly the employees. The decision makers should ensure that they give the employees all the details they require to know regarding the change (Miranda B., 2013).

They should ensure that they answer any questions or complaints that are raised before the change is effected upon. It is very unfortunate that as the news of change are spread through the organization from hierarchy, details are skewed, and the employees end up receiving information that is inaccurate. When this information reaches them it is received by a lot of resistance from the employees. Samsung electronics employs close to 221,000 people and before information on change has reached them from the main headquarters in South Korea; it is not in its original form. Therefore, poor communication causes the employees to resist change.

Self-interest of individual employees interferes with their ability to take in the changes that are proposed for the organization. Some of the employees with Samsung electronics would want to maintain their status quo so that they can use their positions to advance their own personal interest; other employees have different motivations besides achieving the goals of the organization. Samsung electronics has sales networks and assembly 61 countries, a manger of an assembly plant in a country can be instructed to go to another country that Samsung wants to expand to. In most cases the manager will resist this change since they will argue that they have their family where they are based. This is an outright act influenced by the self-interest of the manager. This is a common occurrence among the managers since they fear going into new areas even if it is required of them so that the organization can expand its market and territory.

Skills or training dearth is a common cause of resistance to change. This is particularly when the change involves new technology being applied within the organization. There are new technologies that come with the new products that Samsung is producing and this will require training and developing new skills with the employees. In most cases the employees resist this change as they are relatively new to them. Competence is another reason that employees resist...

Employees are often afraid that they might not be competent enough when it comes to embracing the change. Employees within Samsung electronics often express skepticism when it comes to whether the new products that the organization wants to introduce will work, and whether they are an improvement of what they were producing initially. However deep down they might be actually worried that their skills might end up being obsolete.
Employees often resist change since they view it as more work being given to them. The employees who are very close to the change in terms of designing and testing are often the people who are overloaded with work due to the glitches which are inevitable an unanticipated that occur in the middle of the change. There are also some ripple effects that come with change that can cause the employee to resist change. The ripple effects can cause destruction to assembling plants in different countries, important customers, who start pushing back and hence rebellion against the change. Change also comes with a lot of uncertainty and most of the employees resist change due to the uncertainty that is tied to the change. Employees within Samsung might resist adoption of new technology since they are uncertain if the technology will completely replace their work in the near future.

Change management

Change management is an approach of transitioning employee or shifting an organization from a current state to another state according to the changes that are taking place in the outside world. These are strategies and techniques that an organization uses to manage their implementation of change. This is an organization process that is aimed at helping the employees to take in and accept the changes that are taking place within the organization. The goal of change management is to maximize the benefits that come with the change and at the same time minimize resistance that the employees might show towards the change. Successful management of change is very important for Samsung electronics, key element of these management are planning and the management of employees.

Planning

Planning is a very important aspect when it comes to the management of change. If Samsung electronics fails to effectively plan on the changes they want to implement then there can be a failure in the proposed plan or even resistance from employees. Managing of change entails looking at the risks that come with the change, an estimation of the resources that will be required, planning contingencies and what exactly must take place before the change is fully implemented. It is therefore very important for the organization to plan and effectively communicate the change to the employees.

Starting at the top

Change is quite unsettling for people in various levels of the organization; all eyes are set on the leaders of Samsung electronics for proper support, direction and strength when it comes to the change to be implemented. Leaders in the organization should be the first people to accept the change first so that they can challenge and motivate the other employees. They should therefore be all in agreement and speak with one voice so as to model the desired change. Executive teams also have to understand that even though the organization's public face appears to be united, the organization is made up of people who are going through a rough time with the change and need to be supported (Anderson A., 2013).

The executives should ensure that they work together so that they can be in a best position for the success of the organization, they are the people who are aligned and committed to embracing change, understand the organization culture as well as the behaviors that are likely to be introduced by the changes. Therefore, the executives are the bets placed people when it comes to modeling the changes. At Samsung electronics, the senior team is the one that will decide on what products they should continue producing, which new ones they should embrace, and which ones they should abandon. Only after the leadership teams have made this identification can the employees embrace the changes that they have proposed.

Addressing the organization culture explicitly

Once the organization culture has been understood, it should be thoroughly addressed as any other area in the change program. The leaders within Samsung electronics should ensure that they deal with the culture of the organization explicitly along with other underlying behaviors that support the proposed change within the organization. This calls for development of a baseline that will define the desired culture…