Organizations Why Are People Resistant to Change?

¶ … Organizations

Why are people resistant to change? What psychological factors can inhibit change, particularly technological change? Technology is supposed to (and often does) make human being's lives easier, yet switching to a new operating system, even an obviously more efficient one, frequently brings profound resistance on the part of employees. One possible answer is that change resistance is hard-wired into the psyche of many human beings and regardless of how necessary and logical the change may be, there will be inevitable unconscious resistance. This resistance can manifest itself in anger at management for instituting the changes, unproductive complaining and claiming to 'not understand' the change.

Change resistance can also occur for more practical reasons, namely that people may feel that their positions within the organization will be threatened if the change is instituted. They may fear that their jobs will be outsourced or subsumed by new technology, or that expanding the company will dilute their power. If the change is technological in nature, people may fear the employees who have more experience in the new system may gain predominance. Or, if the change involves a merger, people may resist having to accept strangers into their workplace. Personality conflicts can also fuel resistance, if the change agent is not well-liked. And workers who have seniority may resist taking direction from a younger person with greater authority in the organizational hierarchy.

Another question about change in organizations is how to make an organization flexible enough so that it can respond to external circumstances, yet still make change 'stick?' Because of change resistance, 'backsliding' or resorting to previous behaviors is common. But in their eagerness to institute the new change, change agents cannot be so unresponsive to criticism and input that they become 'part of the problem' and equally resistant to the necessary 'tweaks' and changes that are required to make the new system better, and to monitor its effectiveness over time. Monitoring effectiveness is also part of the change process.

Q2. Grand Union

When instituting a major change, an organization such as Grand Union faces two potential options. On one hand, it can hire new workers that satisfy its new standards, and try to make new employees fit the new organizational model. Or, it can simply retrain and reorient current workers to perform at a higher standard. The first option seems preferable, if at all possible. High rates of turnover can reduce morale, and regardless of the quality of new employees, if the organization gains a reputation for not rewarding employee loyalty, its long-term viability in terms of recruiting top-quality employees could be damaged.

Many organizations, such as Costco and Starbucks, have branded themselves successfully as caring organizations that show respect even for lower-level workers. Through an effective retraining program, Grand Union can do the same. As a service-based business, it is essential that employees enjoy their work and project their enthusiasm about the business to the customer. The concern at Grand Union is that current employees do not have the right demeanor towards customers. But a large-scale firing and retraining effort will not necessarily improve the atmosphere at the company. Additionally, there are certain technical aspects of training service-based employees that could be unwieldy to implement. Hiring many new employees would require training them in basic register work, in addition to how to deal with customers.

Having an intensive education session, complete with role plays of customer interactions, will help employees gain a foothold in the new approach to customer service. Having managers observe these sessions will also enable them to spot which employees are 'catching on' and not catching on to the new ways of doing business with customers at Grand Union. If certain employees do not seem accept new philosophy, over time they can be phased out. Conversely, employees who show strength at these sessions, and are consistently graded highly for showing superior service, can receive additional bonuses and perhaps be groomed for promotion.

Performance and customer review will enable the organization to institute 'quality controls' upon employees, and to create a more effective workforce. Unless a system of controls to allow high-quality service to be spotted and rewarded is instituted, even new employees might fall into bad, old habits. Changing the workforce is not enough -- the standard operating procedures to grade high-quality work must also be changed.