Business Change

CHANGE

In today’s business world, corporations have become more complex and more unpredictable, in fact it is considered almost “healthy” that a corporation experience change and transformation. Companies need to be susceptible and ready to acknowledge the challenges that change presents with and try to overcome these for the benefit of the company as a whole. Due to the ever-changing business and social environments caused strongly by globalizations, this has meant that companies must keep themselves up-to-date, whether it is through using the latest form of technology or through the latest management fad. There are many factors involved with change and the successful management of it which can often be a difficult time for companies. One major barrier for change is resistance of people in organizations. 3 factors are crucial in a company’s way of dealing with changes: Resistance to Change, Change Agent, and Principles for Change.

When managers try to carry out changes, the main problem that they may face is resistance. It is almost impossible for any change process to be implemented without some degree of resistance. The reason for this resistance is that people become ingrained with individual and group beliefs and values when change is addressed. Why try to understand resistance when one can just enforce his views on his subordinates? Understanding the causes or reasons behind the resistance and working towards productive change is the main objective of a successful, productive company. Personal and Group uncertainty are often the biggest causes of employee resistance to change. In the face of impeding change, employees may become anxious and nervous. Employees may worry about the way it will affect their work and their lives and whether they will be able to meet the new demands of their jobs. Individual instances of resistance include: Homeostasis, Habit, Primacy, Selective Perception, Superego, Self-Distrust and Insecurity. In these instances, change is seen as evil and not “healthy”. Change is not looked on as a positive opportunity and thus is rejected by the individuals in a company, which may result in incohesiveness within the organization and eventual collapse. Personal instances of resistance like those stated above often hold companies back because of their conservative views as they often result from lack of individual confidence in oneself to be creative. Stemming from personal instances of resistances is the occurrence of group resistance to change. Sources of group resistance to change include: Conformity to Norms (Inertia), Vested Interests, Sacrosanct, Rejection of Outsiders, Overdetermination, and threatened power. Vested Interests is probably the most interesting source of resistance because how can interest in being the best be a resistance? Vested Interests can be a resistance because it often promotes conformity to norms, as workers are less likely to contribute their ideas to the advancement of innovation and as a result the company suffers as past new ideas become old, and new ideas are needed to survive in the ubercompetitive business world today. Rejection of Outsiders can be looked on as positive or negative, but more negatively, thus placing it as a resistance to change. Rejection of Outsiders might cause more cohesion within a group to rely on each other, and better teamwork BUT more importantly it causes the new and useful ideas from ever circulating within company conversations because employees block out these great ideas because the ideas originated from an external source. People view change as a threat to their power, status, security, familiarity