WHY DO EMPLOYEES RESIST TO CHANGE?

Whenever human beings are exposed to change at work (or at home, at play or in relationship), resistance is a natural and common phenomenon. Even if change is the “solution” one needs to plan for resistance. Leaders, managers, supervisors, all of us who are tasked with the role of implementing change efforts, and I think that change is continuous, rather than it happens periodically when caused by a severe disruption. And I agree that small changes occur continuously, but change that will markedly after an organization happens periodically and occurs very quickly. Change be it major or minor is now continuous of any major severe disruptions. Businesses are now aware of the new reality that they face on a regular basis. They want to be the first to disrupt because if it’s going to happen anyway, it’s much more profitable for them to be the disruptor. And I agree that change needs to have a clearly communicated value statement and the endurance to see training through. And people are not against change but against being changed. Force it upon them, and they all will find reasons not to step out of their comfort zone, these include fear. Discomfort and even more so, fear for the outcome, is the outmost important reason for resistance to change. It is about people and not machines. People think, feel and have emotions. All personnel involved always and immediately know, it is not only just about adapting to market changes, but it’s also always about cost, competitiveness and headcount (in due time) the objective of all change, do move with same or same with less. And what I see is that we resist changing because we perceive stability as a security. And if in change in management you can assure “security” then changing can be accepted. And yes the start should be “culture of trust” followed by “the new should makes sense at all levels”. And also if leaders manage their associate properly during a change process people will develop. Self esteem improves and experience about successfully surviving change sticks into the mind. And so next time leader will find a more ready to change team. Change is such a complex creature, and it’s such irony that it does take time to change…change, especially in traditional business environments and industries. Having a business leadership belief in the reason why the change is inevitable (and constant) is so very important for all involved. Speed of the Leader(s) determines speed of the Team and that can be very hard to speed up if everyone is at different stages of acceptance, courage, and living the change. Finding that gear and making it work well is an art and a science. And there is one more source of resistance, though maybe something on this list is meant to cover it. The loss or threat of loss of something important. Sometimes the uncertainty of what will be lost generates the fear and resistance. Sometimes what is being lost, is very clear, e.g., power and control, privileges or benefits, status, identity, and of course many other possible things. When change takes something away that is important, some kind of resistance may arise. When the workforce is engaged with change they will support it. When they are not they will resist it. If we know how to engage the workforce we will do so and experience the amazing feeling of working with the workforce instead of against them. If we don’t know what to do to allow the workforce to engage we will continue to look for lists like this for the things that we can do to prevent them from resisting what someone else wants to do to them, change. Engagement is not something that we do to others to achieve an end. Engagement is the way that people feel about what they do, and we can’t change that. What we can do is to create the environment that will allow them to engage, then they will choose to engage for themselves, we can’t make them engage. Summing it up, the change that should be implemented must first be of benefit to both the management or the company and its workforce or employees. If it is and the employees resist it, they either don't understand the whole concept of the change or they are simply resistant to change by nature. Either way, talking about it will do no wrong hence it is very important for the management of the company to make it sure that the entire workforce gets to know about the details of the change as early as possible. In fact, it is better to let them know before the change is implemented if it is necessary.

Jessie James T. Conserman