Sources of resistance in organizational change and ways to overcome resistance
Introduction
An ancient Greek philosopher, once quoted that the “the only constant is change” (Heraclitus, unknown). Organizational change is an inevitable factor given that there are many components which are outside the organization which undergo changes and then sustenance of the organization then depends on adaptation. For example, the most recent change that we can see is the causality of the economic crises which occurred a few years back. This led to organizations changing their structures, their budgets, their talents, their costs and in some organizations everything from a shop floor to costs in the board rooms were susceptible to change. Managers in organizations are sometimes under pressure to suggest changes when they are newly appointed in an organization to prove their knowledge and expertise in an area and this is could sometimes be misused and changes are brought about only for the sake of change (Managing-change.net, 2013). One of the concerns of change is resistance which is natural and expected as it involves going from the known to unknown (Bovey and Hede, 2001a). Even though sometimes change is inevitable in an organization, the changes on the human element is sometimes ignored (Bovey and Hede, 2001b) which can be considered as the major source of resistance. Although the reason why people resist can be evident through analysis all potential sources of resistance cannot be comprehensively addressed (Self and Schraeder, 2009a) and the intensity of the resistance is unpredictable but the human element definitely factors in the success of the changes being implemented.
Based on study by Self and Schraeder we can holistically look at three main sources of resistance identified by them which are personal factors, organizational factors and change-specific factors (Self