Defines resistance and describes in some ways the various pulls and pushes that the ORG suffers (and sometime benefits) from such "frictional" forces

1. Organizational Development
Resistance to Change

2.  Understanding resistance
 Why do we resist change – the psychology behind
 What is required to overcome resistance
 How do organization overcome resistance
 Cases in point…
What are we attempting…

3.  In the context of change…
 Is the collectively or individual force of the people that does not
internalize the change, or the agenda or the goal at the end of
the agenda
 Current implementation in process or processes that does not
adopt or adapt to the requirements of the change and is applied
w/o the implication of cost, effort, time and/or service levels
 Versions of policies, procedures, internal guidelines, business
practices, etc. that are applied so as to cause concerns to timely
achievement of outcomes
 Is the current environment influence due to regulations, rule of
the land, collectively pressures of the trade associations,
federate polity, etc. that impedes the timely achievement of the
outcomes
 …
Defining resistance

4. Resistance - Sources
 External Sources
 Consumers,
 Suppliers,
 Regulators,
 Regulations,
 Other countries,
 World bodies – WTO, UN
 Trade Sanctions,
 …
 Internal Sources
 People
 Policies and Procedures
 Technology landscape
 Business Practices
 …

5.  Visible but can be very subtle…a sort of “go slow”
 Collective or individualistic; can cascade from individual
to collective…example in “sympathetic strikes”, “cross
location strikes”
 Provides ‘friction’ to the initiated pace
 Causes stress in systems, people, ‘internal subscribers’,
‘external stakeholders’, etc.
 Impacts on business performance
Resistance – Attributes

6. Why the resistance…?
 Change disturbs the ‘normal
rhythm’ of performance of
people, teams, groups, division,
organizations, etc.
 Defines new expectations, new
skills, additional expenditure, etc.
and stakeholder may not budget
or allocate time, effort for this
adaptation
 Change requires investments first
before results can be seen and
people, process and technology
may not be aligned yet
 Normally changes introduces a
‘stop-start-go’
 Change calls for a different norm,
behavior

7.  Since this is a discussion on OD and this being connected
with behavioral science stream the entire focus is on
people and their resistance to change
 Not covered is the resistance due to
 Process, practices, procedures
 Rules, guidelines, law
 Regulators, markets,
 Competitions
 …
Resistance – What is covered?

8. Types of Resistance
Formalism
Threats
Arguing
Disruption
Rumors
Factions
Silence
Jokes
Evasiveness
Ridiculing
Sick
Inattentiveness
Lethargy
Apathy

9. Types of Resistance
 Rational resistance
 occurs when people do
not have the proper
knowledge or
information to evaluate
the change.
 Providing information
(in the form of data,
facts, or other types of
concrete information)
reduces the resistance
 Emotional resistance
 involves the
psychological problems
of fear, anxiety,
suspicion, insecurity,
and the like.
 These feelings are
evoked because of
people’s perception of
how the change will
affect them.

10.  Economic Factors
 Loss of position, lower pay, redundancy, relocation
 Psychological Factors
 Loss of sense of pride, achievement, self esteem
 Social Factors
 Loss of social standing, lower position in family
 Structural
 Lower authority, seniority, etc.
 Competency
 New skills, new practices, new behavior
 “just being together” …rather than being a ‘supporter’
Resistance - Causes

11. Resistance - benefits
 Resistance can bring some benefits:
 Can be treated as a review of “change concepts”
 Encourage the management to re-examine its change
proposals
 Identify specific problem areas where change is likely to
cause difficulties
 Encouraged to do a better job of communicating the
change
 Resistance also gives management information about the
intensity of employee emotions on an issue
 Encourage employee to think and talk more about a
change