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Welcome! If you are a new subscriber, then we are sure that you will reap benefit from getting the latest news and views. This month, we continue our theme of managing successful change in organizations. Opinion Research Corporation’s annual employee research survey reveals how employees today are responding to their organization’s change efforts. In the UK, the survey reports, only 32% of employees agreed that their employer was managing change effectively. In the US, the response was somewhat better, with 63% of employees satisfied with their employer’s approach. That’s one third to two thirds of employees experiencing wasted change initiatives.

Employee communication and feedback play an important role in effective change. The same survey reports that where organizations survey employee reactions and then act on the results, 84% of employees responded positively to the change. Asking employees how they feel about the change and entering into a genuine dialogue is a powerful strategy for turning around resistive employees. Our article this month discusses the reasons people resist change and what you can do about it.

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New Products

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Employee Resistance to Change — Why?

No matter how well designed and planned your change program is, not everyone will be singing its praises.

Employees resist change for a wide variety of reasons, ranging from a straightforward intellectual disagreement over facts to deep-seated psychological prejudices.

Some of these reasons for employee resistance may include:

• belief that the change initiative is a temporary fad
• belief that fellow employees or managers are incompetent
• loss of authority or control
• loss of status or social standing
• lack of faith in their ability to learn new skills
• feeling of change overload (too much too soon)
• lack of trust in or dislike of managers
• loss of job security
• loss of family or personal time
• feeling that the organization is not entitled to the extra effort

For some people resisting change, there may be multiple reasons. Adding to this complexity is the fact that sometimes the stated reason hides the real, more deeply personal reason. You will also need to recognize that people work through a psychological change process as they give up the old and come to either embrace or reject the new.

Typically, they may experience an initial denial, then begin to realize that the change cannot be ignored. Strong feelings may emerge, such as fear, anger, helplessness and frustration. Finally, the person accepts the change either negatively, with feelings of resignation and complacency, or positively, with renewed enthusiasm to capitalize on the changes. Watch out for employees who get “stuck” in one phase. Offer your support. Allow space for people to work through the stages. Give employees time to draw breath and listen with empathy.

Reactions to Organizational Change

If you identify and manage resistance to change poorly, you can very quickly strangle your change program or, alternatively, slowly and unnoticeably starve it to death. Who are your resisters and how are they resisting?

Change recipients who are dead against the change will either resist overtly, voicing their objections loudly and often, or covertly. Covert resisters operate from the underground, masking their defiance, but posing you a much more serious challenge. We have identified four basic types of reaction to organizational change. Where do your change recipients sit?

To find out more about the four types of resisters and learn some practical strategies for overcoming resistance, click here to read the full article.

From all of us here on the Business Performance team, we wish you a productive month and look forward to communicating with you again soon.