Why Individuals Find Change Difficult to Achieve - Case Study Example

 People have unique mental capacity to change; but whether it is innate or attained through training and efforts is a matter of debate. The article ‘THE QUEEN: Are we 'hard wired' or can we change’ points out some of the reasons why change is possible and why often people find it difficult. Change is influenced by the pain and pleasure. Pleasure is a motivator whereas pain works as de-motivator. The article talks about change and what is needed to achieve change from the movie of Helen Mirren about her achievement to be Best Actress in the Queen. As very evident from Mirren’s movie, change is difficult since it requires pain, efforts and hard work. People accomplish personal change when they are willing to give up comfortable ways of thinking and acting. Change is ‘hardwired’ if an individual is attempted to it through training, efforts and some practical works. ‘Hardwired’, a term normally used in neuroscience, means that qualities are fixed and are in place when people are born; and these qualities are ready to be activated or triggered by their genetics or in response to their concerned environment. More specifically, people are hardwired if they do not serve willingness to a specific change, but they are ready to change due to special training or hard working on it. It is how change becomes difficult for some people. In attempting to change, often people need to use more information and intense energy in processing new materials. This in turn requires the brain to work hard. People use intense energy if they are less skilled or having less preference. This is also another reason why individuals feel change a difficult attempt. The article stressed that change is always possible, but it needs efforts. Personal change is motivated by pleasure and avoidance of pain. Change is not hardwired when the individual has an aspiration toward a specific role and it requires greater influence. Avoidance of pain is a motivator as an individual is prompted to become compassionate or promoted and thus he tries to change. Personal change occurs only when an individual move through four steps; awareness, analysis, alternative and attack. First, the individual realizes that something is not working, and then reflects on what something needs to change. Next, the individual seeks alternative options for change and then he decides on a course of action. 2. After having studied individual and organisational change as a topic in Management Principles can you think of any other reasons as to why individuals dislike (indeed – fear) change? It is well documented from the research findings that individuals and organisations usually resist changes. People inherently resist changes because it involves moving from the known to unknown and the future is uncertain and it may affect their career, salary, status, competencies negatively (Gilley, 2005, p. 27). Individual’s responses to change may vary widely, ranging from commitment to aggressive resistance. Involvement, support, apathy, passive resistance, active resistance, and aggressive resistance are some of such responses (Spector, 2010, p. 9). Dijk and Dick (2009, p. 144) are of the view that people never resist change for that it is a change, but they resist it for an anticipated consequence such as loss of status, loss of pay, loss of comfort and so on. Bruckman (2008, p. 212) also put forward same reasons for people’s resistance to change. Apart from status quo and fear of loss of pay or job, he added threat to personal security and more importantly less confidence of the ability to accustom with the change. Individuals dislike change generally for different reasons and these may vary from person to person. As Gilley (2005, p. 27- 28) noted, there are large numbers of reasons why individuals resist change. Some of these factors are fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of loss of security, perceived loss of status, uncertainty, low tolerance of change, risk aversion, no incentive to change, peer pressure, misunderstanding, lack of trust of or cooperation with management and so on. Perceptions, personality, habit, threat to power and influence, fear of the unknown and economic factors are the major sources of individual resistance to change. Habit is a source of comfort, security and satisfaction and therefore people resist change when they come to face discomfort since the change may affect their habit. People with concerns of security are those with fear of loss of power and security and those who fear change to lower their income etc are very likely to dislike the change. Similarly, the design, culture and structure of an organisation largely influence the level of resistance within that organisation. Change itself requires resources and organisations that have sufficient resources to do are likely to bring changes. Inter-organisational agreements refer to mutual understandings between different departments. Cooperation, collaboration and mutual understanding between departments are some of the effective strategies to manage resistance to change at organisational level. 3. Examine why people's hesitancy to change is an issue that warrants examination in the study of management. Hesitancy to change or resistance to change is perhaps one of the most significant issues in the study of management. Change is both a challenge and opportunity. It is a challenge to be successfully implemented, but is an opportunity in regard to the positive impacts and outcomes that a change can bring back to the organisation. According to Palmer, Dunford and Akin (2009, p. 159), hesitancy to change is the most dangerous nastiest cancer that kills changes within the organisations. Change is an opportunity for any organisation, and that is the reason why ‘resistance to change’ is an important issue in management. Resistance is not only just the hindrance to ‘change’ but also to the vast positive outcomes and organisational advantages that the change may bring back to the firm. Change can always bring about a range of outcomes including organisational survival, profitability, heightened levels of organisational change cynicism, etc. (Brown and Cregan, p. 667). With ‘change’, business organisations do attempt to make their businesses get accustomed with the changing business environment, radically changing technology contexts and latest marketing trends. Managements creatively think of newer ideas and accordingly they attempt to change the design, systems, processes, technology, resources and structure of the business with a view to achieve sustainable competitive advantage, bringing customer focus, achieving customer loyalty and attaining long term profitability. When there is resistance to change, this in turn hinders all the positive outcomes of the change that the organisation is supposed to bring about by implementing the change effectively. The study of management has given greater emphasis on managing resistance to change and has identified various managerial strategies as effective to manage the resistance. It is because, if the basic reasons for resistance were not clearly identified and addressed, the proposed change and all its positive impacts will not be communicated to the people and the final outcome will be that the resistance kills the change. People are the most important and powerful asset in a firm. Their support, cooperation and satisfaction are critically important for the smooth functioning of the firm. When they resist a change, management cannot simply ignore it, but rather, the management needs to manage the resistance effectively. Management may use different strategies and techniques to manage it in different contexts. In certain contexts, better communication can bring back cooperation, whereas team work, leadership and delegation of authority in relation to the ‘newer change’ can bring back better support from the people. The study of management has researched in to the issues of resistance and studied various strategies to help management effectively manage the resistance to change. Study of management focuses on people and how they resist the changes. People normally resist change for many reasons as they may not understand the objectives driving the change. The study of management has brought change-management strategies to create a culture that can easily embrace change. As far as people in an organisation are concerned, they need to be part of the process and they are to be timely communicated. Resistance to change is a matter of concern since it can kill organisational advances, development and all the possible as well as necessary changes that in turn will make the company competitive in today’s highly competitive marketing contexts. 4. Put forward suggestions as to how managers can best implement change. Will a theory help them? There are many theories and management strategies to effectively implement change by managing the resistance to it. None of these strategies and technique may be concrete to fit all the different situations in different organisations, but is up to management’s discretion to act wisely with most fit strategies to manage resistance and thus to implement the change. Reasons for resistance can be different in different organisations and therefore managers can pick any strategy that may resolve the issues successfully. In short, no theory can simply help managers implement the change unless there are considerable thoughts about the change issues, reasons for resistance, organisational design, structure and contexts etc. Some of the change-management strategies are detailed below: 1- Communication to boost awareness There is no other effective tool than communication in effectively managing the change. People resist because they may fear loss of pay, loss of security and so on. Managers in responsibility of implementing the change are to communicate change and its positive as well as negative consequences to the people to make them well aware of it. According to Ford and Ford (2009, p. 100), when managers are ready to address the change and all of its whereabouts to the people, the management must have greater opportunity to process what it will mean for them as individuals. Since there are various levels of people and work-hierarchy in the management structure, managers who propose change will not think of its consequences to the lower level of workers, and therefore managers should drop down and evaluate the impacts of the changes to the lower levels as well. 2- Leadership of Thought-Self Self-leadership refers to self-direction, self-support, self achievement and self aspiration (Wart, 2007, p. 90). As Palmer, Dunford and Akin (2009, p. 174) pointed, Thought-Self leadership is perhaps a widely acceptable management strategy to implement change by managing the resistance. According to him, thought-self leadership is a process of influencing or leading people through the purposeful control on others’ thoughts. Thought-self leadership can largely influence people’s perceptions that are the primary determinants of how they respond to changes. Managers must act wisely to make people feel as self-leaders so as to make them somehow involved in the change process. 3- Participation When people feel that they are also participated and involved, they are very less likely to resist the change. As Msweli-Mbanga and Potwana (2006, p. 22) emphasized, participation can yield positive results in bringing change since it automatically changes the conduct and behavior of people during the change process. 4- The power of resistance Palmer, Dunford and Akin (2009, p. 177) found ‘resistance’ as power and they argued that perceiving ‘resistance’ as a power and source of wider feedback from people would be a better strategy to manage change. As of this opinion, rather than treating resistance as something to be overcome, managers must think positively and thus obtain feedback and concerns from the people so that managers can think wisely how to resolve them for making people comfort with the change. References Brown, M and Cregan, C, Organisational Change Cynicism: The role of Employee Involvement, Human Resource Management, Winter 2008, Vol. 47, No. 4, Wiley Periodicals, EBSCO database Bruckman, J. C, 2008 Overcoming Resistance to Change: Causal Factors, Interventions, and Critical Values, The Psychologist-Manager Journal, 11, The Society of Psychologists in Management, Psychology Press, Taylor and Francis Group, EBSCO database Dijk, R. V & Dick, R. V, 2009, Navigating Organisational Change: Change Leaders, Employee Resistance and Work-based Identities. Vol. 9, No. 2, Journal of Change Management, Routledge, EBSCO database Ford, J. D and Ford, L. W, 2009, Decoding Resistance to Change Strong leaders can hear and learn from their critics, Harvard Business Review, hbr.org, EBSCO database Gilley, A.M, 2005, The Manager As Change Leader, Greenwood Publishing Group Msweli-Mbanga, P & Potwana, N, 2006, Modeling participation, resistance to change, and organisational citizenship behaviour: A South African case, S.Afr.J.Bus.Manage, EBSCO data base Palmer, I, Dunford, R & Akin, G, 2009, Managing Organisational Change, A Multiple Perspectives Approach, Second edition, McGraw Hill, Irwin, Spector, B, 2010, Implementing Organisational Change: Theory into Practice, Second edition, Prentice Hall, Pearson Education Inc Wart, M. V, 2007, Leadership in public organisations: an introduction, M.E. Sharpe Read More