Change and Resistance to Change

This blog will discuss about change and resistance to change. The content of this blog will consist of the role of leaders in change, how change models define the steps leaders use to lead change effectively, evaluation of change models including development and purposes and organizational example of resistance to change. This blog will also share the authors point of view and invite all readers to share and discuss about their thought resistance to change.

In order to survive in an increasingly competitive global environment, an organization must be able to pay attention to its contingency development and effectiveness. An important feature of the successful organization is their ability to adapt to changes. In an organization, to perform well and develop, the process of change must be harmony with the organizational culture (Mullins, 2016).

There are two main sources of organization change, first is from inside the organization such as internal organization conflict, financial problems, reorganization, and changes in culture/social environment. Second is from outside the organization such as global environment, new technology, legislation/regulation, political and market forces (The Virtual Learning Material Workshop, 2011). And of course, every change would generally meet resistance from the employees. For many change leaders, resistance to change represents a big problem, something that needs to be overcome, an assumption which continues to be popular today (Furst & Cable, 2008; Harvard Business School, 2005).

Resistance to organizational change is an inevitable phenomenon, because people are asked to reexamine and modify their behavior, which breeds resistance. There are two factors that caused resistance to change. First is individual resistance such as: selective perception, habit, inconvenience or loss of freedom, economic implications, security in the past and fear of the unknown. Second is organizational resistance such as: organizational culture, maintaining stability, investment in resources, past contracts or agreements, and threats of power or influence. To ensure a successful change implementation, change leaders must effectively overcome their subordinates’ resistance to change (Agboola & Salawu, 2011; Burnes, 2004; Kotter, 1996; Prediscan, 2004). If people know why things are changing, they are more willing to join the process (Ford & Ford, 2010).

There are 2 change models that will be explained by the author, the Kanter’s and Kotter’s change model. In Kanter’s model there are three stages relate to reducing resistance to change:

1. Line up political sponsorship

All members of an organization must be involved in the organizational change process. Leader alone cannot bring about large scale of change, which is why a change effort must have broad based support throughout an organization.

2. Develop enabling structures

In this stage enabling structures are designed to facilitate and spotlight change from the practical, trainings programs for employees. Employees are empowered, but before that, they are send for trainings to gain the necessary knowledge. The effort reward is also very important, being it financial or non-financial.

3. Communicate, involve people and be honest

As a potential tool for overcoming resistance to change, the author recommends an open communication between change leaders and organization personnel, an active involvement and disclosure. People accept a change more quickly when they are given all the information, know the advantages and disadvantages, and feel part of the process.

Kotter (1996) model also makes references to the importance of reducing resistance to change, the ways recommended being identified in the following four stages:

1. Form a powerful coalition

Stage which implies identifying and attracting the key leaders of the change process and encouraging the team members to work together.

2. Communicate the vision

The author describing this stage as requiring multiple conversations. The vision must be frequently and powerfully communicated, embedded in everything the change leaders does. Employees need to know exactly what is happening and how their actual situation will change.

3. The empowering

This stage implies getting employees responsible, giving them both the authority to perform a task and necessary knowledge and tools. It is considered that employees are less resistant if they have all the necessary information and are rewarded accordingly.

4. Generating short-term wins

Refers to the fact that any gain, being it small or big, should be rewarded and communicated to the other members. Thus, people become more motivated to engage in the process, because their involvement will be associated with a potential gain.

A constant two-ways communication and employee’s empowerment represent two key ways to attract and involve staff in implementing a new change (Gerhard, 2004).

Example for change leader is former Santander UK CEO Mr. António Horta-Osório. When in 2008 Santander wanted to establish a stronghold in the UK banking sector, its strategy was to acquire a portfolio of heritage-centric UK financial institutions – Abbey National, Bradford and Bingley, and Alliance and Leicester.

Grupo Santander chairman Emilio Botin felt, however, that the legacy in these UK financial institutions, dating as far back as 1849, had left them incapable of change and, therefore, unable to evolve and grow.

In buying these traditional UK financial institutions and unifying them under the Santander brand, Santander aimed to break down their engrained processes and turn them into a formidable retail bank.

To do this, they would need a fast-track, systems-led banking model. Only this could bring clarity, efficiency and best practice to institutions that had become totally entrenched in ‘their way’ of doing things. For incoming Santander UK CEO António Horta-Osório, his focus would be ensuring that all stakeholders grasped the value of shedding ‘old ways’ and embracing the new era in banking – a revolution, rather than evolution.

There were many opportunities during the change programme for cultural misunderstandings. Counter-intuitively, this can be particularly noticeable when national or linguistic similarities give a false illusion of commonality. In fact, the cultures of the UK acquisitions were very different, they had developed as regional building societies and their footprints, portfolios and client bases were each unique. This meant that forceful and careful management would be needed to integrate the systems, processes and people in the different organisations.

Those who were going to be impacted by the change were fully briefed; risks and issues were discussed and mitigated. In-branch teams, for example, were prepared for a variety of customer responses through the transition phase. Even those who werenot likely to be impacted by consolidations were given clear messages about the future. The aim of this process was to make sure they didn’t just understand the change, but that they embrace it.

In January 2010, Santander UK was launched against ferocious economic and banking headwinds. By 2013, it had become one the country’s leading retail banks and one of the largest providers of savings and mortgages. And António Horta-Osório had been moved to to lead change at another, even bigger, banking institution: as CEO of Lloyds Banking Group.

As conclusion, it is not easy to be a change leader that leads an organization change, it needs participation from the whole part of the organization. The key is how to manage the resistance of change and to have a good communication to all subordinates.

 

References

Chartered Management Institute (2015), The Greatest Examples Of Change Management In Business History, Available from: http://www.managers.org.uk/insights/news/2015/july/the-5-greatest-examples-of-change-management-in-business-history [10 March 2017]

Daniela Bradutanu (2012), Identifying the Reducing Resistance to Change Phase in an Organizational Change Model, Available from: Locate, http://journals.univ-danubius.ro/index.php/oeconomica/article/view/1270/1108 [10 March 2017]

Mihaela, Valentina; Bratianu, Constantin (2012). Management & Marketing, Available from: Locate, http://search.proquest.com/openview/249c2bf4528c30f20fbef3651e76f55b/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=226548 [10 March 2017]

Laurie J. Mullins (2016), Management & Organisational Behaviour Eleventh Edition, Pearson [6 March 2017]