In the ever-changing world that we live in we are experiencing massive changes in the way we need to run our businesses, financially, technologically, and foundationally. Of course when there are changes that need to be made there is always resistance that is met from management and employees, that make initiating these changes very difficult. What are the reasons that employees resist change in the workplace, especially when it is necessary and hopefully for the good of the business? In Dr. Jon Hultman’s book ” Here’s How Doctor” he addresses the issue of “Symptoms and Causes of Resistance” and points out several reasons why people resist change in the workplace. He states that “specific” behaviors people use to resist change fall into two categories, ACTIVE and PASSIVE resistance and below are some of the behaviors in each category:
Active Resistance:
Being Critical, Blaming/accusing, Fault-finding, Manipulating, Starting rumors, Arguing, Distorting facts, Appealing to fear, Distorting facts, Sabotaging and Intimidating.
Passive Resistance:
Agreeing verbally, but not following through. Failing to implement change. Procrastinating/dragging feet., Withholding information, suggestions, help or support. Standing by and allowing the change to fail.
Dr. Hultman states that the behaviors above tell us that people are resisting change but they do not tell us why. The why falls into the makeup of each person and below are the six most common causes of resistance to change that he lists in his book.
1. They believe that their needs are being met already. There is no incentive or motivation to change because they are content with how things are now.
2. The believe the change will make it harder for them to meet their needs. They see the change as a threat instead of something helpful.
3. They believe the risks outweigh the benefits. As long as they believe that the risks outweigh the benefits they will be afraid of the change and try to defend themselves against it.
4. They believe change is unnecessary to avoid or escape a harmful situation. Employees do not believe that change is necessary to survive. Instead they believe the changes are just another way to get more work out of them.
5. They believe that change process was handled improperly. People are not only capable of resisting the change itself, but also the methods used to bring the change about.
6. They believe the change will fail. People can resist change because they do not have the confidence it will work.
As an office manager, the more I can understand how people may react to change the better I can be prepared in how I introduce possible changes to them. When there are necessary changes that need to be made I have learned that by introducing them as a “thought” first, has helped to get the input from our employees as to how they feel about that possible change. Then upon hearing their reactions we can further open the discussion of why the change needs to take place and also get their input on “how” they think it should play out in order to gain their support for the change. This method seems to work quite well and many times our staff comes up with some really good ideas on the how’s, when’s, and what’s of implementing change that make things go much smoother and more efficiently.
For more articles by Dr. Jon Hultman go to our website www.gotoppm.com
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