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Information Technology Project
Management – Fourth Edition
By Jack T. Marchewka
Northern Illinois University
Power Point Slides by Gerald DeHondt
Grand Valley State University
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Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Managing Organizational
Change, Resistance, & Conflict
Chapter 11
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Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Learning Objectives
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Describe the discipline of organizational change management and its role in
assessing the organization’s readiness and capability to support and
assimilate a change initiative.
Describe how change can be viewed as a process and identify the
emotional responses people might have when faced with change.
Describe the framework for managing change that will be introduced in this
chapter.
Apply the concepts and ideas in this chapter in order to develop a change
management plan. This plan should focus on assessing the organization’s
willingness and ability to change, developing a change strategy, implementing
and tracking the progress toward achieving the change and then evaluating
whether the change was successful, and documenting the lessons learned
from those experiences.
Discuss the nature of resistance and conflict and apply several techniques
for dealing with conflict and resistance in an efficient and effective way.
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Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Reactions to Change
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At any given point in our lives, we all go various changes
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School
Family
Personal
We have all been through change - but how do we think about
and manage it?
Dealing with the people issues, or soft side of technology, is an
area that most technical people do not enjoy.
Many technical people and managers naively believe that the
users within the organization will gladly embrace a new system
if it is built properly.
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Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Managers & Technical People May Have The
False Beliefs
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People want this change.
Monday morning we’ll turn on the system and they’ll use
it.
A good training program will answer all of their questions
and then they’ll love it.
Our people have been through a lot of change – what’s
one more change going to matter?
We see the need for helping our people adjust, but we
had to cut something.
They have two choices. They can change or they can
leave.
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Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
In Reality, …
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Some people believe that it is easier to gain compliance
than it is to gain acceptance
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Unfortunately,
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It assumes that everyone will comply and that compliance is
long lasting
The change may not occur
People will comply for a time and then do things to get around
the change
Users will accept only a portion of the change
And the full benefits of the project are never realized or
only after a great deal of time and resources are
expended
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Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Change Management
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Defined by the Gartner Group
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The transforming of the organization so it is aligned with the
execution of a chosen corporate business strategy. It is the
management of the human element in a large-scale change
project.
Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The Nature of Change
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Whether we view change as positive (anticipation) or
negative (dread), there is a certain amount of stress that
accompanies each change.
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Change has an Impact.
Change is a Process.
Change is Emotional.
Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Assimilation of change require
Assimilating Change
Assimilation is the process we use to adjust to
positive or negative changes.
Problems occur when we have to deal with too many
changes or when we can’t assimilate to change fast
enough.
Change
Threshold
Time
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Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Change is a Process
Driving Forces
Resisting Forces
Present
State
Transition
State
Unfreezing
Changing
Force Field Analysis – Lewin, 1951
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Desired
State
Refreezing
Emotional Responses to Change
active
Emotional
Response
anger
acceptance
bargaining
stability
testing
passive
denial
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shock
depression
Time
Elizabeth Kubler- Ross, 1969
Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Five Stages of Grieving
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Denial
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Anger
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Attempts to make deals to avoid the change
Looks for ways to extend the status quo
Depression
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Blaming others for the change
Bargaining
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Shock and disbelief
Admits that change is inevitable and understands the impact
Acceptance
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Coming to grips with the change
Moving on to the new state
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Impact of Organizational Change
(Leavitt’s Model)
People
Structure
Technology
Task
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Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Reactions to Change
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Change may
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Be an ending
Mean giving something up
Be stressful
Be easier for those initiating the change
Be the basis for resistance and conflict
Change the “rules for success”
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Change Management Plan
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Assess Willingness, Readiness, and
Ability to Change
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Sponsor
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Change Agents
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Initiating vs. sustaining sponsor
The project manager and team
Targets of Change
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The users, customers, etc.
Must understand
 The real impacts of the change
 The breadth of change
 What’s over and what’s not
 Whether the rules for success have changed
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Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Develop or Adopt a Strategy for Change
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Rational–Empirical Approach
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Normative-Reeducation Approach
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Focus on the core values, beliefs, and established
relationships that make up the culture of the group.
Power-Coercive Approach
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Picture, Purpose, Part to Play
Compliance through the exercise of power
Environmental-Adaptive Approach
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Although people may avoid disruption and loss, they can still
adapt to change
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Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Implement the Change Management
Plan and Track Progress
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Communication
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Watch out for the rumor mill!
Media is important.
Must flow in both directions.
What you don’t say is as important as what you do
say!
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Evaluate Experience and Develop Lessons
Learned
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Experiences should be documented and made available to
other project teams
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Best Practices
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Provide consistent communication and involvement –
WIIFM (What’s In It For Me)
Determine support needs - where do people go for help
and information?
Measure and communicate progress (Quick Wins)
Build the need for change (“Burning Platform”)
Ensure visible, consistent sponsorship
Allow the disenchanted to vent
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Listen, listen, … and listen some more
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Resistance and Conflict
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Resistance should be anticipated from the outset of the
project
Resistance can be either overt, in the form of memos,
meetings, etc., or covert, in the form of sabotage, foot
dragging, politicking, etc.
Resistance can arise for many valid reasons.
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E.g., Response time of the system is too slow or lacks
requested features and functionality
Resistance due to cultural or behavioral reasons is harder
to rationalize, but still can keep a project from reaching
its intended goal
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Why Do People Resist Change?
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People may perceive the change as requiring more time and
energy than they are willing to invest.
People may feel that a change will mean giving up something
that is familiar, comfortable, and predictable.
People may be annoyed with the disruption caused by the
change, even if they know that it will be beneficial in the long
run.
People may believe that the change is being imposed on them
externally, and their egos will not tolerate being told what to
do.
People may resist because of the way the decision to change
was announced or because it was forced on them.
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Conflict Management
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Focuses on preventing, managing, or resolving conflicts.
It is important to identify potential conflicts as early as
possible so that the conflict can be addressed.
Although conflict can be positive and help form new ideas
and establish commitment, negative conflict left
unresolved can lead to damaged relationships, mistrust,
unresolved issues, continued stress, dysfunctional
behavior, and low productivity and morale.
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Although conflict is one of the things most of us
dislike intensely, it is inevitable. Most often when
we try to avoid conflict, it will nevertheless seek us
out. Some people wrongly hope that conflict will go
away if it is ignored. In fact, conflict ignored is more
likely to get worse, which can significantly reduce
project performance. The best way to reduce
conflict is to confront it.
(Verma, 1998, p. 367)
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Types of Conflict
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Traditional View
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All conflict should be avoided
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Contemporary View
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Conflict is inevitable and natural
Positive conflict stimulates ideas
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“Why can’t we all just get along?”
“Let’s agree to disagree!”
Negative conflict can be damaging
Interactionist View
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Conflict is necessary for performance
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“Devil’s advocate”
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Approaches to Conflict
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Avoidance
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Accommodation
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Dominant authority resolves conflict
Compromise
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Appease the parties in conflict
Forcing
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Retreat, withdraw, or ignore conflict
Bargaining
Collaboration
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Confronting and attempting to solve the problem by
incorporating different ideas, viewpoints, and perspectives.
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Approach to Conflict Situation
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Each conflict situation is unique and the choice of an
approach to resolve conflict depends on:
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Type of conflict and its relative importance to the project.
Time pressure to resolve the conflict.
Position of power or authority of the parties involved.
Whether the emphasis is on maintaining the goals, objectives of
the project or maintaining relationships.
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Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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