Download Organization Design

Change Management
Lecture 6
Resistance to change
Dilbert
• The goal of change management is to
dupe slow-witted employees into thinking
change is good for them by appealing to
their sense of adventure and love of
challenge
• This is like convincing a trout to leap out of
a stream to experience the adventure of
getting deboned
Signs of Resistance to Change
Active signs of resistance
• Being critical
• Finding fault
• Ridiculing
• Appealing to fear
• Using facts selectively
• Blaming or accusing
• Sabotaging
• Intimidating or threatening
• Manipulating
• Distorting facts
• Blocking
• Undermining.
• Starting rumors
• Arguing
Passive signs of resistance
• Agreeing verbally but not
following through (“malicious
compliance”)
• Failing to implement change
• Procrastinating or dragging
one’s feet
• Feigning ignorance
• Withholding information,
suggestions, help, or support
• Standing by and allowing
change to fail
Why Do People Resist Change?
• Dislike of change
 People don’t resist change, they resist pain!
 Boredom can be pain, too.
• Discomfort with uncertainty
 Low tolerance for ambiguity
• Perceived negative effects of interests
 Authority, status, rewards, salary, social ties
• Attachment to the established culture/ways of
doing things
• Perceived breach of psychological contract
Why Do People Resist Change?
• Lack of conviction that change is needed
• Lack of clarity as to what is needed
• Belief that the specific change being proposed is
inappropriate
• Belief that the timing is wrong
• Excessive change
• Cumulative effects of other changes in one’s life
• Perceived clash with ethics
• Reaction to the experience of previous changes
• Disagreement with the way the change is being
managed
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Why do people support
change?
Security
Money
Authority
Status/prestige
Responsibility
Better working conditions
Self-satisfaction
Better personal contacts
Less time and effort
Managing Resistance – The
Situational Approach
• The classic steps:






Education and communication
Participation and involvement
Facilitation and support
Negotiation and agreement
Manipulation and cooptation
Explicit and implicit coercion
• Which ones did Hightower use?
• Phelan case
The Resistance Cycle
• Resistance is a natural (even necessary)
psychological stage in any change:




Denial
/
Resistance /
Exploration /
Commitment /
Shock
Anger
Mourning
Acceptance
• Do we just ‘let nature take its course’ then?
• Can people get stuck in a stage?
Behavioral Strategies
• Creative counters (Karp)
 Prepared counters to blocks, stalls, rollovers,
threats, etc.
• Thought Self-Leadership
 Based on RET
 Activating event -> (Beliefs) ->Emotional
Consequence
 Change dysfunctional beliefs and thus change
emotional consequences
•
•
•
•
Assumptions, self-talk, mental imagery
Rooting out: Shoulds, musts, oughts
From ‘obstacle thinking’ to ‘opportunity thinking’
Monitoring self-cognition
Behavioral Strategies 2
• Tinkering, Kludging, & Pacing (Abrahamson)
 The reconfiguration of existing practices and
business models rather than the creation of new
ones
 Tinkering is small (e.g. sharing of best practice or
adapting a process from another business)
 Kludging creates a new business from existing
capabilities
 Pacing is mixing disruptive change with tinkering
and kludging
• Deliberately avoids lots of large scale change because
that generates ‘change fatigue’ and major resistance
The “Power of Resistance”
(Maurer)
• Use the power of resistance to build support
 Showing respect towards resistors creates stronger
relationships and thereby improves the prospects of
success
• Fundamental touchstones





Maintain clear focus
Embrace resistance
Respect those who resist (assume good faith)
Relax
Join with the resistance
• Look for points of commonality
Maurer’s Default Options
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Use power
Manipulate those who oppose
Apply force of reason
Ignore resistance
Play off relationships
Make deals
Kill the messenger
Give in
Questions
• What symptoms of resistance have you
experienced as a manager? Have you
ever been a resistor yourself?
• Which of the various reasons for resisting
change are the most common?
 Which are the most difficult to deal with?
• Which approach to the management of
resistance attracts you? Why?
Perrier Case
• Identify the key elements of the resistance
to change described in this situation
• Construct a change management strategy
for dealing with this situation, particularly
how you will manage resistance