ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE:

In today’s dynamic business world change is a necessity of time. The term ‘Change’ refers to modifications, alterations or shift in the present working environment or condition for the better future. The importance of change within the organization is equally important. The need for change within the organization arises from various factors i.e. from point of view of technology, external business environment, legal regulations etc. These changes can be structural changes or cultural changes occurring in work environment. Any changes occurred in workplace of an organization for managing its new business process is known as organizational change

FORCES OF ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE:

The major forces that might cause the occurrence of changes within the organization are broadly classifies under two main categories which are:

EXTERNAL FORCES

1. Technological advancements in near future
2. market conditions prevailing in the economy
3. Political processes
4. Social changes taking place

INTERNAL FORCES

1. Nature of workforce
2. Change in managerial personnel
3. Deficiencies in organization structure
4. Avoiding development inertia

It is clear from the above factors that future is uncertain and the organization must prepare themselves in advance about the future changes that might takes place and making effort to accept them openly because it will ultimately leads to better organizational position. However out of certain factors the employees or other workforce tries to avoid these changes out of certain assumptions, fears and possibilities that exist in their minds. This avoidance to new and innovative plans and actions are generally termed as resistance to change.

RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

The employees or other workforce of an organization out of rigidity, fear of uncertainty, loss of job security or out of their strict routine don’t want any change and that’s why they resist it. Their resistance can be publically or orally. People always prefer comfort and stability over change in both their personal and professional lives. They don’t like any change and as a result they oppose the change. The main reasons behind the employees resisting changes mainly include:

• Fear of failure: The employees resist the change out of their fear to failure. They think that they are comfortable with what they know and feel reluctant to adapt new things. The team members also began to assuming that the management has doubt on their capabilities of performing their duties.
• Lack of job security: it is also the major reason why employees resist changes. By the technological and administrative advancements they feel that their role in the organization will be eliminated so they resist the change in an organization.
• Organizational politics: some people resist the changes to show that their leaders are not performing his task very well while others resist because they think that their role in the organization is eliminated so organizational politics is considered as the main reason why people resist change.
• Peer pressure it is also the main reason why people resist change. If the managers who have to report top level management think that change will affect their team members they also resist change. If their coworkers are not satisfied with this change they also support them and resist this change.

So above are some of the most commonly used reasons why employees use to resist new and innovative ideas. It is assumed that workers were expected to resist new changes but it the ultimate responsibility of progressive employer or management to adopt certain measures such as training programs,  providing of incentive, promotions and transfers as well as many other financial and non-financial measures to manage such resistance by employees.

MANAGING RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

We all know change is always for the good but employees are the main opponent of this change. To overcome this resistance proper management is required to be done by top level to effectively achieve their objectives within the organization. The companies with great overcoming abilities will be able to create an edge over its competitors. Below mentioned are some steps that can help the management to overcome resistance to change.

• The employers should properly communicate with their employees. This is the best option for management. They can talk in formal and informal way to employees to aware them about the main reasons behind changes and their ultimate effects.
• Moreover the management is required to regularly update their employees about the coming changes so that they knew all facts about the new policy of an organization and can accept it and absorb it slowly till the time to implement changes actually came.
• The company should engage those employees who opposed. By doing this they can be able to know about their issues relating to change and overcome them in a better way.
• The company should implement new business strategies in groups. By providing all knowledge about the new policy to group members and by keeping them aware how this new strategy will benefit their job they can overcome this resistance to change.