Organizational Change
Successful change requires unfreezing the status quo, movement to a new state, and refreezing the new change to make it permanent. This change model implies that the mere introduction of change does not ensure either the elimination of the pre-change condition or the permanence of the change.
Unfreezing refers to the change efforts to overcome the pressures of both individual resistance and group conformity. Unfreezing, therefore, requires a loosening of emotional as well as intellectual forces. The process requires the recognition of the driving forces or the need for change, and increasing those driving forces. It also requires that the restraining forces to change are reduced.
Once unfreezing has been accomplished, the individual gets ready for a new behaviour and a change. Moving involves changing the organizational components. This phase is characterized by ambiguity and tentativeness, and is to be carefully guided by the leader/authority.
Refreezing refers to the stabilization of the change intervention by balancing the driving and restraining forces. It involves the establishment of a new perspective compatible with and leading to the new desirable behaviour. This is the period in which the individual or group begins to enjoy the rewards for the new behaviour, either extrinsically or intrinsically. In order to continuously reinforce the newly acquired behaviour, the organization needs to maintain the organizational fit among the various components that are supportive of such behaviour. Organizations cannot provide a fit continually for the changed behaviour, because of internal and external change factors. Organizational change, therefore, is dynamic and a continuous one.
Resistance to Change and Coping Strategies
Resistance to change is a natural human response. With the relentless change that is occurring in organization, knowing the causes of resistance as well as the strategies to cope with resistance is one of the essential skills of a leader. Resistance and change go together. It is virtually impossible to have significant change without resistance. Unfortunately, resistance is usually viewed as bad and as something that is to be overcome. Resistance plays a positive role too, by bringing attention to some of the neglected aspects.
An important strategy in dealing effectively with resistance is to understand its intensity. There could be three levels for the resistance. Level 1 is the resistance to the change itself. People simply oppose, question, or are confused by the change. Level 2 resistance is always deeper and it indicates that there are other forces at work. This level of resistance appears in a number of ways. Level 3 represents the deepest, most entrenched level of resistance. The problems are big and may seem overwhelming. The various sources of resistance and the coping mechanisms include the following.
i) Perceived Peripherality of Change: Implementation of change can be effective if the introduced change is seen as critical and useful, which can be achieved by the participation of the concerned people in the diagnosis of the issues or problems.
ii) Perception of Imposition: When people see the change as being imposed, they tend to resist it. The resistance can be overcome by involving people in the introduction of change at several stages.
iii) Indifference of the Top Management: The mangers are the role models. If their attitude shows indifference, people also tend to resist change. The best way to overcome resistance is by the commitment of the leader and by his/her active support for change management.
iv) Vested Interests: The vested interests of people cause resistance to change. Once people experience the change, they often enjoy it and may see its positive aspects.
v) Complacency and Inertia: As change produces discomfort, it is resisted. The solution to the problem is to introduce the change and help people experience new conditions.
vi) Fear of Large Scale Disturbance: The fear that the proposed change is likely to lead to some other changes with unpredictable consequences might result in resistance. Phasing out the change could help overcome the resistance.
vii) Fear of Inadequate Resources: Whenever the change requires additional resources in the form of new skills, additional manpower, or budget, resistance is likely to be greater. Genuine need for the resources need to be supported by the top management for overcoming resistance.
viii) Fear of Obsolescence: People resist change as they fear that they may become obsolete as they lack those skills which are required for coping with the change. Organizations should provide opportunities to those people in the development of the required skills, which could help to overcome resistance.
ix) Fear of Loss of Power: Any change would result in some roles in the organization to lose power. This feeling of loss of power could lead to resistance. In order to overcome this resistance, there is a need to redefine and redesign the roles.
x) Fear of Overload: If the change is perceived to increase the work load of people, they tend to resist the change. There is a need to bring in more of role clarity to overcome the resistance.
Various tactics have been suggested to deal with resistance. These include education and communication, participation, facilitation and support, negotiation, manipulation, and coercion. In order to appropriately deal with resistance, it is necessary to understand the cause of resistance and use appropriate strategies that may help to reduce the resisting forces in order to sustain the change over a long time.
Influential Change Leadership
Leadership plays a very crucial role in planning and managing change in the organizations. An effective leader has always been a “force multiplier”. The personality of the leader, the style of leadership, skills to be a visionary leader, and the capacity of the leader to influence others determine the extent to which change would be successfully introduced and stabilized in an organization. The leaders can act to reduce the factors opposing change, or act to increase the pressures for change, or be a pressure for change. The leaders should visualize the new situation, involve people in the change process, show concern for the continuous process of improvement, help people to learn new skills and roles, and manage the transition. In fact, it is believed that only 12 per cent of the effective leadership is knowledge and 88 per cent is dealing appropriately with people. A change leader should, therefore, build his team as a cohesive group and develop every individual in the team to give his/her best for the successful implementation of change.
To cope with the constantly changing environment, the leader has to play a very important role in coping/managing response in the ever-changing environment. For any organization to remain effective, merely reacting to any change is not enough. Rather, the organizations have to continuously anticipate and respond to change. The need of the hour is to develop the organizations to the level where they can continuously learn, anticipate, change, and improve.
REFERENCES
Carter, W. 1996. Managing Organizational Change – Participants Guide. Kogan Page, New Delhi, 67 pp.
Maurer, R. 1996. Working with resistance to change: The support for change questionnaire. In: The 1996 Annual. Volume 2. Consulting. (Ed.) Pfeiffer, J.W. Pfeiffer & Co., San Diego, USA, 161-174.
Robbins, S.P. 1990. Organizational Behaviour. Prentice- Hall of India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 599 pp.
Russell-Jones, N. 1997. The Managing Change Pocketbook. Rupa & Co., New Delhi, 105 pp.
School of Management Studies. MBA Course Materials. Indira Gandhi National Open University, New Delhi.