Lect. univ. dr.

Ivona Orzea Faculty of Business Administration The Bucharest University of Economic Studies

CHANGE DYNAMICS

Initial state

Final state

Inertial forces (Resistances)

Driving forces (Promoters)

Condition for change: Fd > Fi

INERTIAL FORCES
In any change process there are inertial forces that oppose the driving forces. Inertial forces generate resistances.

There are internal resistances and external resistances, with respect to any organization.
There are individual resistances and organizational resistances.

INDIVIDUAL INTERNAL RESISTANCES

Fear of unknown. This fear is a natural reaction at individual level.
Regardless of the state today, any individual thinks that unknown may bring a worse situation. Murphys law: Smile! Tomorrow can be worse. The pessimist says: It is so badly today that it cannot be worse. The optimist says: It can!

INDIVIDUAL INTERNAL RESISTANCES

Lack of vision for the final state. Any change has an initial state and a final state.
Initial state is generally known, or it can be described. Final state might be unknown because of lack of any vision from the change agents. There is no leadership able to describe the future state and its advantages. Actually, there is no answer to the question: Why to change?

INDIVIDUAL INTERNAL RESISTANCES

Avoiding risks. Our culture developed deterministic thinking, i.e. thinking based on certainty. That means that our minds works very well when events are certain and their associated risks are zero.

Uncertainty avoidance index Geert Hofstede index for Romania is 90 (USA=46; UK=35)
Any change is associated with different risks. Perception of these risks generates individual resistances.

INDIVIDUAL INTERNAL RESISTANCES

Fear of loosing some privileges. Any change is advantageous for some people, and disadvantageous for some others. Any individual who thinks that a change will have as a consequence loosing some privileges will oppose change with all his/her forces. For example, in any change of a tall organization into a flat one middle managerial positions disappear.

INDIVIDUAL INTERNAL RESISTANCES

Envy. Envy is a natural feeling. However, sometimes it is such a strong feeling that it generates resistance.

Envy is generated by the privileges associated with the promoters of change.

Even if an individual did nothing for change implementation, he may have a huge envy for those who are successful in the change process.

ORGANIZATIONAL RESISTANCES
Organizational culture.
It is the most important resistance since it contains values, symbols, traditions and believes which are the essence of organizational life. Values and symbols can be changed if there is a new vision for organization. Traditions conserve the past. They cannot be changed, but they can be stopped. Eventually, new traditions can be created.

ORGANIZATIONAL RESISTANCES
Organizational and functional structure. Organizational structure is important in supporting a large scale change process, and functional structure is important in creating the critical mass. Critical mass for change means number of people and their associated power of decision in organization. A stiff and very complicated organizational structure will make any change very difficult.

ORGANIZATIONAL RESISTANCES
Trade unions. The presence of trade unions in organizations is according to legislation and history of organizations. Also, the power of trade unions depends on their leaders and support from outside similar organizations. However, when they are powerful, they generally oppose any change leading to re-structuring, externalization and downsizing the organization.

ORGANIZATIONAL RESISTANCES
Organizational communications.

Any change means a clear explanation of: WHO, WHAT, WHEN, HOW, WHERE, COSTS, RISKS.
Lack of such a vital knowledge generates fear of unknown and increases the perception of risks associated to change. Lack of formal communication always increases the informal communication as gossip and intrigues.

ORGANIZATIONAL RESISTANCES
Previous successes Any success is a reward for the risks taken and a confirmation of the right decision made. Any success is interpreted as a guarantee of something done in the right way. Then, WHY to change? However, the solutions of yesterday cannot be the solutions for tomorrow. Even if there are same problems, the environmental forces might be different.

ENVIRONMENTAL RESISTANCES
Environmental forces may constitute important resistances to change, by imposing limitations. Legislation is the most important limiting factor. Cultural values feed the organizational culture. Outside stakeholders may oppose change if they feel the risks of loosing any privileges. Economic, scientific and educational levels.

RULES FOR STIFLING INNOVATION

(Rosabeth Moss Kanter)

Regard any new idea from below with suspicion because its new, and its from below. Insist that people who need your approval to act, first go through several other levels of management to get their signature. Ask departments or individuals to challenge and criticize each others proposals (That saves you the job of deciding).

Express your criticisms freely and withhold your praise. Let them know they can be fired at any time.
Treat identification of problems as signs of failure, to discourage people from letting you know when something in their area isnt working.

RULES FOR STIFLING INNOVATION

(Rosabeth Moss Kanter)

Control everything carefully. Make sure people count anything that can be counted, frequently.

Make decisions to reorganize or change policies in secret, and spring them on people unexpectedly.
Make sure that requests for information are fully justified, and make sure that it is not given out to managers freely. Assign to lower-level managers, in the name of delegation and participation, responsibility for figuring out how to cut back, lay off, move people around, or otherwise implement threatening decisions you have made, and get them to do it quickly. Above all, never forget that you, already know everything important about business.

REDUCING RESISTANCES EDUCATION

The best method to reduce any kind of change resistance is through education. That means to design training programs for all employees concerning change and need of implementing change at organizational level. Organizational change is everybodys business and thus each employee must understand the need for change. Employees must learn about incremental change and disruptive change. Employees must understand the risks of change and the risks of no change.

REDUCING RESISTANCES COMMUNICATION

The essence of change is the move from the KNOWN to the UNKNOWN.

Ambiguity and uncertainty of change and of the final state of organization make that communication to be essential in any change process.
Even if the change process is not very well known and many surprises may happen, communication is very important across the whole organization. Through communication the UNKNOWN is reduced continuously, and people feel they are together. Communicate the first results to convince people that the change process will reach its objectives. Communication must be redundant, i.e. information can be overlapping or replicated.

REDUCING RESISTANCES PARTICIPATION

Participation is an excellent technique to transform a potential resistance into a driver for change.
Some individuals oppose change due to lack of information or vision concerning the final state. Providing enough information and helping them understand the benefits of change, these individuals can become active participants in the change process. Sometimes, these individuals may bring in valuable experience.

REDUCING RESISTANCES NEGOTIATION

This technique is used when there is a strong resistance, especially coming from a group of people. Trade unions constitute usually such kind of resistances. The purpose of negotiation is to find solutions for those who will lose their privileges or their jobs. For those who lose some privileges there should be some new benefits when change will be completed. For those who lose their jobs there should be some compensations in money or ways for professional conversion to new jobs. In order to reduce the residual stress of change it is important to negotiate win-win solutions.

REDUCING RESISTANCES COERCION

Coercion is typically used in top-down change.
Employees have to execute orders coming from the top management without any chance of opposing them. If they oppose these orders, they may lose their jobs.

Thus, coercion is based on force and fear. It is a method that generates a high level of residual stress. It is a method that can be useful in time of crisis.

REDUCING RESISTANCES MANIPULATION

This is a negative technique used by some managers to get quick results. Manipulation means to create a state of confusion concerning the final state and then to define false targets. Manipulation also means to offer some privileges to some individuals in exchange of their cooperation to change. However, manipulation generates a high level of residual stress.

REDUCING RESISTANCES DEVELOPING A DYNAMIC CULTURE

Organizational culture can be an important resistance to change due to the fact that it contains values, beliefs, symbols and traditions. Developing a dynamic organizational culture means to change the values such that they support new ideas and visions. Also, new traditions can be developed to open the organization to new opportunities. A new dynamic organizational culture can be developed only with the contribution of the top management. Leadership plays an important role in changing the organizational culture.

 In a change process envy is usually:

a. b. c. d. an individual internal resistance; an individual stimulator; an individual catalyst; any of them.

 In a change process past successes are usually:

a. b. c. d. example of best practice; driving forces; inertial forces; accelerating forces.

 Which of the following is/are examples of organizational resistances to change:

a. b. c. d. fear of unknown; fear of losing some privileges; envy; trade unions.

 Participation is more likely to be effective when resistance comes from:

a. b. c. d. misinformation; lack of information; from expertise; trade unions.

 Which of the following is an example of the individual resistance to change:

a. fear of unknown; b. technology; c. tradition; d. previous success.

 During a change process communication should be:

a. b. c. d. more formally done; more informally done; intensified; kept at the normal level.

 Negotiation is more likely to be effective when resistance comes from:

a. b. c. d. misinformation; lack of information; from experience; trade unions.