Managing resistance to change
The top obstacle to successful change is employee resistance at all levels: Front-line, middle
managers, and senior managers. A change in employee attitude IS possible!
Employees want to hear messages about change from two people: the CEO or their immediate supervisor
(and these messages are not the same).
The top two reasons for employee resistance are
- A lack of awareness about the change
- Comfort with the ways things are and fear of the unknown.
The Top 10 Reasons Employees Resist Change
- The individual's personal predisposition to change.
- Surprise and fear of the unknown.
- Climate of mistrust.
- Fear of failure.
- Loss of status and/or job security.
- Peer pressure.
- Disruption of cultural traditions and/or group relationships.
- Personality conflicts.
- Lack of tact and/or poor timing.
- Not seeing the benefits.
The key phases for managing employees during change:
- Awareness of the need to change
- Desire to participate and support the change
- Knowledge of how to change (and what the change looks like)
- Ability to implement the change on a day-to-day basis
- Reinforcement to keep the change in place
