More on Resistance

The 2 most common reasons for organisational change project failures are
"...poor management of the process and resistance from change recipients. Managers tend to blame the resistance to change from recipients for the failures while the change recipients blame poor management of the process.....this has been described as the fundamental attribution error......organisational change generated scepticism, resistance in employees, making it sometimes difficult or impossible to implement organisational improvements..."
Raymond Ayivor, 2012
Resistance can be defined as any action or activity that serves to maintain the status quo despite the pressure to alter the status quo.
Resistance is in the eye of the beholder, ie the same action can be viewed from different perspectives by different people within the organisation.
In resistance, there are 3 states
- cognitive (rational, logical, etc)
- emotional (feelings, etc)
- behavioural (doing, activities, etc)
Active and passive resistance
Active resistance (symptoms include finding fault, ridiculing, appealing to fear, manipulating, etc
Passive-resistance (symptoms include agreeing verbally but not following through, feigning ignorance,  withholding information, etc)
Levels of resistance
- personal (lack of adequate engagement with the recipients of change)
- organisational (this is the product of personal resistance)
Some causes of resistance include:
- misunderstanding (lack of clarity of what the change is going to do to change recipients; need to have the uncertainties and questions regarding the change adequately answered; need communications with complete information, etc)
- there is a wide variety of interpretation of what the change means (differing assessments situation, etc)
- a preference for the status quo (resistance becomes a defence mechanism to protect what you have; they defend the status quo, if they feel their security, status, etc are under threat)
- lack of buy-in, ownership, co-creation, co-designing, etc by change recipients (it is not their change initiative)
- top-down directives on change (this can result in change recipients rubber-stamping the plan or overtly or covertly opposing the plan)
- personal reasons (self-interest, low tolerance for change, etc)
- threatens established institutions within the organisation (differing views on the advantages and disadvantages of the change; the change can be perceived as not acting in the best interests of the organisation, ie the need to protect the organisation)
NB Well-coordinated resistance can prove fatal to any organisational change initiative.
Summary
"...it must be recognised that the process of change management consists of getting change recipients to accept introduced changes and that resistance is an inevitable part of this process and must be constructively managed if it cannot be pre-empted. If management does not anticipate, understand, accept and make an effort to work with resistance, it can undermine even the most well-intentioned and well-conceived change efforts......change managers should be encouragedin carry to develop the appropriate competencies to positively engage with resistors and resolve it in a constructive manner..."
Raymond Ayivor, 2012
Furthermore,
"... The individual or psychological aspects of the process must be integrated into any change strategy. At no point should the compliance of change recipients be taken for granted.....Change usually involves an individual's psyche, so there are no concrete textbook answers and solutions to the problem. Since each individual is different, their perceptions and reasons..... are different..."
Raymond Ayivor, 2012
"...there is a strong shift towards viewing resistance to change as a factor to be managed or resolved, not resisted or overcome..."
Raymond Ayivor, 2012