Understanding and Coping with Change

Understanding and Coping with Change Change is something that not everyone can handle. Some people will embrace change by accepting the reason for change and others will not embrace change due to the effect it may have on their daily routine. The issue with change is that it disrupts the thought pattern and work habits of those prior to the change. Three factors were found to influence resistance to change: self-efficacy, fear, and working within comfort zones (Mills, 1999). There are internal and external factors that contribute to an individual’s resistance to change. The purpose of this paper is to describe a situation where resistance to change was a factor while also using Kotters theory for change to provide a planned approach for overcoming that resistance. This theory will help explain what will be done and how to know if it worked.
Internal and External Factors Contributing to Resistance to Change There are many people who do not like change due to being with an organization for so long and being used to doing things a certain way only to come to work and find out that things are changing. Do to some upper management issues there was a change in the CEO of the company and there was one employee who was not happy with this change. The employee had worked with the company for over ten years and had a low tolerance for change. The new CEO came in and changed many things such as going from paper files to digital files. The new CEO also changed the organizational chain and many of the procedures. There were many external factors that led to change. Technology was one of the external factors that led to the change. For the previous ten years the company was doing all customer accounts by paper and with the increase in technology it only made sense to start going digital. Another external factor that led to a change was the market in which the company was. The previous CEO was not attempting to beat out the current competition but instead was relying on the product itself. When the new CEO came in he made it a point to use our product as an advantage to improve the customer base. There were also internal factors that contributed to the change such as a need to change the management that was in place. The previous management was not improving the performance of the staff but was just continuing to put up average production so new management was needed to improve the production of the staff. Another internal factor was the deficiency in the existing organization. The communication was a huge problem between different departments leading to a lack of uniformity in policy decisions. One of the biggest internal factors that led to the change was the nature of the work force. The older generation of workers like the employee who was not happy with the change was loyal to their employers while the younger generation are only loyal to themselves. This caused for an increase in turnover and different work ethics.
Example of Resistance to Change Based Upon Low Tolerance for Change The resistance to change was based upon the low tolerance for change. The employee was from the older generation of workers who were used to a standard way of working which had no technology and was only to follow procedures. With the increase in technology change was needed in every organization to remain competitive and improve the production of business. The new generation of workers grew up using the technology while the older generation was not familiar with technology and knew that the lack of familiarity with the technology would be used against them when the new generation came in to work. The communication between the organizations would be more relied on and technology would be the main tool to improve the technology. The employees low tolerance for change made him unhappy and frustrated with the change.
Cause of Resistance The cause of resistance was clearly coming from