Understanding and Coping with Change Christophe Engleton Organizational Behavior BUS610 Instructor Karen Ivy 09/17/12

In my paper I will be discussing the topic of how organizations react to change and a particular situation when change occurred in an organization and an employee resisted. I will also be supporting my points with quotes to prove my points. Self-Interest Change is a hectic but integral part of every organizations growth to advance in their industry and also to remain in business. It is management's function to enforce change however they can within the organization while maintaining a comfortable work environment. As stated before organizations change so as to create advancement, as stated in our text, “ Organizational hierarchies with greater numbers of levels (vertical) and lower spans of control (horizontal) offer the best possibility of receiving a promotion. More openings are likely to occur, and less competition from members of the same department will be present. In essence, a mechanistic organizational hierarchy creates increased perceptions that a person may obtain a promotion”(Baack, 2012). The previous article states that creating a organizational hierarchy allows employees to move into new positions. This will then change the staff in organizations as new employees are hired to fill vacancies. Current employees would not accept new employees that are hired due to self interest. They sometimes feel that a position could have been given to them, instead of a newly hired employee. Lack Of Understanding Also if employees don't understand what change has occurred, they will not be supportive of the new changes. An example from our Ashford University EBSCOHost library states the resistance of engineers in the company Philips, “Why couldn't either of those seasoned professional managers deal with the changes in the competitive environment? They understood the problems, articulated the plans, and undertook the initiatives that we associate with change leadership. Yet each failed in his attempt to redirect the company in time because widespread employee support was missing. In fact, personal compacts in place at the time actually blocked change because there was little alignment between senior managers' statements and the practice and attitude of lower-level managers and their subordinates”(Strebel, 1996). The above article stated that lower level employees resisted due to the fact that they did not understand the changes taking place within Philips thus they were given enough information like upper management were given. So Philips lost a lot of revenue. Lack Of Trust In Management Another reason employees would resist change would be due to a lack in trust in management's ability to run the organization. Employees could have seen management fail several times to improve their work environment and feel safer if they are left to do their job on their own. Some employees who choose to work independently such as in remote sites could relate to this issue. They feel that working on their own without constant supervision allows them to get their job done more efficiently. When they are constantly supervised it interrupts their productivity. Differing Assessments Of The Need For Change Employees may also have different views on how change must be implemented within the organization. This occurs a lot in the technology industry when there are multiple types of software or hardware that can be used to improve an organization. Some computer techs may argue that open-source server software is the way to go because it is cheap and scalable and some techs will argue that it is better to stick with big name software such as Microsoft Windows Server or IBM so as to get better technical support when less tech savy users have issues that needs to be resolved in a timely manner. Low Tolerance For Change Finally, older employees