[Employees resisting change within the workplace]

by

Acknowledgement

Iwould take this opening to express gratitude my study supervisor, family and associates for their support and guidance without which this research would not have been possible.

DECLARATION

I, [type your full first titles and last name here], declare that the contents of this dissertation/thesis comprise my own unaided work, and that the dissertation/thesis has not before been submitted for learned written test in the direction of any qualification. Furthermore, it comprises my own opinions and not necessarily those of the University.

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Abstract

This paper is based on the topic of employees' resistance to change within an organisation. Resistance to change is one of those institutional arrangements and approaches that disrupts, undermine and impede change initiatives. Organizational change strategies can resist in different ways, ranging from a collective failure, wildcat strikes and return to the more sophisticated options, as foot-dragging, the ambivalence and cynicism. Although much of the literature focuses on the lower level of resistance to change of personnel management programs, the upper echelon positions May resist change too. The introduction chapter provides the purpose and objectives of carrying out this research. In this paper, the researcher has basically adopted a qualitative research approach. The literature review discusses the causes of resisting change and their influenes on employee behaviour. The third chapter presents the qualitative methodology mentioning the data collection methods. As this is a qualitative study, secondary data were collectd through different databases. The findings reveal that there are various factors that play an important role in forcing employees to resist any change. One of the concept is of social justice in workplace that is being highlighted in the fourth chapter. The last chapter provides valuable recommendations for addressing the issues through proper training and incentives to the employees.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION7

Background7

Problem Statement10

Purpose of the Study10

Objectives of the Study11

Significance of the Study11

Research Question12

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW12

Conceptual Overview12

Levels of Analysis17

The topics of Organisational Change20

The environment of Organisational Change22

Lewin's idea of Organisational Change23

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY27

Research Method27

Research Question29

Literature Search Criteria29

Search Technique30

Key words Used30

Theoretical Framework30

CHAPTER 4: OUTCOME AND DISCUSSION31

Resentment-based workplace resistance31

Organisational justice applied to organisational change33

Recent improvement in fairness theory35

Managerial responsibility during change39

Practical implications for organisational change41

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION45

Underlying Reasons for opposition to Change46

Models of Reactions to Change46

Suggestions for Addressing Resistance to Change47

Define a Communication Strategy47

Communicate in a Timely, Clear, and Consistent Fashion48

Encourage Employee Input and Discuss Employee Reactions48

Provide Training and Support for the Change49

REFERENCES50

Employees resisting change within the workplace

Chapter 1: Introduction

Background

Resistance to change has long been recognised as a critically significant component that can leverage the achievement or else of an organisational change effort. Research undertaken by Maurer (1996) demonstrated that one-half to two-thirds of all foremost business change efforts fail and opposition is the “little-recognised but critically significant supplier” to that malfunction (p. 56). Research undertaken in the UK by Oakland and Sohal (1987) also discovered that opposition was one of the foremost impediments to the use of output administration techniques by British output supervisors. Similarly, Eisen et al. (1992) and Terziovski et ...