Essential Tools to Deal with Resistance to Change

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Change is a fact of organizational life that develops in response to interpersonal, cultural, environmental, and other external factors that fluctuate and change for various reasons. Employees can display varying levels of resistance ranging from aggressive resistance to apathy (Spector, 2012). Resistance is a concern because it undermines the effectiveness of the change implementation process, but there are tools available which leaders can utilize to reduce this possibility. The essential tools will be discussed in this paper along with the reasons for utilizing them in a change implementation process.
Adaptive Leadership
Overcoming resistance is not just about changing the employee’s perception or behavior regarding the change. It is also about the leader’s behavior and the challenge as a change leader or change agent. An essential tool that leaders should utilize is to understand the purpose of the proposed change, the process which will be utilized to implement the change, and the intended outcomes of the change (Stanleigh, 2013). Leaders should be completely involved in the process and determine the real reasons behind the resistance. By doing so, they can modify their own behaviors to be supportive of others and help them to also adapt.
New managers often fall victim to the idea that they are not change agents. They are concerned with hierarchy and their authority as the boss which they use to make sure change happens. This can undermine employees’ commitment to the process. Effective managers make sure their teams can succeed. They understand the status quo and what it takes to affect change, and they adapt accordingly (Hall, 2007).
Leadership style can play an important role in the change implementation proc...

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Spector, B. (2012). Implementing organizational change: Theory and practice (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
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