Let us assume that the company’s staff are loyal and competent (i.e. they are not troublemakers and possess the necessary skills). How, then, will resistance manifest itself at different levels of the hierarchy?
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Top managers.
Here, everything depends on their ‘level of engagement’. Senior managers are strategists, primarily focused on achieving business objectives. Most often, their resistance stems from a lack of understanding of how the proposed changes will help achieve the set goals. This manifests itself, first and foremost, in a lack of support for the specialists tasked with implementing the changes.
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Line managers.
They usually offer the greatest resistance to any changes, as they find it difficult to let go of their established ways of thinking and are also afraid of losing control of the situation and being given additional responsibilities. Although the ineffectiveness of old working methods is often obvious, new ones are perceived as an additional ‘headache’. Instead of adapting, line managers cling desperately to their familiar methods.
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Frontline staff.
Frontline staff resist for more practical reasons – most often due to a lack of awareness: people simply do not know what is happening in the company, or do not understand how they will benefit from it.
In change management, five stages of the transformation process are identified:
Rejection.
This follows immediately after the announcement of changes. “Why change anything, everything is fine as it is” – this is what everyone always says when they first hear about changes, when the motives, goals and consequences of the changes are unclear.
Resistance.
“It was better before”, “In our previous system, for example”, and so on. Specialists fear that the changes will take them out of their comfort zone and that they will have to make some effort. They try by every means to prove that things were better before. It is not uncommon for resistance at this stage to take on hysterical forms. This is a period of unproductive arguments.
Analysis.
It is at this stage that projects fail! As resistance subsides, specialists fall into a ‘state of paralysis’ – a form of depression where a person does nothing. At this stage, the inevitability of change is realised. Specialists analyse the possible consequences and work out what is required of them. At this stage, they need a steady flow of information, clear guidance on what to do and what not to do, and who is responsible for what. If this is lacking, the project grinds to a halt.
Engagement.
Once specialists have realised and accepted the inevitability of change, they begin to look for the benefits of the new situation for themselves. The benefits and opportunities that open up foster optimism about the changes, and specialists become advocates of the transformation.
Acceptance.
New rules, tools and procedures become the norm; specialists realise that they open up new opportunities and enable tasks to be tackled more effectively.