Your Employees Don't Like Changes? Here's Why

Knowing the 12 reasons employees resist change in the workplace is vital to all organisations' leaders. Understand why workers resist change as it will help your organisation to introduce change successfully. 

These are the 12 reasons why people resist change in the workplace:

 

1. Loss of Job

In an organisational setting, any change would include:

• streamlining, 
• cost reduction, 
• efficiency, and 
• faster turnaround times. 

All this means is that employees and managers will resist the changes that result in their roles being eliminated or reduced. From their perspective, the change will harm their position in the organisation. 

Workers who are satisfied with their job are better able to weather periods of change. Unsatisfied employees view change as just another annoyance.

 

2. Bad Communication Strategy

How any change process is communicated to employees within the organisation is a key factor in determining their reactions. If the employer can't communicate what, why, how, when, who and what success will look like or how success will be measured, resistance will happen. 

 

3. Shock and Fear of the Unknown

During times of change, some workers may feel the need to hold on to the past because it was a safer and predictable time. If what they did all these while worked well for them, they may oppose changing their behaviour out of fear that they will not perform well in the future. 

 

4. Loss of Control

Routines help workers develop a sense of control over their work environment. Being asked to change the way they work could make them feel powerless and confused. People are more likely to understand and execute changes when they think they are in control.

Employees are more receptive of change when they trust their employers.

5. Lack of Competence

Sometimes, change in organisations requires changes in skills. Some employees will feel that they will not be able to make the transition well. Hence, the only way for them to try and survive is to resist it.

Some workers resist change because they are just hesitant to try new routines, expressing an unwillingness to learn anything new. They also hinder their personal growth and development.

 

6. Bad Timing

Change must happen when no other major initiatives are going on. Seldom it is not what a leader does, but how, when and why they do it that creates resistance to change. Resistance can happen because changes are introduced in an insensitive manner or at an awkward time. 

 

7. Lack of Reward

There is a typical business saying that managers get what they reward. Organisational employees will resist change when they do not see anything in it for them in terms of rewards. Without reward, there is no motivation to support the change over the long run. 

 

8. Office Politics

Every organisation has its politics. Some employees resist change as a strategy to "show or prove" that the decision is not right. The employees may also resist by showing that the person leading the change is not up to the job. They are dedicated to seeing the change effort fail.

Some employees had a bad experience with past change, which influences their views on change in general.

9. Loss of Support System

Employees who are in their comfort zones, working with the managers they get along with, know their support system will back them up during tough times. Changing the structure may shake their confidence in their support system.

They don't want to work for a new manager or a new team because they fear that there will be no one to support them if they fail.

 

10. Past Change Experience

People's attitudes about change are somewhat determined by how they have experienced the change in the past. For instance, if you have mishandled change in the past, you'd have good reasons for resisting change in general. 

 

11. Empathy and Peer Pressure

Employees will resist change to protect the interests of a group, team friends, and co-workers. It is usual for employees to fight change to protect their co-workers because they sympathise with them. Managers too will resist change to defend their colleagues. 

 

12. Lack of trust and support

Successful organisational change does not happen in a climate of mistrust. Trust requires faith in the intentions and behaviour of others. In organisations with a high degree of trust, and each employee is treated with respect and dignity, there is less resistance to change.

These are the twelve reasons why people oppose change in the workplace.

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Source: Catherine's Career Corner

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