How personal, political, and organisational responses can lead to resistance. .
One of the greatest factors that cause resistance to change is the fear of the unknown within the employees. Whenever change is enacted there will be an initial surprise and then a period of time when the extent and outcome of the change is unknown to the employees (King, 1995). This uncertainty can cause fears that the employee will end up in a worse position than when they started. This is especially true if the employee was content with their original position, and can see no point in the change. Even if this in not the case, the disruption to routine, possibility of more work, threat to their current job satisfaction, the possibility they won't have as high a value to the company as before, and the possibility of loss of control over their jobs can easily create fear of the change within the employees, and thus give them reason to attempt to resist the change.
There are other possible causes of resistance that a manager has to consider. If the underlying culture of the company is a conservative one, then the employees may be more interested in preserving the status quo, and continuing with what is known to work. If the employees have worked to create the current state of operations, and management decides to change them, then the employees may wonder if the change is a result of their actions, and will become cynical about the fact that management is disregarding all the work they put into the structure of their workplace. Restructuring an organisation can displace managers and executives who have significant power within the company and will attempt to stop the change. Change can cause the reallocation of resources within a company. Also, in an age of downsizing companies, employees are more cautious about change and how it will affect them (Jick, 2003). These reasons for resistance to change must be acknowledged by management and steps to minimize their influence enacted.
