Managing Change

4‐3Dealing with Resistance to Change

Resistance to Change Is Healthy

Whenever an organization or workplace decides to implement Organization Development, having discussions and new plans will usually see some negative reactions. People will tend to ask if there's really any point to it all and will say that they're too busy and don't have the energy to spend on these projects. How to face this kind of resistance to change is also a very important point to consider for those who will be pushing for Organization Development.

First, we need to understand that resistance to change (expression of negative reactions toward new undertakings) is natural and is a sign of good health for an organization.

In the prologue, Sakigake was assigned as the new store manager. When he started implementing new things like the morning meetings, no one expressed their dissatisfaction and complained. In that kind of situation, dissatisfaction and negative reactions were brewing within the employees, but they chose not to express these opinions so no discussion can happen (they are at the polite discussion level where there's only one‐sided communication or where people do not express their true opinions even when they show their reactions).

As discussed in Part 1, people give their own meanings to various happenings around them. Without a discussion, the negative meanings employees attach to new undertakings ...