Organizational Change Management Process

A total of 99 employees have directly or indirectly been affected by organisational changes in the last two years and it seems as if all changes which are made or tried to be made by management are counter reacted by employee resistance leading to many other organisational problems. The increase in competitors within the marketplace together with the company’s willingness to attain certified systems standards on Health and Safety, Food Safety and Quality certified has meant that our organisation is currently going through a stage of change.

Aim and Objective

The aim of this research is to evaluate how resistance to change affects the organisational change management process at the Saccone and Speed Ltd Group of Companies in order improve the

5) defined change as ‘to make or become different’; in business this term relates to the developments which are been undertaken by an organisation.

Organisational change can consist of changes with product/services, structure, personnel or even equipment. Today, change is imperative despite everything if organisations want to endure in today’s marketplace, it is important for organisations to have the ability and capability to change; whilst many see change as an opportunity whilst others see change as a threat and resistance may begin to form. This is why it is imperative for organisations to plan and implement the change as best as possible and good management is essential. Megginson (1963, p. 4) quoted that according to Darwin’s Origin of Species, “it is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself”. Even though changes ultimately are made for favourable reasons in order to compete against this ever changing world, employees tend to resist the change strategies (Boohene & Williams,

However according to Lawrence (1979) resistance unlike many believe, could be a signal that something is wrong; and not a phenomenon that is feared of been overcome. Likewise Graetz el al .also sees resistance as positive by saying “Recent literature has emphasized the potentially positive or at least benign nature of resistance. Resistance to change can serve positive purposes such as forcing change initiators to reconsider hasty plans or marshalling employees support for a new vision. Val and Fuentes (2003) highlight that resistance is equivalent to inertia, in that it aims to kept the status quo and is therefore not generally a negative notion since change itself may not be inherently beneficial for the organisation” (Graetz, et al., 2006, p. 280). Similarly, Pryor, et al. (2008) emphasises that resistance is a normal reaction to change and should be expected, a perspective which could be comparable to that of Kohles, et al. (1995) cited by by Pryor, et al. (2008, p. 12) this affirms that “transformational organizations recognize normal resistance and plan strategies to enable people to work through their