Change and Resistance to Change

Introduction
Planned organisational change through unfreeze, move and refreeze is achievable where environment is right through sound pre-planning, aligning human resources practices with change objectives, there is commitment from top management, communication is clear, incremental approach to implementation is used and progress is monitored. Although resistance will come, change agents should remain focused, build credible team and showcase short term wins to promote and stabilised the desired change.

Change is not new because it is a way of life for human beings and organisations in search of growth or improvement. For the purpose of this writing I will focus on change in organisations. Available literature suggests that about 90 per cent of organisations around the world have undergone change of one form or another in recent years. Most strategic change initiatives aim to improve organisational efficiency and performance (McGreevy 2009). But, Beer and Nohria (2000) have pointed out in their literature that change is rarely successful. They argue that despite pocket of successes, change such as installing new technology, downsizing, restructuring or trying to change corporate culture have had low success rate. They stated that about 70% of all change initiatives fail.

Successful change
My personal experience with change in installing new technology tends to differ with this view. Most of the large software infrastructure change initiatives in MTN Nigeria communications limited I was part of recorded significant success though not 100%. Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) CEO (Mr. S. Anan) led a successful transition and organisational culture change in 1997 after acquisition by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Corporation of Japan. The transition process was smooth as various phased out strategies were adopted during the period to strengthen labour management dialogue and workplace co-operation. Employee mind-set and behaviour patterns were changed by aligning human resources practices to support desired changes. Other measures taken include; re-design performance appraisal, reward system, grievance procedure, communication, increase training opportunities, team building. These steps helped to promote and stabilised the desired culture at SLT (International Labour Organisation 2012). This is similar to what the chairman and CEO (Myron E Ullman) did at JC Penney by using quick wins to incrementally achieve successful culture change in the organisations in the face of challenges (Purkayastha 2007).

Unsuccessful change
Despite the successes in implementing change in the above organisations the story is different at Philippine telecommunication industry. Series of policy reforms aimed at deregulating the industry was delayed and strongly opposed by Philippine Long Distance and Telephone Company (PLDT) who had enjoy monopoly over six decades (Rafaelita 2000).

Resistance to change
The case of PLDT is one of organisational resistance because of threat to power and influence (Mullins 2010: 757). PLDT used legal battle to opposed deregulation of Philippine telecommunication industry to stop entrants of new players. The company realised that successful implementation of deregulation will reduce their monopolistic powers hence opposed reform policies (Rafaelita 2000).

At JC Penney Ullman met resistance from store managers and veterans who did not approve the changes and felt they should not be forced to call their managers by their first names. They believe decorating cubicles and relaxing dressing do not constitute culture change. This can be linked to individual resistance to change due to habit (Mullins 2010: 756). In SLT, some managers who continued to adopt anti-union stance due to adversarial relations with unions in the past, showed little or no interest in the workplace co-operation programmes and have even opted out of workshops organised by the CEO to foster change (International Labour Organisation 2012).

Conclusion
The evidences above suggest that planned organisational change through unfreeze, move and refreeze is achievable where environment is right through sound pre-planning, human resources practices align with change objectives, there is commitment from top management, communication is clear, incremental approach to change implementation is used and progress is monitored. Although resistance will come, change agents should remain focused, build credible team and showcase short term wins to promote and stabilised the desired change.
List of reference
McGreevy, M. (2009) Why change works sometimes: Industrial and Commercial Training [online] 41(6), 305 – 313. Available from Emerald journals database [14 December 2012]

International Labour Organisation (2012) Changing an Organizational Culture through Social Dialogue: Experience at Sri Lanka Telecom [online] available from [15 December 2012]

Purkayastha, D. (2007) Remaking JC Penney’s Organisational Culture: M005LON Unit 7 Leading in a changing world [online] available from Coventry University London Campus [15 December 2012]
Mullins, L. J. (2010) Management and Organisational Behaviour. 9th edn. Harlow: Pearson Education

Rafaelita, A. M. Aldaba (2000) Opening up the Philippine Telecommunications Industry for competition: Case study World Bank Institute [online] available from
[15 December 2012]