When Leaders Resist Change

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Today’s leadership is confounded by a plethora of problems that need to be addressed if genuine organizational change is to be affected. One major obstacle to organizational change is the constant resistance to change that has become a daily occurrence and an enigma to all sorts of development. Most often, leaders, management, and lower level employees may resist organizational changes simply because of fear of being exposed to something new that they deem unnecessary or infringing on their previous working styles. A new environment that comes with alterations may not be welcoming to some individuals in a workplace.

Any leader whose goal is to effect new changes to an organization will need to be armed with some valuable philosophical resources to overcome perceptions harbored by some employees in the workplace. Since leadership is a personal characteristic that calls for persuasion and having an embodiment of vision and reflection, in the pre-launch phase, undergoing thorough self-examination could be an added advantage (Burke, 2011). Because undergoing organizational change can be messy and at times chaotic, having self-control, understanding employee behavioral changes, and inculcating tolerance could be vital tools for the pre-launch execution phase.

In the pre-launch phase, understanding the external environment of the organization is a means to improving relations with all people that have dealings with the organization. Coming up with priorities to institute change and providing vision and direction is a means to laying a platform for catapulting to the next phase. Effective leaders who have the trust of their followers have the best chance of succeeding when equipped with appealing behaviors and theoretically reflective foundations that serve as beacons for navigational purposes.

In the launch phase, the best equipment to stretch out immaculately in the launch pad will be effective communication tools. After all is ready for launching, there will be a need for further implementation and inspection of all available facilities to avoid last minute malfunction. In this phase, it should be noted that there will be extreme anxiety or excitement that can only be overcome with the application of scrupulous decision making. What comes after the launch phase will be the post-launch phase that will require collective perseverance and consistent scrutiny.

References

Burke, W. W. (2011). Organization change: Theory and practice (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.