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Unit 12: Organisational Change

8. Does management pride itself on closely monitoring changes and actions taken by Notes
competitors?
9. Is the importance of the customer and a knowledge of customer needs well accepted
by everyone in the work force?
10. Are managers and employees rewarded for taking risks, being innovative, and
looking for new solutions?
11. Is the organisation structure flexible?

12. Are communication channels open, both downward and upward?
13. Is the organisation’s hierarchy relatively flat?
14. Has the organisation successfully implemented major changes in the recent past?
15. Is employee satisfaction and trust in management high?
16. Is there a high degree of cross-boundary interactions and cooperation between units
in the organisation?
17. Are decisions made quickly, taking into account a wide variety of suggestions?

12.5 Politics of Change

Change invariably threatens the status quo. Therefore, change inherently implies political activity.
No discussion of resistance to change would be complete without a brief mention of the politics
of change. Politics suggests that the impetus for change is more likely to come from individuals
who are new to the organisation or from the main power structure (they are likely to gain from
change). Those managers who have achieved a senior position in the hierarchy are often major
impediments to change (they are likely to lose their position/power from change). Change
itself, is a very real threat to their status and position: Power struggles within the organisation
will determine, to a large degree, the speed and quantity of change.

Notes Sixteen Things often Resisted by Employees
Below is a list of changes that are often resisted. The mere fact that they are resisted does
not mean that managers should avoid them, but forewarned is forearmed. It should also
be understood that these changes generally are resisted but, consistent with the concept of
individual differences, by no means are they always resisted.

Changes Frequently Resisted are Changes That:
1. Reduce the skill required in jobs
2. Reduce status of people

3. Disrupt established social relationships
4. Threaten psychological or job security
5. Are not fully understood
6. Violate norms of Behaviour
7. Affect accepted ways of doing things

8. Are forced upon people
Contd...

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