Change - the human factors

See here for a list of additional extracts from some of the largest studies carried out over the last 4 decades from around the world. These studies have been specifically constructed to look at 'Change Program Failure Rates' and the benefits of leading 'Change' with a deeper level of understanding.

Individuals go through a reaction process when they are personally confronted with major organisational change (Jacobs, 1995; Kyle, 1993). 


According to Scott and Jaffe (1988) this process consists of four phases: initial denial, resistance, gradual exploration, and eventual commitment. 

 
Unconscious processes arise as individuals respond to the threats of change (Halton, 1994; O’Connor, 1993). 

Individuals unconsciously use well-developed and habitual defence mechanisms to protect  themselves from change and from the feelings of anxiety change causes (Oldham and Kleiner, 1990; de Board, 1978). 


These defences can sometimes obstruct and hinder an individual from adapting to change (Halton, 1994).

 
Resistance is a natural part of the change process and is to be expected (Coghlan, 1993; Steinburg, 1992; Zaltman and Duncan, 1977). 


Resistance occurs because change involves going from the known to the unknown (Coghlan, 1993; Steinburg, 1992; Myers and Robbins, 1991; Nadler, 1981). 


Typically, individuals seek a comfortable level of arousal and stimulation and try to maintain that state (Nadler, 1981; Zaltman and Duncan, 1977). 



Individuals differ in terms of their ability and willingness to adapt to organisational change (Darling, 1993). This is because individuals experience change in  different ways (Carnall, 1986).

 
Some people tend to move through the change process rather quickly, while others may become stuck or experience multiple transitions (Scott and Jaffe, 1988).


The failure of many large-scale corporate change programs can be traced directly to employee resistance (Maurer, 1997; Spiker and Lesser, 1995; Regar et al., 1994;  Martin, 1975). 

 
A longitudinal study conducted by Waldersee and Griffiths (1997) of 500 large Australian organisations during 1993 and 1996 revealed that employee resistance was the most frequently cited implementation problem encountered by management when introducing change. 


Over half the organisations surveyed experienced employee resistance. These findings raise questions about how effectively the resistance phase is managed when implementing change.
 
Managing employee resistance is a major challenge for the initiators of change, and according to O’Connor (1993) outweighs any other aspect of the change process.

The Dux Method© helps your leadership team understand and address the ‘Unconscious processes in response to the threat of change’… the ‘well-developed habitual defence mechanisms which obstruct and hinder change’… what constitutes a ‘comfortable level of arousal and stimulus’ in work conditions which have to link to
organizational outcome requirements… the ‘speed of change’ relative to different defence mechanisms… & the systemic approach which continues to witness ‘large-scale corporate change program failures’.