Organizational Change and Stress Management
MGT 501
MOD 5 Case
The Organization System- Organizational Change and Stress Management
Resistance to Change
In the article by Ford, Ford, and D’Amelio we are asked to look at change agents, resistance to change, and how resistance can be used as a positive resource. Change agents are described as an event, organisation, material thing or, more usually, a person that acts as a catalyst for change. In business terms, a change agent is a person chosen to bring about organizational change. (Wikianswers) Change agents are portrayed as undeserving victims of the irrational and dysfunctional responses of change recipients. Change agents are not portrayed as participants who enact their environments or construct their realities but, rather as people who deal with and address the objectively real resistance of change recipients. (Ford, Ford, D’Amelio) Resistance is portrayed as an unwarranted and detrimental response residing completely “over there, in them” (the change recipients) and arising spontaneously as a reaction to change, independent of the interactions and relationships between the change agents and recipients.( Ford, Ford, D’Amelio) Change is a situation that interrupts normal patterns of organization and calls for participants to enact new patterns, involving an interplay of deliberate and emergent processes that can be highly ambiguous. (Ford, Ford, D’Amelio) One thing that is critical is the quality od the relationships between change agents and change recipients. The relationship and understanding needs to be good in order for successful change. In order for a good relationship and things to move seamlessly they need to strive for a good relationship. Trust is a main key in this. Change agents contribute to recipient reactions by breaking agreements both before and during change by failing to restore the subsequent loss of trust. (Ford, Ford, D’Amelio) You do not want to have trust taken away by breaching trust knowingly or unknowingly. It is
MOD 5 Case
The Organization System- Organizational Change and Stress Management
Resistance to Change
In the article by Ford, Ford, and D’Amelio we are asked to look at change agents, resistance to change, and how resistance can be used as a positive resource. Change agents are described as an event, organisation, material thing or, more usually, a person that acts as a catalyst for change. In business terms, a change agent is a person chosen to bring about organizational change. (Wikianswers) Change agents are portrayed as undeserving victims of the irrational and dysfunctional responses of change recipients. Change agents are not portrayed as participants who enact their environments or construct their realities but, rather as people who deal with and address the objectively real resistance of change recipients. (Ford, Ford, D’Amelio) Resistance is portrayed as an unwarranted and detrimental response residing completely “over there, in them” (the change recipients) and arising spontaneously as a reaction to change, independent of the interactions and relationships between the change agents and recipients.( Ford, Ford, D’Amelio) Change is a situation that interrupts normal patterns of organization and calls for participants to enact new patterns, involving an interplay of deliberate and emergent processes that can be highly ambiguous. (Ford, Ford, D’Amelio) One thing that is critical is the quality od the relationships between change agents and change recipients. The relationship and understanding needs to be good in order for successful change. In order for a good relationship and things to move seamlessly they need to strive for a good relationship. Trust is a main key in this. Change agents contribute to recipient reactions by breaking agreements both before and during change by failing to restore the subsequent loss of trust. (Ford, Ford, D’Amelio) You do not want to have trust taken away by breaching trust knowingly or unknowingly. It is