Why People are So Resistant to Organisational Culture Change
Organizational culture is deeply imbedded in older organisations. The employees are comfortable with the way things are and it takes a lot for people to accept change of any sort let alone organisational culture change. If a process is working reasonably well, why change it? The term organisational culture change itself sounds so ominous that employees start imagining the worst. Will their job be there tomorrow?
Changing organizational culture is not easy. It may be necessary but expect a long road ahead if your organisation needs to make a major organisational culture change because of changing market conditions or a major loss. Organisational culture doesn’t evolve overnight, it’s going to take some time to change attitudes and behaviors.
When people in your organization don’t know what’s going on or how the organisational culture change you are planning will affect them, you can expect resistance to the changes. Realize that your employees need to know what’s going o expected of them and how will they accomplish their new goals. Keeping everyone in the organisation apprised of what’s going on will go a long way towards lessening any resistance and gaining your employees cooperation and trust. A show of support from senior management also helps greatly and not just lip service, the managers have to be completely on board with the changes.