Re: Resistance to Change LO653

Mike Gurstein (mikeg@nywork2.undp.org)
Mon, 3 Apr 1995 08:28:33 -0400 (EDT)

Replying to LO643 --

One of the elements that seems to be left out of this discussion is the
role of structure as impeding or promoting change.

A lot of my work has been in introducing new information technology
systems into organizations. At the individual or job level there is
often immediate resistance/reluctance to change. The result is that the
systems may be introduced but simply become enhancers of existing
practices--wordprocessors as"power typewriters". It takes a lot of
training/cajoling/facilitating and so on to extend that vision and the
most likely outcome is that it may take a generation to really take hold.

The alternative approach is where the system becomes the basis for the
re-structuration of the organization and of the work. The jobs don't just
change--they are new jobs, the work is new work (with bridges of course to
the old) and so on.

Few organizations (at least those not under threat) have the will or the
bloodymindedness for this type of change it seems.

I'm not advocating either approach but simply pointing out that much of
what is understood as "resistance to change" is simply a path of least
effort which is supported by on-going organizational structures. If
those structures are for whatever reason themselves changed or removed
then much of the "resistance to change" falls away as well.

Mike Gurstein
From: Mike Gurstein <mikeg@nywork2.undp.org>