This document discusses barriers to organizational change and how to overcome them. It identifies five common barriers: (1) threat to job security, (2) fear of the unknown, (3) varying workforce demographics, (4) existing workplace culture, and (5) past unsuccessful change efforts. To address these barriers, the document recommends that managers openly communicate with employees, listen to their concerns, explain how the change will benefit the organization and not negatively impact jobs, gradually shift the culture, and acknowledge and learn from past failures. The overarching theme is that resistance can be reduced through open communication between managers and employees.

1. Barriers to Organizational Change and How to Overcome Them
Zachary Barnette
November 27, 2016
MGMT 615: Intercultural Communications and Leadership
University of Maryland University College

2. Organizations are consistently faced with the need to change. This need for change can
be due to environmental influences, changes in consumer demands, changes in organizational
culture, or needed changes in organizational structure. Whatever the cause may be, organizations
are often faced with a need to make changes. Typically, organizations fail at being able to bring
about change successfully. This failure occurs because of the numerous barriers to organizational
change. This paper will look to describe five common barriers to organizational change, outline
steps that can be taken by managers to overcome each of these barriers, and discuss general
leadership tactics that can lead to managers successfully instituting change in their organizations.
There are many different forms that resistance can take to disrupt organizational change.
Per Marit Christensen (2014), “Some of the drivers of responses to change could be economic
fear, uncertainty, inconvenience, threats to interpersonal relationships, the impact on internal
processes and systems, and the impact on social functions” (p. 360). Resistance to change can be
attributed to both individual and organizational sources. The individual sources of resistance to
change could be threat to job security, fear of the unknown, and varying workforce
demographics. The organizational sources of resistance to change could be workplace culture
and previous unsuccessful efforts at change.
One individual source of change resistance involves the threat to job security. Individuals
often take a job looking for a source of promised job security. When this sense of security is
threatened by organizational change, individuals will become resistance to the change and work
to prevent it from happening. Per Marija Merdzanovska (2016), “The people with big needs for
security present bigger change resistance because their feeling of security is threatened” (p.396).
As a manager, the best way to deal with employees’ fear of job loss is to reassure them that the
change will not affect their job. If the change will cause the loss of employee jobs, then it is best

3. to be open with them from the beginning and let them know that there will be a need for
downsizing. “One of the major aims of communication during change is to reduce the experience
of job insecurity among employees” (Christensen, 2014, p. 364). A manager needs to let his or
her employees know that he or she is aware of their fears and will do his or her best to be
available to answer any questions.
Another individual source of resistance to organizational change comes with fear of the
unknown. Many employees get comfortable in their positions and with how things are operating.
They will enjoy a routine in their work and will not be looking for change to occur. If employees
are not prepared for the unknown that organizational change can bring, then they will not be
willing to accept that change could be the best thing for the organization or themselves.
“Employees mostly resist change when they are insecure about its consequences.” (Christensen,
2014, p. 360). Managers must be there to reassure employees of the unknowns that the
organization may face when they decide to enact change. Per John Bruckman (2008), “If senior
management approaches the group or organization from the members’ perspectives and
understands what they have to lose, they will be able to design interventions that don’t
immediately trigger individual defense mechanisms.” (p.215). Managers need to make
themselves open for questions and discuss any fears with the employees. Josefin Hagman and
Gabriella Glimskog (2015) state, “In order for people to feel committed to the change, an aligned
and clear vision needs to be communicated” (p. 7). If managers can reduce the number of
unknowns that employees are concerned about, then they will be able to create a workforce that
is more receptive to change.
The demographic structure of the organization is also an individual source of resistance
to change. Organizations are filled with a diverse group of employees. This diverse workforce

4. will be filled with people of different ages, genders, religions, and beliefs. Some of these
individuals will be more receptive to change than others. “Researchers show that the acceptance
of change depends on the composition of employees” (Merdzanovska, 2016, p.396). As a
manager, it is important to understand how the organizational change will affect the various
demographic groups within the organization. “Employees have diverse capabilities and readiness
when it comes to adjusting to a change initiative” (Hagman and Glimskog, 2015, p. 5). Managers
must be willing to understand employee’s concerns based on their demographics. Individual
demographics will be resistant to changes that affects them negatively. An example could be
women being resistant to changes that will negatively impact the opportunity for equal pay and
promotion. Jeffrey Ford, Laurie Ford, and Angelo D’Amelio (2008) state, “Research on
organizational justice has shown that when people see themselves as being or having been
treated fairly, they develop attitudes and behaviors associated with successful change” (p.365).
An organization cannot delay change just to make sure all demographics are happy with the
change. However, it is important to show that you understand the concerns of each group.
In addition to the individual sources of resistance towards organizational change, there
are also organizational sources of resistance. One such organizational source is the workplace
culture. When the working group has built strong social norms and values over time, it becomes
hard to force change that will counter the norms of the working group. “The implementation of
changes undermines the expectations and lead to resistance” (Merdzanovska, 2016, p.398). This
makes it important to understand the organizational values and norms before implementing
change. “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, and D'Amelio, 2008. p.363). Though the values of

5. the organization can be changed over time, it must be a conscious effort of the organization to
want to make those changes. As a manager or leader, it is important to show why there is a need
for change and how, even though it may challenge current norms, it will be beneficial for the
organization. Managers must take note of what drives their workforce and what the values of the
group are. “Ignorance of or purposely ignoring the natural order of a group may doom a change
strategy to failure” (Bruckman, 2008, p.215). If management is looking to create a new set of
values for the organization, then it is important that the change be done gradually and not in one
massive change that will disrupt the organization and lead to failure.
Another organizational source of resistance to change comes when the organization has
already had one or more unsuccessful attempts at change. “The groups in organizations which
were unsuccessful in implementing the changes in the past, can be suspicious and reject the
attempts for implementing the changes in the systems” (Merdzanovska, 2016, p.398). If an
organization attempted to make changes in the past and those attempts failed, then the employees
will be less likely to believe that the newly proposed change would succeed. “Most employees
quickly ‘burn out’ on changes that are announced on a regular basis, but are not consistently
reinforced over a period of time” (Bruckman 2008, p. 216). Employees, who do not believe in
the ability of the organization to enact change, will not invest themselves fully into helping make
change happen for fear of more failure. “Recipient acceptance of and participation in the initial
stages of a change has been shown to depend on recipients’ assessment of its instrumentality—
that is, the likelihood the change will lead to personal and organizational benefits” (Ford, Ford,
and D'Amelio, 2008. p.366). Managers need to acknowledge past failures and learn about what
went wrong in those instances. Managers need to be able to assure employees that newly enacted

6. change will not be like previous attempts and continually update employees of how effective the
change is.
The solutions for handling the above-mentioned sources of resistance have an
overarching theme. The theme is that resistance to organizational change can be dealt with
through the tactic of open communication between managers and their employees.
Communicating with employees and listening to their concerns will make them more receptive
to change. Communication can take place through one-on–one discussions, group meetings, or
organizational presentations. Per Christensen (2014), “One approach to a successful change
process could be through the establishment of good communication and information strategies
within the organization, while implementing change” (p. 359). Open communication is the best
approach towards creating understanding within the organization, acceptance by employees, and
progress in enacting change.
Another tactic managers can use is to include the employees in the decision-making
process. Employees develop more confidence and belief in organizational change if they are
included in the decision-making process. Christensen (2014) states that an “effective strategy to
avoid pitfalls and hindrances is to involve employees in planning and implementing the change
process with regard to information and ideas” and that it “could increase the likelihood that the
employees’ interests and worries are accounted for and thereby increase the motivation to
implement the change process” (p. 360). Employees are also more likely to know what needs to
happen from the ground level for effective change within the organization. Therefore, consulting
with employees about whether change will be successful can help lead to adjustments in plans
that will ultimately lead to organizational success.

7. Based on the discussion above, it can be seen there are multiple sources of resistance to
organizational change. Resistance can come in the form of individual sources and organizational
sources. Each resistance to change requires a response by managers to address the resistance and
to make employees understand the need for organizational change. The overall strategy for how
managers should respond to resistance was shown to be that they need to communicate with their
employees and that this open communication can lead to employees being less resistant to
change. In addition to the discussion of open communication, involving employees in the process
of planning change was outlined to show it can make organizational change easier.

8. References
Bruckman, J. C. (2008). Overcoming Resistance to Change: Causal Factors, Interventions, and
Critical Values. Psychologist-Manager Journal (Taylor & Francis Ltd), 11(2), 211-219.
Christensen, M. (2014). Communication as a Strategic Tool in Change Processes. International
Journal of Business Communication, 51(4), 359-385. doi:10.1177/2329488414525442.
Ford, J. D., Ford, L. W., & D'Amelio, A. (2008). Resistance to Change: The Rest of the Story.
Academy of Management Review, 33(2), 362-377.
Hagman, J., & Glimskog, G. (2015). Scrutinizing the Barriers to Organizational Change:
Analyzing the Soft Barriers to Change from an External Change Agent Perspective.
Merdzanovska, M. (2016). Dealing with Change Ressistance. Economic Development /
Ekonomiski Razvoj, 18(1/2), 393-406.