Organizational Change Barriers

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Barriers to Organizational Change
John F. Kennedy once said, “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future;” this is undeniably true in business. Organizational change entails renouncing existing methods in favor of something new. Change is extremely important for any business, and is never complete as it’s ongoing. Business owners should always seek improvement through change, whether it’s a change in culture or changing to keep up with industry trends. With change, there are certainly challenges; in this paper I will identify five barriers faced by organizations when attempting to change. The five barriers I will discuss in this paper are fear, employee attitude, timing, management behavior, and organization culture.
Fear
When trying something new in business, there is always the possibility of failure. The loss of time, money, and possibly one’s reputation, all contribute to fear of change within an organization. Employees facing changes feel a great deal of fear, uncertainty, and insecurity, approximately 34 percent believing that change will lead to job loss (Botezat, 2012). According to Fredrickson (2009), “Fear is a visceral (instinctual) negative emotion that is experienced through states and patterns of sympathetic nervous system arousal” (Kilburg &
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“Organizational culture is a system of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs, which governs how people behave in organizations” (Rick, 2016). The late, business management expert, Peter Drucker, once stated “culture eats strategy for breakfast” (Hyken, 2015). Dysfunction in an organization’s culture acts as a barrier as it hinders growth and effectiveness that can accompany

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