DEMYSTIFYING THE LEGEND OF RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

Globalization is an inevitable phenomenon in human history that's been bringing the world closer through the exchange of goods and products, information, knowledge and culture. But over the last few decades, the pace of this global integration has become much faster and dramatic because of unprecedented advancements in technology, communications, science, transport and industry. While globalization is a catalyst for and a consequence of human progress, it is also a messy process that requires adjustment and creates significant challenges and problems. This rapid pace of change can be unsettling and most societies want to control or manage it. "Nothing is permanent except change”. Many authors stress that the reason for the failure of many change initiatives can be found in resistance to change. Resistance to change introduces costs and delays into the change process that are difficult to anticipate but must be taken into consideration" (Pardo Del Val, 2003:148). Undoubtedly the resistance to change is key topic in change management and should be seriously considered to help the organization achieve advantages of the transformation. Considering the importance of resistance to change, this paper aims to delve deeper in this field through theoretical exposition of the concept, elaborating more on the literature involving change, types of change coming up with the major reasons why change initiatives fail in some organizations. As the next step we define resistance and we classify its types and as the final analysis we propose some solutions or methods for preventing and overcoming the resistance to change, unlike many other papers written in this field we have broadened our focus and have proposed some methods for preventing resistance, besides the ways of overcoming resistance (Golnam, Shojatalab).

Keywords:

Change , Failure of Change Initiatives , Overcoming Resistance to Change