Module 1 – Home

Organizational Resistance to Change (and Why Good Companies Fail)

Modular Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this module, the student will be able to satisfy the following outcomes:

· Case

· Analyze why good companies may fail because they have neglected to adapt to changes within the internal organization and/or to changes in the external environment.

· SLP

· Assess the negative consequences of organizational apathy, and identify barriers that cause organizational resistance to change.

· Discussion

· Evaluate the reason for an organization’s failure due to resistance to change.

Module Overview

In Module 1, we will explore the reasons that even healthy organizations require change, and the negative consequences that may arise because they have disregarded or otherwise ignored their need to adapt to internal needs or to changes in the external environment. We will explore the nature of organizational “inertia,” and the consequences of an organization’s failure to respond. In this module, we will be focused on factors that create organization-wide resistance to change (in Module 2, we will review resistance to change on the part of individual employees).

Organizations require change to remain viable. And successful change requires leadership. The following (excellent) article demonstrates how organizational change and transformation processes relate to leadership; to this extent, it is also a particularly good introduction to this course. While there is no need to read the full article, be sure to read the section entitled “The Role of Organisational Leaders in Transformations.”

Wan, K. E. (2013, May). The role of leadership in organizational transformation. Civil Service College—Singapore. Retrieved from https://www.cscollege.gov.sg/Knowledge/Pages/The-Role-of-Leadership-in-Organisational-Transformation.aspx

You may wish to refer back to various sections of this article as you proceed through the course.

Background

Organizational Resistance to Change (and Why Good Companies Fail)

Attribution:

In this course, we will be partly using the Focusing on Organizational Change text authored by William Judge. The Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike license for use of this text may be viewed here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/. No changes have been made to the text. The text may be downloaded in PDF, Kindle, e-pub, or .mobi format at the following website: http://www.oercommons.org/courses/focusing-on-organizational-change/view