Organizational Change Resistance: Experience from Public Sector

1. IntroductionIn the modern business environment, characterized by high level of uncertainty, dynamism and turbulence, change is the only constant. In these circumstances, the ability to adapt to change in the external, as well as initiating and implementing the necessary changes in the internal environment, are essential for the growth and development of organizations, both in private and public sector.In Serbia, as in many other countries that were faced with the transition process, which began in the late twentieth century, it was necessary to perform a number of different organizational and other changes in the public sector. Public sector reform was one of the key preconditions for successful transition. There was a need to make public enterprises to some extent independent, to abolish monopolies and to improve public sector by rational organization of operations and changes in management style. Some of the planned changes are implemented more or less successfully, while others represent a plan for the future.To make the change possible, there has to exist an adequate level of knowledge and skills of managers leading the change. The literature discusses the various factors that influence the outcome of organizational change. Kotter (1995) dealt with the reasons why organizational change fail and identified eight of these various factors. Other authors have identified factors which lead to the success of organizational changes in public sector (Fernandez, Rainey, 2006), such as, inter alia, the construction of the internal support to change and overcoming the resistance of employees. Almost every organizational change requires that an employees change some of their routine operations, the way they perform their work and their behavior (Petkovic, Janicijevic, Bogicevic-Milikic, 2010: 562). Therefore, it is of great importance to understand the opinions and views of employees regarding organizational change in order develop the necessary tools to motivate employees to change, so that their resistance can be reduced to the lowest possible level.The very important leader's role in the process of implementing organizational changes is related to overcoming resistance to changes, and it represents one of the most significant as well as most difficult tasks of a leader in the process of their implementationReducing change resistance is important because employees' reactions to change are considered critical for the success of change efforts (Van Dam et al. 2008). There is a huge consensus that a key factor in determining the success of any organizational change involves employees acceptance of it (Oreg and Berson 2011).In this study, we will deal with measuring the degree of employee's resistance to organizational changes in public organizations in Kragujevac, in order to highlight the impact that their views have on the risk of the change implementation process. In addition, the focus was put on a wide set of variables that proved to be important for understanding resistance to change, such as: age of respondent, level of education, position in the organization, personal monthly income and satisfaction with personal monthly income.2. Organizational change managementMore and more organizations are engaged in multiple and ongoing-change events, such as the introduction of new top management teams, reorganizations or restructurings, downsizing, layoffs, and new strategic initiatives. The potential impacts of change on people working in organizations are significant: on the positive side, change can provide a wealth of opportunities for growth and development; but, on the negative side, there can be substantial costs to having to negotiate new relationships, skills and patterns of activity (Cartwright, Cooper, 1992; Kotter, 1995).In order for changes to be successful and to lead to positive results, it is necessary to properly manage the process of their implementation by agents of change. …