A trained change agent can help develop new behaviour patterns. In partnership with organisation members the change agent helps to create situations in which new values, attitudes, and behaviours can be identified, discussed, learned and tested. These values, attitudes, and behaviours are acquired by organisation members through the process of identification and internalisation. In identification, they identify with and adopt the values and attitudes of the change agent (or perhaps a new chief executive). In internalisation, organisation members learn new values, attitudes, and behaviours when they find themselves in situations requiring these changes.

There are three general sources of resistance to change:

1. Uncertainty about the causes and effects of change. Organisation members may resist change because they wish to avoid uncertainty. Traditional ways of doing things offer precedents that guide their actions, and the consequences of established procedures are familiar and predictable, and they may be unwilling to give up familiar tasks and relationships. The anticipation of practical problems, such as the need to learn new technologies, may also cause resistance. Misunderstandings readily arise when change is introduced, and it is the manager's job to spot and clarify them at the onset. Employees may be unsure of their ability to learn the new skills or to do the new jobs required of them. They may also mistrust any change initiated from above. Employees often feel under pressure because changes are being made, or they may interpret them as a sign that they have not done their jobs properly. Even a change that employees acknowledge is good for the organisation may be resented.

2. Unwillingness to give up existing benefits. While appropriate change should benefit the organisation as a whole, it will not necessarily benefit a typesetter replaced by a computerised typesetting system, a sales manager reassigned to a less desirable territory, or a nurse whose duties change when para-professionals are hired. For some individuals, the cost of change in terms of lost power, prestige, salary, quality of work, or other benefits is not offset by the rewards of change.

3. Awareness of weakness in the changes proposed. Sometimes organisation members resist change because they are aware of potential problems that have apparently been overlooked by the change initiators. This form of resistance is obviously quite desirable. Different assessments of the situation represent a type of desirable conflict that managers should recognise and use when making their change proposals. For example, the head of the sales department may resist a reorganisation plan because he or she knows that the sales managers do not wish to relocate. Changing the plan - perhaps by reducing the number of relocations required - may prevent the organisation from losing experience personnel. Some managers may be too eager to impose change for change's sake. Objections from cooler heads will enable the organisation to maintain its stability while the change proposals are evaluated more fully.

In Australia, attention must also be given to the role of unions in the change process. Frequently managers categorise unions as a major source of resistance to change and fail to realise that some of their resistance occurs because they excluded from the change programme. When unions are consulted and actively involved, their resistance to change (often a matter of uncertainty about its causes and effects) can be reduced significantly.

Resistance to a change proposal sometimes indicates that something is wrong with it or that mistakes have been made in its presentation. Managers, therefore, must pinpoint the causes of resistance and remain flexible enough to overcome them appropriately.

Don't underestimate your ability or potential to influence. It is no accident that the law on conspiracy, which has been around a very long time, recognises the power of a very few people to influence events. It has long been known that two people together can be a very powerful force for change.

The influencing process is our major concern if we are to change anything, it involves persuading people to behave differently to the way they have done things in the past. How can they be influenced to do this? We know what has to change, at least in broad terms; what we need to do now is decide how. One of the most important motive forces in altering behaviour is the process of involvement in the organisational change and the development of the reasons for it. At the other end of the spectrum there is the ancient human motive of survival. If there is a choice, and there may not always be, the involvement strategy is much more likely to result in the long term behaviour change.

The behaviour change process starts at, or before, the "conception" stage, not at "birth". Two issues to be addressed here are who needs to be influenced and how.

Remember, in any change process, there are those who will clearly benefit in some way from a change or who perceive themselves as winners, or the reverse. This area provides wide scope for developing appropriate informational or educational strategies aimed at changing perceptions. Those groups who see themselves as losers may be persuaded that there are certain benefits to be gained from supporting the change. It is an area likely to be much more characterised by the subtlety of beliefs and assumptions than by facts. So the provision of information and support in this area to the right people could be worth considerable effort, especially during the periods of high uncertainty prior to change taking place. Finding opinion shapers is an important activity at this stage as they will need to be the prime focus of management energy.

Always remember not to underestimate the needs of the "losers" and to have a strategy for turning them into "winners" wherever possible. This is important because often the "losers" have considerable power and to veto the change. Recognising where the power lies is paramount to introducing any change to an organisation.

References: 1. Plant, Roger; Managing Change and Making it Stick, Gower, 1987.

2. Stoner, James, Yetton, Philip, Craig, Jane, Johnston, Kim; Management, Prentice Hall, 1994