Reducing Resistance to Change:

• Education and communication
• Participation and involvement
• Facilitation and support
• Negotiation and agreement
• Manipulation and co-optation

Explicit and implicit coercion

• Managers may overcome resistance to change through:-
• Educating and communicating to employees on need to change. This enables them to have a better understanding on need to change and reduce level of resistance.
• Participation and involvement:- by involving employees in planning changes to be introduced into organization their level of uncertainty is reduced. They become more willing and accept a change which they participated in planning.
• Facilitation and supported change may be gradually introduced into an organization so that a major impact is not felt at once which may cause resistance. Support in the form of training programes, time off during the transition period and emotional support should be provided to those directly affected by change inorder to reduce their level of resistance.
• Managers may negotiate change with potential resistors eg individuals or departments so that they accept change and avoiding disruption of change process.
• Managers may also demand that the change be accepted by employees particularly where the change must be introduced very fast and there is no time for educating employees. Threats in the form of withdrawal of rewards and punishments may be used.
• Manipulation and co-optation:- managers may select a strategy of steering individuals or groups away from resistance to change through selective resistors to a desired position in the change process.
• Cooptation means getting the main resistors to change involved in decision making.
• Management of change through changing organizational culture.

Effective management of change may require a change in organizational culture.