Studies on Psychological Resistances against Organizational Change and Effective Strategies for Overcoming Resistances

人们对组织成员对变革的心理抵触(厌恶的借口)知之甚少。本研究通过理论和经验相结合的研究，首先通过因子分析确定了七种阻力。其中，消极应对变化的气候、日常工作忙碌、通过变化获得正向激励的稀缺性较强。以54名管理人员为被试，每隔一年重复一次，分析了他们对工作场所存在的阻力知觉对他们引入改变行为的因果影响。虽然每一种阻力都有不同的影响，但认为阻力相对较弱的管理者会增加他们的变革行为。其次，探讨了近年来工作组织结构变化的趋势。调查问卷被要求对651家日本大公司进行回答。每个组织都有三种结构，即“硬”、“半硬”和“软”结构。在这项研究中，“硬”结构的变化，如业务领域结构、组织设计、人员和薪酬体系，都受到了关注。可以清楚地看到，在这些硬结构中被认可的所谓的“日本规范体系”正在发生变化，车间的层级结构正在变得扁平化，“目标管理”(MBO)的引入，以及基于业绩的奖励制度的实践正在明显和迅速地推进。数据表明，如果这些做法被员工成功接受，硬结构的变化与组织绩效水平的高度之间存在显著的正相关关系。还提出了组织氛围(软结构和半硬结构)的必要特征，这些特征可能决定组织结构变化的成功实施和解决

Very little is known about organizational members' psychological resistances (excuses for being averse) against change. This theoretical and experiential study, first, confirmed seven kinds of resistances through factor analysis. Among them, passive climate against change, busyness in daily works, and scarcity of positive incentives through change were stronger. Based on the data obtained from 54 managers and repeated at one year interval, causal effects of their perceptions of resistances existed in workplace upon their behaviors to introduce changes were analyzed. Although each resistance had some different impacts, managers who deemed resistance relatively weak become to increase their behaviors for change.Secondly, the recent trends of structural change in work organizations were explored. Survey questionnaire was asked to answer for 651 Japanese major companies. Every organization could be delineated as having three kinds of structure ; that is, "hard, " "semi-hard, " and "soft" structures. In this study, changes in "hard" structures, such as structure of business domain, organization design, personnel and reward system, were concerned. It is revealed clearly that so called "Japanese normative systems" recognized in those hard structures were under alternation Making hierarchical structure of the workshop into flat, introduction of "management by objectives"(MBO), and practices of merit based reward systems are apparently and rapidly progressing. Data showed that, if those practices are successfully accepted by employees, significant positive relationship are showed between change of hard structure and the height of organization performance level. The necessary characteristics of organizational climates (soft and semi-hard structure) which might determine the successful implementation and settlement of changes in "hard" organizational structure were also suggested