First - break the resistance!

Today's market is characterized by changes in trends and requirements, and constant transformation is a constant part of our reality. The socio-economic changes currently being observed in Central and Eastern Europe, and thus in Poland, pose serious challenges to companies. Organizations are forced to overcome the ever-increasing competition in the market. The ability to overcome it is evidenced, among other things, by the level of flexibility and ease with which we are able to introduce changes and modifications in the company's operation so as to follow the changes observed on the market.

An important element occurring during the introduction of change is not only the course of change and the individual activities associated with it, but the workforce itself. The most common mistake observed during the introduction of changes in organizations is treating employees and even a middle manager only as contractors and not as creative persons. Increasing the self-reliance and competence of the staff makes it possible to achieve lasting improvements in the functioning of the organization.

However, it is important to keep in mind that each individual reacts to change in a different way. In most individuals, the observed reaction to change is FEAR. Resisting change is a natural human reaction. It is directly related to the fear of implementing an innovation. It is worth considering why is this the case? After all, the purpose of any change is to improve the efficiency of the company's operations, to make better use of its resources, and to create conditions that stimulate the development of human potential and strengthen the motivation and creativity of employees. The reason for the negative reaction of the workforce to the introduction of change is very simple. Situations related to change bring new working conditions, often new responsibilities. Lack of understanding of the necessity of the change and incomplete or unclear information about it, causes the change to be evaluated as a situation that generates danger. It causes emotional tension among employees, caused by fear of losing recognized and valued values, and anxiety and fear of the unknown. The consequences are numerous conflict situations and misunderstandings.

Resistance to change

According to research by American sociologist A. Zender, resistance occurs when:

• information about the change is unclear or incomplete
• in the organization there are conflicting opinions about it
• the change may threaten the interests of the employee
• the change forces the employee to improve his qualifications, will lower his prestige and importance
• the change may show incompetence at work or the redundancy of his activities
• the employee is simultaneously subject to the influence of strong, oppositely directed forces, pushing toward change and resisting change.

Resistance to change is the greater the more the employees who are to be affected by it feel it is imposed from the outside, and the less the more they feel they are co-creators and can participate in its preparation. There is more resistance to personnel changes than to changes involving impersonal norms, patterns, rules of conduct and procedures. Resistance to change occurs when the change program does not take into account the informal patterns, norms of conduct, interpersonal arrangements, connections, etc. that have been established at the workplace. Therefore, when planning the introduction of any change, an attempt should be made to predict the reaction of employees, identify concerns and overcome employee resistance. On the basis of observation of the reactions to change of personnel employed in organizations, I took the liberty of dividing the reasons for employee resistance into 3 subgroups: concerns about the general functioning of the organization, resistance related to one's own job, and fear related to the personal sphere of the employee. We can distinguish between concerns related to:

ORGANIZATION	EMPLOYEE	PERSONAL SPACE
lack of sufficient knowledge regarding the change lack of awareness of the need for change lack of sufficient motivation during the implementation of the change lack of benefits from introducing the change	increase in employee responsibilities demotion to a lower position dismissal too rapid implementation of changes change of duties and further training necessary with it	making a mistake compromising new situation loss of colleagues, friends forced to change habits loss of previous control over life previous bad experiences of making changes

Thus, the guarantee of positive acceptance of changes by the staff is to explain the specifics of the intended change activities and to point out the real benefits for the company and employees resulting from the projected change.