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comes to the relationship between company performance and organizational change,
the saying “nothing fails like success” may be fitting. For example, Polaroid was the
number one producer of instant films and cameras in 1994. Less than a decade later,
the company filed for bankruptcy, unable to adapt to the rapid advances in one-hour

photo development and digital photography technologies that were sweeping the
market. Successful companies that manage to change have special practices in place
to keep the organization open to changes. For example, Finnish cell phone maker
Nokia finds that it is important to periodically change the perspective of key decision
makers. For this purpose, they rotate heads of businesses to different posts to give
them a fresh perspective. In addition to the success of a business, change in a
company’s upper-level management is a motivator for change at the organization
level. Research shows that long-tenured CEOs are unlikely to change their formula
for success. Instead, new CEOs and new top management teams create change in a
[5]
company’s culture and structure.
Resistance to Change
Changing an organization is often essential for a company to remain
competitive. Failure to change may influence the ability of a company to survive. Yet
employees do not always welcome changes in methods. According to a 2007 survey
conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), employee
resistance to change is one of the top reasons change efforts fail. In fact, reactions to
organizational change may range from resistance to compliance to enthusiastic
[6]
support of the change, with the latter being the exception rather than the norm.
Figure 7.10

Reactions to change may take many forms.
Active resistance is the most negative reaction to a proposed change attempt.
Those who engage in active resistance may sabotage the change effort and be
outspoken objectors to the new procedures. In contrast, passive resistance involves
being disturbed by changes without necessarily voicing these opinions. Instead,
passive resisters may dislike the change quietly, feel stressed and unhappy, and even
look for a new job without necessarily bringing their concerns to the attention of
decision makers. Compliance, however, involves going along with proposed changes
with little enthusiasm. Finally, those who showenthusiastic support are defenders of
the new way and actually encourage others around them to give support to the change
effort as well.

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