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Abstract:
This paper aims to analyze the relationship between the role of employees' involvement and change success. A questionnaire was distributed to the participants in a Business College in the UAE. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the contribution of several variables in the success of organizational change. Considering employees' needs,empowering employees, implementing the change strategies and helping employees witness change as it takes place were all found to be strongly related to the success of organizational change. This paper satisfies the need managers who have difficulties dealing with resistance to change.
Keywords:
Organizational Change; Resistance; Employee Involvement; Barriers to Change.
Introduction
Popular literature and best-selers warn managers that their organizations' futures depend upon their ability to master change because it is a pervasive, persistent, and permanent condition for all organizations (Ivancevich et al., 2008). The subject of organisational change has grown to a very rich field of theory and practice with no shortage of new ideas (Marsh, 2009). There has been a profusion of research on organizational change and yet, many organizations have struggled to achieve the changes that they have wanted to implement (Rosenberg and Mosca, 2011). In spite of all the academic and practical activities, the success of achieving major change in organisations had been reported as being poor with some researchers noting failure rates reaching as high as 70% (Beer and Nohria, 2000; Burnes, 2005; By, 2007; Carleton and Lineberry, 2004; Epstein, 2004; Windenberg, 2006; Maurer, 2010). Resistance to change has been considered by many authors the reason for the high failure rate of many change initiatives (Lawrence, 1954; Maurer, 1996; Strebel, 1994; Waddell and Sohal, 1998). Resistance has also been considered as a source of information, being useful in learning how to develop a more successful change process (Beer and Eisenstat, 1996; Goldstein, 1988; Lawrence, 1954; Piderit, 2000; Waddell and Sohal, 1998). Ford, Ford and d'Amelio (2008) and Ford and Ford (2009), argue from the earlier research, stating that resistance should instead be understood as an important source of employee feedback. They explain that in this way, resistance "can be an important resource in improving the quality and clarity of the objectives and strategies at the heart of a change proposal properly used, it can enhance the prospects...