Publish at May 18 2015 Updated May 23 2024
We increasingly value change, the ability to adapt, to question ourselves and to modify our practices. And those who don't adhere, who put on the brakes or who can't keep up are suspected of "resistance to change". In this expression, the word "resistance" is always negative.
Authors such as Philippe Bernoux and, more recently, Anne-Marie Duclos, have challenged this accusatory concept of "resistance to change", proposing finer, more operational analyses.
Anne-Marie Duclos shows us that critics of the notion of "resistance to change" often adopt the manager's point of view.
Resistance to a project that we don't think is right, or that would be detrimental to us, is thus described as "resistance to change"...
The expression carries a strong negative connotation. The accusations are often very strong. Resistance to change" is irrational, because it does not take into account the evolution of markets, competition and the economic world. It is counter-productive, since it delays the implementation of change. It is also the attitude of a minority.
Those who resist are portrayed as stubborn, lazy and unimaginative employees. An unflattering portrayal.
This criticism is also regularly levelled at those who fear the consequences of changes to programs or teaching methods, and of course at those who oppose them.
On the contrary, Philippe Bernoux values the concept of resistance. He entitles his introduction to Sociologie du changement: "Comment les hommes savent résister" ("How people know how to resist"). In it, he highlights the paradox of managers who claim to encourage autonomy, but who are surprised when employees want to take part in debates about the changes they are planning. "Resistance" is much more than a reaction of fear or immobility. It's the expression of a willingness to participate in decisions, to reflect on their impact and their implementation.
Models based on the research of Kurt Lewin (1951) present different stages in the adoption of change. The first stage corresponds to decrystallization. The team abandons certain professional reflexes and calls into question key competencies. This is an emotionally charged moment.
During the transition phase, the team experiments with new actions. Members gradually change their practices. Finally, recrystallization allows new professional practices to consolidate and become automatic, while new values definitively replace old ones.
Kurt Lewin also presents change as the result of a series of forces exerted on the organization. Encouraging change means activating levers or removing obstacles. The success of this type of image is easy to understand. Managing change is like being at the helm of a complex steering system. Quite rewarding!
John Kotter focuses on management and the actions to be taken. The approach is a voluntarist one, not really concerned with the sources of concern, but encouraging the identification and support of people who can promote or carry the project forward.
Anne-Marie Duclos points out that Kurt Lewin's approaches do not explain how employees adopt change. They are based on the assumption that it is by changing behavior that attitudes are changed. Other authors, on the other hand, focus on attitudes and how those involved in change feel.
Philippe Bernoux is a sociologist specializing in organizations and change. The first chapters of his book show how contemporary sociology can explain change in organizations.
Bernoux draws his inspiration from the "methodological individualism" movement. In his view, it is not economic or technical constraints or structures alone that can explain change. The meaning that individuals give to their actions determines behavior and social phenomena, and hence change.
And Philippe Bernoux shows us, drawing on interactionist sociologists, that whatever the rules, human groups and individuals retain margins of freedom... And that it is often these second-level relationships that enable organizations to function. Yet these relationships are often the means by which we move away from a role assigned to us by the organization. Philippe Bernoux bases his demonstration in particular on a study by Erving Goffman in a prison environment, which shows how inmates circumvent the rules of operation.
Michel Crozier developed the sociological analysis of organizations. The players in an organization have interests that do not always coincide exactly with those of their structure. They want to maintain or increase their margin of freedom, or even the informal power linked to mastery of a zone of uncertainty that only they possess. Change often upsets these informal power relationships, which inevitably develop independently of organizational charts and hierarchies...
To anticipate change, therefore, we need to pay particular attention to the meaning that stakeholders will give to it, and to the way in which change will modify interactions between people, and the power relationships it will upset.
Anne-Marie Duclos proposes an approach that takes a more detailed look at the concerns of players in the face of change.
Hall, George and Hord use the word "concern". Roughly translated as "preoccupation", it evokes both worry and concern, but also an interest, a particular attention."To be concerned is to be mentally awake about something." Interest, worry, concern... the term "concern" is therefore particularly rich in meaning, and much more nuanced than the notion of "resistance".
The CBAM, Concern Based Adoption Model, therefore focuses on attitudes and feelings.
The three authors propose seven phases of concern and interest. The levels of concern follow one another. They focus on the person, then on the task and the impact of the change.
But the authors also propose to reflect on the profile of each individual, in order to respond precisely to the type of concern he or she is experiencing. Their approach then leads to questionnaires and diagrams. We won't go that far, but the seven phases are interesting to explore.
Models from the human sciences and management abound. They sometimes even contradict each other, because they are based on different visions of human groups. Above all, not all changes follow the same pattern. As Bernoux points out, change takes place within a structure, with its own procedures, culture and functioning, with players who themselves have their own expectations and character, and of course, the constraints of theenvironment.
In this game of complex interactions, it's essential to "tinker" with your own approach, using different analytical tools.
Illustrations: Frédéric Duriez
Sociology of change , In companies and organizations
Points Essais
Philippe Bernoux February 2010
Resistance to change: an outdated and inappropriate concept in education. Anne-Marie Duclos Psychology and Education 2015-1
http://tinyurl.com/kxjl24c
Les phases de préoccupation, la petite histoire d'un grand modèle. Cécile Bareil CETO HEC Montréal n° 04-09 August 2004
http://web.hec.ca/sites/ceto/fichiers/04_09.pdf
clipart on Openclipart.org: qubodup, Iyo, Император
You might also like:
We would naturally be attracted to individuals who seem the most prestigious. This phenomenon has already been studied in psychology as prestige bias. How can this be explained?
Languages to boost your career
How can you give your CV a second wind? By adding language skills, of course! It's the best way to increase your salary, to travel, but also to develop your career. Here's a quick overview of the most sought-after languages and the countries that are looking for French speakers.
The power of mental models for learning
Turning variations in our mental models into a genuine learning strategy
Artificial Intelligence, an ideological tool?
A.I., in its very conception, is based on a vision of the world that can be apprehended in place of ideology. So, to what extent does it carry an ideology?
Does traditional sociology still have a place in explaining mass phenomena?
Our world has been in a state of flux since the beginning of the 20th century, and the impact has been felt in the definitions of certain concepts, which are being sought and replaced over time. Such is the case with the notion of mass sociology, a discipline that has been searching for itself for over a century, just as humanity has been searching for itself.
