Organizational change fatigue or change fatigue is a general sense of apathy or passive resignation towards organizational changes by individuals or teams, said to arise when too much change takes place,[1] or when a significant change follows immediately on an earlier change.[2] When change fatique arises, organizational change efforts can become unfocused, uninspired and unsuccessful, and individuals involved in change experience burn-out and become frustrated.[3]
Overview
Organizational change fatigue has become a chronic problem facing companies in today's world of constant, concurrent and often competing changes. To successfully deploy and adopt change, organizational change fatigue often represents the single greatest risk for an organization. However, companies can combat and overcome organizational change fatigue.
Most organizations are constantly undergoing some form of change, either locally, regionally or globally. However, as humans, we inherently need stability, order and predictability, essentially our need to maintain a sense of status quo. Organizational changes often directly challenge the status quo, creating resistance and conflict. When change is always occurring, individuals begin to become overwhelmed, their ability to adapt becomes depleted, and the loss of control and uncertainty skyrocket. So, individuals are unable to align their thoughts and actions because they are always changing.
Avoidance
Various business writers have identified ways of avoiding change fatigue including reductions in the number of organisational change initiatives, making change happen on a smaller scale and countering "the notion that you need heroic leaders in order to have meaningful, sustained change".[2] Development of resilience and resourcefulness among those affected by change have been seen as beneficial considerations.[4]
Organizations that plan and manage change thoughtfully and with long-term goals in mind make a point of providing a clear start point, an unambiguous transition phase, and a clear goal (endpoint) for each change undertaken. Only via such a careful approach will fears be reduced—and thus individuals will become able to comfortably cope with each change.
See also
- Ambidextrous organization
- Change management
- Collaboration
- Group dynamics
- Industrial and organizational psychology
- Managing change
- Organizational communication
- Organizational climate
- Organizational culture
- Organizational diagnostics
- Organizational engineering
- Organizational learning
- Organizational performance
- Performance improvement
- Team building
- Team composition
References
- ↑ Turner, Dawn-Marie. "Change Fatigue: Is Your Organization Too Tired to Change?". thinktransition.com. Retrieved 24 April 2014.
- 1 2 Morgan, N., Do You Have Change Fatigue?, Harvard Business School, "Working Knowledge" series, published 9/10/2001, accessed 24 June 2023
- ↑ Perlman, K., Change Fatigue: Taking Its Toll on Your Employees?, published 15 September 2011, accessed 28 April 2023
- ↑ Gill, A., Overcome change fatigue by promoting resilience and resourcefulness, published 22 November 2011, accessed 24 June 2023
Further reading
- Argyris, C.; Schon, D. (1978), Organizational Learning: A theory of action perspective, Reading MA: Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-00174-8
- Nonaka, I.; Takeuchi, H. (1995), The Knowledge Creating Company, New York: New York: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-509269-4
- Sullivan, Roland (2010), Practicing Organization Development: A Guide for Leading Change, Jossey Bass, ISBN 978-0-470-40544-4
- Turner, Dawn-Marie (2015), Launch Lead Live: The executive's guide to preventing resistance and succeeding with organizational change, published by Your Nickel’s Worth Publishing