We don’t want to change our habits and routines. Some people deliberately try to kill good ideas and others to beat the system for their advantage as they attempt to block change efforts. Why do employees resist change, and how do managers overcome resistance to change? Uncertainty tends to make us react defensively by denying the need for change and allows us to rationalize that we don’t really need to change. Fear of the unknown outcome of change often brings fear of potential failure.

For many of us, the prospect of learning something new produces anxiety—learning anxiety. We realize that new learning may make us temporarily incompetent and may expose us to rejection by valued groups. We tend to resist change that threatens our own self-interest. We are commonly more concerned about our best interests than about the interests of the organization even when failure to change can have severe consequences.

Change creates winners and losers. With change, jobs may possibly be lost. Change may involve an economic loss as a result of a pay cut. A change in work assignments or schedules may create a loss of social relationships. Change can also result in an actual or perceived loss of power, status, security, and especially control. We may resent the feeling that our destiny is being controlled by someone else. When we are successful, we tend to think change is not needed.

Even when we do change, we can fall back into old habits that have worked in the past.