Kegan. Robert and Lahey, Lisa Laskow:'THE REAL REASON PEOPLE WON'T CHANGE' Harvard Business Review, November, 2001
This article may be perfect for Management 101, but it does not really do much than initiate some generalities. Today's workplace is different, even different from 2001, and the authors are far too pedantic and unrealistic. As will be shown later, he one subject they are totally missing (with the exception of one small composite incident) is how the reluctance or fear of change may well be because of the increasing diversity of the workplace, and the fact that management and employees are often of different ethnic racial and cultural backgrounds.
It seems as if fear is one-reason employees will not change. But, fear is not the major problem assessed here. What fear? Mostly, this seems to be the fear of learning something new, and the fact that, according to the authors, they have a competing commitment. In one case cited, the fact that "John" was a man of color, he felt his behavior of caustic comments to his fellow employees would keep him from being "integrated" into an otherwise all-white team. His competing commitment was keeping his distance.
"Helen" stalled in her progress for a deadline, because as a woman she felt that she needed to be subordinate to her boss. By completing her assignment successfully, she seemed to fear that she would now be her boss' peer.
The authors propose that there are psychological reasons for an unwillingness or inability to change, and that their bosses need to understand and help them get over it. The three-stage process they suggest is meant to help organizations figure out what's getting in the way of employees' reluctance to change.
The first step is for employers or managers to guide their employees through a set of questions that are designed to uncover competing commitments. Then, employees are expected top examine these commitments to se...