THE REAL REASON PEOPLE WON'T CHANGE

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 unwill

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on paper, is to get employees to own up to their failures: shooting the messenger that brings bad news, the unwillingness to delegate, for example. The resolution revolves around the big assumption- deep-rooted beliefs about themselves and the world around them. However, what this implies is that people are willing to talk to their bosses about their personal or professional failings. Frankly, there is some doubt, given the current downsizing trends in industry that many people are willing to be very honest about what they perceive their bosses see as their shortcomings. While the article presents a rational chart that covers a diagnostic test for immunity to change, at the same time it needs to be pointed out that the possibility exists that the employer himself may be as much a victim of competing commitment as the people under him. In other words, who polices the police? Who discusses competing commitment with the boss? This is where this article and its presumptions fall short. Even though in one example, the boss himself turned out to have some contradictory assumptions of his own, nevertheless this journal (and this article) are aimed at the manager, the employer, not the employee. The various steps, beginning w

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