The employees do not resist the change , what they resist is the transition from one phase to another . That's majorly because the transition phase is, in itself, an unclear stage, the middle level manager is relatively unclear of the phase. The top level management though shares the "to Stage" post transition and mostly every manager would be convinced but the unfreezing of the present stage is quite disheartening.The bottlenecks are treated as and when they arise. the guidelines need to flexible and the middle level manager is in a question mark situation in the absence of clear cut guidelines.
The middle level officer in routine tasks over a period of time assumes that he is not accountable, authorized and is powerless to take decisions during the performance of work. He feels that he is not capable of exercising positive influence to move the decision in the right direction or willingly he doesn’t want to take decision. That results in a spectator state like situation which is un warranted in this phase.
The change is permanent what is important is to induce the middle management on whom the success of any change or transformation rests on . This calls for enhancing systems working on the structure , systems and strategy for implementing change i.e the hard elements of the McKinsey's framework. The softer elements would necessarily follow (sharing values, skills, staff, and style) accordingly.
Once this is set then the unfreezing, intervening and the refreezing phases would not invite the resistance as the harder elements are already in place with the required skill set , and understanding of getting the objective accomplished.
