Kenneth Rose (Rose, 2003), in his article reviewing John Bennett’s models of leadership (Bennett 2001), mentioned two philosophers who spoke about change. ‘In 513 B.C., Heraclitus of Greece observed, “There is nothing permanent except change.” And in the 16th century, Niccolo Machiavelli stated in his political treatise, The Prince, “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.”‘
Change is inevitable, but it can also be uncomfortable. Because it is uncomfortable, most people tend to resist change. One of the most important responsibilities of an effective leader is to reduce people’s resistance to change in order to promote growth in the organization.
According to John P. Kotter, retired Konosuke Matsushita Professor of
Leadership at Harvard Business School in Boston, most organizations do a poor job of implementing large-scale change because of resistance within the organization (Fandray 2003). In a study of 288 companies who shared lessons and best practices in change management (Creasey 2003), Tim Creasey found that the top obstacle to change was employee resistance at all levels. In this report, “participants indicated that there is a natural human resistance to change that impacted project success.”
According to William Bridges and Susan Mitchell (Bridges & Mitchell, 2000), change is difficult because of the uncomfortable, internal process of transition through which people must move. Bridges and Mitchell point out that “change is external (the different policy, practice, or structure that the leader is trying to bring about) while transition is internal (a psychological reorientation that people have to go through before the change can work). Transition takes longer because it requires that people undergo