Employee Resistance to Technology

Paper Summary:

This paper approaches the question of why there is a predictable and often across-the-board degree of resistance from employees when it comes to approaching and adapting to new technologies in the workplace. It discusses the issue of why people often fear any type of dramatic or workplace change and are frequently reticent to go along with significant adjustments and modifications in lifestyle or workplace situations. It examines examples of the dynamics of workplace reticence, fundamental to understanding the more specific question of why employees resist new technologies. It also discusses what the negative results will be and are for companies which, in the present global environment and for the future, fail to properly prepare their workers and the work culture within their ranks for the advent of new technologies and for the outsourcing strategies now enlisted by many companies.

From the Paper:

"One of the key conundrums in implementing technological change, and getting employees to accept it, writes Jansen, is that "virtually all discussions of change take the change agent's perspective." Hence, "behavior that is not in line with the change agent's" strategy for implementing that change "is perceived as resistance". With this in mind, it is possible that consultants, change agents, and even HRD professionals, "create the very resistance they are trying to overcome", Jansen contends. The way to get around this problem is by "creating readiness" for change, and by "building momentum" within management for employees' acceptance for change."

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