Abstract:

Change is important for any organization, without change organizations would lose their competitive edge and fail to meet the needs of their targets. Resistance to change is one of the most baffling problems which organizations may face when adopting a change. In order to respond to external pressures by the government to change, Northern Area Municipality adopted a new financial system in 1st November 2014 called Central Financial System (CFS) – launched by Tata Consultancy Services, and empowered by Ministry of Finance.

This analytical study sought to understand the scope of change presented by CFS adoption, and to understand reasons for employee resistance to CFS in Northern Area Municipality. Based on the literature, some of the major reasons for employee resistance are: employee involvement, change implementation speed, and level of training. Accordingly, these variables were measured and the relationship between each of these variables and employee resistance to change was examined.

The study is mainly based on the primary data collected via a questionnaire that was self administered to 140 employees that were randomly selected in Northern Area Municipality. Spearman correlation analysis indicated that each of employee involvement, change implementation speed, and level of training has a strong negative relationship with employee resistance to CFS.

Finally, the study suggests that in order for Northern Area Municipality to mitigate employee resistance to change, it is essential to enhance employee involvement, provide as much advance information about the change as possible, communicate everything to everybody in advance of implementation, conduct a research and trial run, and provide adequate training