On Friday, July 18, 1997 12:11 AM, Vana Prewitt
[SMTP:vprewitt@mail.rdu.bellsouth.net] wrote:
> Debbie is absolutely right in my experience. The greatest fear and
> resistence to new management models has been middle management, primarily
> of the old guard who are less sure of their positions. The newer hires
> are, for the most part, on board with the initiatives, and assume they
> will roll with the punches. In a company of 2500 people, there is a
> little room to move around without too much fear.
In my experience, the middle is the source of much resistance, but I have
to ask about the attribution Vana makes to the motive of protecting their
positions. During a transformation, the leadership is pushing hard on
middle management from the top, the newer hires are pushing hard from the
bottom and, frequently, the some of the old guard is pushing hard from the
middle. The resistance is natural, and must be explored by the
facilitators. In addition to "less sure of their positions," many other
factors could be causing the resistance. The resistance tells you two
things: The manager is feeling uncomfortable, and 2. The manager is
expressing the discomfort indirectly.
Mike....
--Michael A. Gort mail18081@pop.net (203) 316-9454
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>