Overcoming resistance to change

L Coch, JRP French Jr - Human relations, 1948 - journals.sagepub.com
L Coch, JRP French Jr
Human relations, 1948journals.sagepub.com
It has always been characteristic of American industry to change products and methods of
doing jobs as often as competitive conditions or engineering progress dictates. This makes
frequent changes in an individual's work necessary. In addition, the markedly greater
turnover and absenteeism of recent years result in unbalanced production lines which again
makes for frequent shifting of individuals from one job to another. One of the most serious
production problems faced at the Harwood Manufacturing Corporation has been the …
It has always been characteristic of American industry to change products and methods of doing jobs as often as competitive conditions or engineering progress dictates. This makes frequent changes in an individual's work necessary. In addition, the markedly greater turnover and absenteeism of recent years result in unbalanced production lines which again makes for frequent shifting of individuals from one job to another. One of the most serious production problems faced at the Harwood Manufacturing Corporation has been the resistance of production workers to the necessary changes in methods and jobs. This resistance expressed itself in several ways, such as grievances about the piece rates that went with the new methods, high turnover, very low efficiency, restriction of output, and marked aggression against management. Despite these undesirable effects, it was necessary that changes in methods and jobs continue.
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