This paper will deal with change in management. Change is a positive thing which promotes the development of the whole world in the long run. However, the processes of change can be a tough thing. Nowadays, new things emerges rapidly, in order to adapt to new situations, people need to accept change, especially change in government and management which will influence the harmony and prosperity of a country or an industry. This paper will take change at the ministry of foreign affairs and trade as an example to illustrate that change can be different because there will be resistance against it, and immature plan can also contribute to a failure.
Change is the power to drive improvement and development. It helps to build creativities and innovations which in return contribute to higher productivity and efficiency within an organization. Changing leadership promotes and actively supports creativity and innovation. The ideas of change are important in every industry (Kotter, 2007). John Allen, Chief Executive of the New Zealand ministry of foreign affairs and trade, arrived less than one year after the national party won enough seats in 2008, at that time, global financial crisis began. So the plan of change in public service and control of value of money were the most important issues. Take the global context into consideration, the management in MFAT should be changed and developed, especially leadership and management, vision, strategy and purpose of the ministry.
This paper links the analysis of the case of change at the ministry of foreign affairs and trade to research literature of leading change. It mainly demonstrates evitable trend of change, the reasons of resistance in the process of change and how to deal with it, and some suggestions of better managing resistance for Allen has been presented. Through the case study, people can seen the role of resistance in change, and special attention should be paid when leader implement change.
