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ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · Managing strategic change

Halden Logistics plans to replace its manual dispatch process with an automated platform. Experienced dispatchers say they will not use it because they fear their skills will become worthless and they may lose status. In Kotter and Schlesinger's terms, which cause of resistance is this?

The resistance is parochial self-interest. The dispatchers fear losing the value of their skills and their status, which is a personal loss, rather than misunderstanding the plan, disagreeing on the facts, or having a general low tolerance for change.

  1. AParochial self-interestCorrect
  2. BMisunderstanding and lack of trust
  3. CDifferent assessments of the situation
  4. DLow tolerance for change

Explanation

Parochial self-interest arises when people fear losing something of value, such as status, power or the worth of their skills. The dispatchers' concern is about personal loss, not about disagreeing with the facts or misunderstanding the plan. Different assessments would involve them believing the platform is a poor business decision.

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