Lewin's Change Model

7 Key excerpts on "Lewin's Change Model"

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  Work and Employment in a Changing Business Environment

  • Stephen Taylor, Graham Perkins(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • CIPD - Kogan Page

    (Publisher)

  Within the academic literature base that surrounds change management there are a number of differing models and understandings related to how we may effectively manage change. Many of these models have persisted for a surprisingly lengthy period of time, and there are lessons that can be drawn from them all. Within this part of the chapter a variety of the established change models are considered, and at various points readers are invited to critically reflect upon their implications for the change process. The first commonly referenced model of change was developed by Kurt Lewin (1947).

  Lewin: unfreeze–move–refreeze

  Kurt Lewin is regarded very much as the founding father of what is understood as the field of change management (Cummings et al, 2016). His three-step model has arguably dominated western theories of change for a substantial period of time (Michaels, 2001), although there are questions about the applicability of his seminal theory in the modern business environment. Lewin’s core idea was that in order to change people’s views and obtain their support for proposed changes, leaders needed to adopt a three-step model, as represented in Figure 11.1 .

  Figure 11.1 Lewin’s change model

  Lewin used the metaphor of ice to describe the change process, arguing that it took time to ‘thaw out’ starting positions, creating a state that was moveable before change could occur. He argued that managers and leaders needed to advance a convincing case for change, which – if accepted by employees – would then enable movement to a new state, before the change could be embedded through a ‘refreezing’ process. It is widely acknowledged that the embedding of change (refreezing) can take substantially longer than creating the initial movement needed, with managers and leaders needing to enable the change to firmly take root.

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  Human Resource Management for Organisational Change

  Theoretical Formulations

  • Paritosh Mishra, Balvinder Shukla, R. Sujatha(Authors)
  • 2021(Publication Date)
  • Routledge

    (Publisher)

  Odendaal, Robbins, & Roodt, 2004 ). These include:

  1. Unfreezing the status quo;
  2. Movement to a new state or Changing behaviour;
  3. Refreezing the new change to make it permanent.

  To start with the first phase, ‘Unfreezing’ can be defined as the “breaking away from the way things have been done” (Harper, 2011 , p. 18). In this phase, Kurt Lewin investigates how change is considered to provide equilibrium after two opposite forces interact with each other. These opposite forces are the ‘driving forces’ and the ‘restraining forces’ (Harper, 2011 ; Kritsonis, 2005 ). The former aims to bring and promote change, while the latter seeks to manage the status quo of the organisation. The maintenance of the status quo helps achieve stability and equilibrium in the organisation. In case organisations wish to change internally and adapt to external change, they need to move from this equilibrium stage and over individual (or employee) resistance and group conformity. For the unfreezing system to become effective, the ‘driving forces’ must always supersede the restraining forces. This is when the ‘unfreezing of the status quo’ is required. As per Lewin’s analysis, such unfreezing can be understood through his ‘Force Field Model’, where all surrounding elements like habits, customs, people, and attitude act as forces in bringing in change (Harper, 2011 ). Unfreezing can be achieved by pursuing three main elements. These include: increasing the driving forces that direct behaviour away from the status quo; decreasing the restraining forces that thwarts things move away from existing equilibrium; and lastly, finding a combination for the two elements listed herewith (Kritsonis, 2005

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  How to Fail at Change Management

  A Manager's Guide to the Pitfalls of Managing Change

  • James Marion, John Lewis(Authors)
  • 2020(Publication Date)
  • Business Expert Press

    (Publisher)

  In most cases, things get worse before they get better as stakeholders gradually work through the discomfort of doing something in a new way. Eventually, if the change is successful, performance improves. Lewin then informs the manager that the change must “refreeze” into the organization. This term is shorthand for “institutionalizing the new way of doing things” (Figure 1.2). Once the company is familiar with the new way of doing things to the point that it is no longer new, and the application of new processes and systems comes naturally, it could be said that refreeze and institutionalization of the change has occurred. Figure 1.2 Lewin’s model of managing change Source: Lewin (1947). Observations on Lewin The Lewin framework expresses what is observed in common-sense thinking about managing change. Change must begin, it must be carried out, and the change must become a way of life. While the Lewin framework provides a structured path to follow when initiating and managing change, the phases are expressed in a compact form and require elaboration by any given manager. Presumably, effective managers could successfully employ Lewin, whereas others, following the same three phases, could easily fail and often do. It appears from inspection of the process that the Lewin framework could emerge from a common-sense consideration of what ought to happen within a change management scenario. Further, the three steps in the Lewin framework could be viewed as phases or categories of activities. Change managers could take this and develop a project around it. This could be done by identifying the desired deliverables from “unfreeze,” “change,” and “refreeze” followed by populating a schedule with activities and resources. Kotter’s Eight-Step Change Model The Kotter’s change model provides detail and structure far beyond the three-phase Lewin model

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  The Blackwell Handbook of Global Management

  A Guide to Managing Complexity

  • Henry W. Lane, Martha L. Maznevski, Mark E. Mendenhall, Jeanne McNett, Henry W. Lane, Martha L. Maznevski, Mark E. Mendenhall, Jeanne McNett(Authors)
  • 2009(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-Blackwell

    (Publisher)

  Particularly on a global level, behavioral change is extremely challenging. Therefore, understanding the process of organizational change is important. In this introductory section we summarize models for change, outline what we have learned about the change process, and then examine a change case study. building community through change 135 Change process models The process of change is often viewed in terms of unfreezing, moving, and refreezing. 2 Unfreezing is accompanied by stress, tension, and a strongly felt need for change. The moving stage refers to relinquishing old ways of behavior and testing out new behaviors, values, and attitudes that have usually been proposed by a respected source. Refreezing occurs when the new behavior is reinforced, internalized, and institutionalized, or re-jected and abandoned. One study of multinational organizations modifies this framework to describe the sequence as follows: incubation (questioning the status quo), variety generation (middle-up experimentation) leading to power shifts (change in the leadership structure), and then the process of refocusing . 3 In successful large-scale strategic transformations at GE, ABB, Lufthansa, Motorola, and AT&T, Ghoshal and Bartlett observed the following sequential and overlapping process: simplification, integration, and regeneration . Simplification articulates a change such as GE’s “being number one or two in the industry,” which clarifies the strategy. The integration phase involves realigning cross-unit relationships, for example, bringing people together with shared values. A good example of this is GE CEO Jack Welch’s focus on inter-unit collaboration and the sharing of best practices. The last phase, regeneration, attempts to build an organization capable of renewing itself. This was the purpose of Welch’s “boundarylessness” push at GE. 4 The order of sequential stages in the change process is refined into smaller steps by several models.

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  Sustainable Business Strategy

  Analysis, Choice and Implementation

  • Andrew Grantham(Author)
  • 2022(Publication Date)
  • De Gruyter

    (Publisher)

  Policy and strategies are agreed by senior managers and then thrown over the wall for implementation. The link between policy-makers and implementers, who are primarily middle managers and operational staff, is weak. This leaves strategy open to misinterpretation at implementation and proba- bly failure (Burnes 2015). Kurt Lewin The discipline of OD owes much to the pioneering work of Kurt Lewin. Lewin’s orig- inal focus was on societal change rather than organizational change, writing and researching in the aftermath of World War II. His discipline was psychology, and https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110718430-012 his body of work is complementary and mutually dependent. No one part makes sense without the others, namely: – field theory – individuals’ behaviours are understood in relationship with their surroundings and conditions at a particular point in time – group dynamics – in groups, members all share the same outcome of a decision and are inter-dependent when undertaking a shared task – action research – embedded, co-researching Three-step model The discipline of organizational change management in firms has largely drawn on Lewin’s three-step model that conceptualized change as a process of: 1. Unfreezing – present level of customs and habits 2. Moving – when the change actually occurs 3. Refreezing – new habit or norm is adopted and institutionalized (Burnes and Bargal 2017) This is planned change and, in line with his overall objectives of positive societal change, his approach was democratic in the sense that the plan is derived from par- ticipation of stakeholders and an understanding of root causes. Hence change man- agers are advised against taking the three-step model in isolation because it relies on a mutual understanding and application of field theory, group dynamics and action research. In this context, Lewin’s approach is not managerialist.

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  Business Informatics

  • Jonah C. Pardillo(Author)
  • 2019(Publication Date)
  • Society Publishing

    (Publisher)

  Once people begin to acquire that the change will take place and that it will have some advantages, they start to look forward instead of backward. From this point, things are beginning to get better, even nonetheless the situation is very runny at the start of the climb. There are various experiments as people work out how they can best function in the new process and the new workgroup. Different new ideas are produced as the change beds down. These ideas required to be taken and appraised, and thanks are given to their originators. was valuable and it is fully established into the method the business works. With the advantage of hindsight, it may be problematic to observe what all the uncertainties were about at the starting of the change. There may be an impractical expectation which the change will not cause any interruption amongst the staff. This is questionable, and management going to crop up. By forecasting ahead, we can diminish the impact of the change and retain and they are attaining the help they require. Business Change and Management 229 8.4. THE BUSINESS CHANGE LIFECYCLE In this section, we shall look at employing business change in the light of the business change lifecycle. This lifecycle is shown in Figure 8.4. There are five stages of a business change lifecycle: alignment, definition, design, implementation, and realization. Figure 8.4: Business change lifecycle. 8.4.1. Alignment There is a constant requirement to check the planned direction of the organization as we respond to the changing situations and challenges. This is devoted to as strategic management. It is the major activity of the alignment stage within the business change lifecycle. As described above, the strategy helps to connect the organization with the external environment. The strategy summaries how we plan to attain Business Informatics 230 our long-term goals and highlights what we have to be good at if we do well.

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  Change Leadership in Higher Education

  A Practical Guide to Academic Transformation

  • Jeffrey L. Buller(Author)
  • 2014(Publication Date)
  • Jossey-Bass

    (Publisher)

  Chapter 2 Reframing Change

  If, as we've seen, the organizational structure and culture of higher education means that colleges and universities are not well served by the change management strategies developed for corporate and military environments, what works better? Everyone knows there are plenty of changes already occurring throughout higher education today: globalization, the flipped classroom, increased competition, rapidly diminished resources, continually changing technology, and all the other factors that can be placed in the category I'll call received change. To these we can add all the changes we'd like to see in our programs: more creative teaching and active learning, higher levels of student success, more innovative research, progress in efficiency and effectiveness, higher levels of satisfaction, and all the other goals that we might call intentional change.

  Different Ways of Viewing Change

  With so much change going on all around us, how can academic leaders approach their challenges and opportunities in ways that will most benefit the programs they supervise? Let's begin to answer this question by understanding that there are several different ways to look at change and that the perspective we take profoundly affects the way we lead others through a change process.

  The Common View of Change

  If you were to go up to people on the street and ask them to define the word change, most of them would probably say it's about “making something different from what it was.” In other words, it was A before; it's B now. A has “changed into” B. This common view of change is what frequently makes people uncomfortable with the prospect of change: it suggests that you're always losing something. To use the Kübler-Ross model, it's like the old state we were in has died. “But what if I really liked A or at least liked key elements of A?” people might ask. “How do I know I'll like B better? And if A no longer exists and we realize that the change was a mistake, will it be possible to go back? Will we be giving up more than we will gain? Maybe the devil we know is better than the devil we don't?” We might call this common view of change the replacement view of change

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