Kurt Lewin and the Planned Approach to Change:
A Re-appraisal
Bernard Burnes
Manchester School of Management
The work of Kurt Lewin dominated the theory and practice of change management for over 40 years. However, in the past 20 years, Lewin’s approach to change, particularly the 3-Step model, has attracted major criticisms. The key ones are that his work: assumed organizations operate in a stable state; was only suitable for small-scale change projects; ignored organizational power and politics; and was top-down and management-driven. This article seeks to re-appraise Lewin’s work and challenge the validity of these views. It begins by describing Lewin’s background and beliefs, especially his commitment to resolving
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The article concludes by arguing that rather than being outdated, Lewin’s Planned approach is still very relevant to the needs of the modern world.
LEWIN’S BACKGROUND
Few social scientists can have received the level of praise and admiration that has been heaped upon Kurt Lewin (Ash, 1992; Bargal et al., 1992; Dent and
Goldberg, 1999; Dickens and Watkins, 1999; Tobach, 1994). As Edgar Schein
(1988, p. 239) enthusiastically commented:
There is little question that the intellectual father of contemporary theories of applied behavioural science, action research and planned change is Kurt Lewin.
His seminal work on leadership style and the experiments on planned change which took place in World War II in an effort to change consumer behaviour launched a whole generation of research in group dynamics and the implementation of change programs.
978 B. Burnes
© Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2004For most of his life, Lewin’s main preoccupation was the resolution of social con- flict and, in particular, the problems of minority or disadvantaged groups. Underpinning this preoccupation was a strong belief that only the permeation of democratic values into all facets of society could prevent the worst extremes of social conflict. As his wife wrote in the Preface to a volume of his collected work published after his death:
Kurt Lewin was so constantly and predominantly preoccupied with the task of advancing the
Implementing change among all organizations is necessary to achieve success; within the health care industry change is constant and it is the role of management teams to assess, plan, implement and evaluate change to ensure satisfaction. Considering this among the other aspects of running a successful organization it is essential to ensure that there is minimal resistance and familiarity to change. Demands of the consumers and staff as well as regulations are continuously changing. The responsibility of managers is to successfully lead these inevitable changes.
There were also different problems in the 1900’s such as Discrimination and prejudice. Prejudice in this novel is expressed or presented by disgust and misinterpretation because of the difference of people skin color. People of different skin color were the majorities that were treated unjustly. Throughout this period in America, the southern states, black people had to exercise and use separate bathrooms from whites, as well as drinking fountains, section in restaurants, and even go to separate schools. Furthermore, a great deal of the discrimination was aimed towards black people; there were abundance of explanation towards poor families by individuals that have the riches. Discrimination is rampant when groups’ of people that are different are called names.
Change should be seen as a challenge and embraced with enthusiasm (Marquis & Huston, 2012). In my professional and personal life, I view and respond to change as a way to make improvements to existing regulations and circumstances. I embark upon the quest with determination to succeed at whatever task is presented to me. Life without change can become unchallenging and stagnant (Marquis & Huston, 2012). As society and technology advance, you must incorporate the necessary transformations that arise with it.
He also had help from a colleague and on secondary source, a undergraduate students thesis paper. These sources supported the Lewis’s thesis because they are factual. The whole book is evident on the sources he used. The sources are also evident on pages 312-325, in the acknowledgments. One these pages Lewis shows his gratification to their cooperation and shows evidence he used throughout his book. Lewis diving so deep into these men's lives and using his own exposure to write such a captivating book conveys an outstanding impression on how his thesis is successfully
4. CIPD Practical Tool ‘Approaches to Change: Building Capability and Confidence’ (2010) accessed at ht
The assessment of the processes for occurrence of change and its performance over long-term (O'Fallon & Rutherford, 2011).
Whetten (2006) claims that we should study organizations basically on its structure and culture, rather than on social events. This was not the case, I found that social processes are the critical element in illustrating change in the organization too. Following the analysis of three organizational change stages and evaluating how my mother manage the change process, which is based on social psychological approach (Schein, 2009). Lewin (1951) argues that it is necessary to follow these three general steps in order to successfully manage the change process, including unfreezing, changing and
Lewin’s change theory involved applied behavioral science, action research and planned change each of which is necessary to examine during the implementation of change programs (Burnes & Cooke, 2012). Lewin’s field theory involves a number of concepts that can be used as a guide to help understand the forces that comprise group dynamics within their life space or environment. Lewin’s framework also explains the totality and complexity of people’s behavior within a social setting that can be modified to bring about successful change.
The merging of public expectations into a business model is not just about implementing change in an organization. It's about recognizing that change is for a reason of improving the wider social or community benefits and integrating bottom line profitability potentials. To make this happen, there has to be a blending of these values such that both elements of the new organization are realized an effort that is only now just beginning to happen (. Many organizations seem to want to achieve this goal even if it means moving their operations into the field of chaos where innovation gets to mix with opportunity.
The significance of Lewin’s change theory lay not in the formality of the theory itself but rather on his ability to conceptualize real situations and as a result come up with models that reflect ideal situations. Kurt Lewin cut a niche for himself as one of the pioneers of the applied, organizational and social psychology. Born Kurt Zadek Lewin in September 9 1890, he is acknowledged as the founder of social psychology and among the first people to study organizational development and group dynamics. He lays claim to the term action research which he coined in 1944 to try and explain the effect of social action and the factors that lead to the same. A spiral circle
The aim of this report is to provide a critical analysis of the concept of change in the business industry. The concept of change can be tracked back to Lewin’s Model of Change therefore the intitial introduction of this report focuses on the relevance of the Model of Change and its importance to giving precedence to other relevant change management theories and how Kurt Lewin’s work on heavioral science and planned change during World War II gave rrise to prominence of experimental leadership and planned change processes which also in turn launched a new generation of research that lead to group dynamics and how change programs are implemented into an organisation (Burnes, 2004). This is important because today’s basic elements or factors
adopt before setting out on a change initiative. Kotter identifies the ‘‘analysis-thinkchange’’ mindset as the traditional method
In order to survive and prosper in a rapid changing environment of business world, organization is often required to generate fast response to changes (French, Bell & Zawacki, 2005). Change management means to plan, initiate, realize, control, and finally stabilize change processes on both, corporate and personal level. Change may cover such diverse problems as for example strategic direction or personal development programs for staffs. In this
The Change Management process is a planned approach to manage changes, from an organization point of view and at individual level. A specific scenario can be considered in order to define the change management for my project. For example; considering the situation, that been a Project Manager, I decide to leave the organization and is suppose to serve a notice period of 4 weeks. However, the project plan, project schedule, project resource allocation, budget and statement of purpose are already in place. In this situation, the documentation will be required to be revised, make changes to the project schedule and project resource sheet. The project budget may also change depending on the current person who is taking over. The basic step in the process is to identify who is the right fit and has the right attributes to fill the role of the Project Manager from the existing project team. Based on my analysis, the person may not be in our organization since this is a fast pace project and all the resources are pre-occupied in their own tasks. Therefore, the two possibilities are as follow; firstly, to use internal Project Manager from a different project in the organization if he/she is available and can contribute to the project. Otherwise higher a new Project Manager that has experience with similar application. Budget impacts can be based on the current salary of the replaced person. The man-hours to train the project manager plus the time required learning about the
Kurt Zadek Lewin (September 9, 1890 – February 12, 1947) was a German-American analyst, known as one of the advanced pioneers of social , authoritative, and connected brain research