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Planned Approach to Change

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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 …show more content…

The article concludes by arguing that rather than being outdated, Lewin’s Planned approach is still very relevant to the needs of the modern world.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

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