An evaluation of Lewin's change model

Organisational change and innovation has been widely acknowledged to not necessarily be straight-forward; nor is it necessarily good. A lot of change research suggests that "An enduring finding in the change management research is that most organizations do not manage change well" (Lips-Wiersma & Hall, 2007, p. 774). 

Organisational change should be deliberate, because there is a need, not because: stability is dangerous; change is necessary; change can be managed; change will be embraced by everyone; change will lead to more success. Planned change for that need is helpful, as: "the idea that anyone who questions the need for change has an attitude problem is simply wrong, not only because it discounts past achievements, but also because it makes us vulnerable to indiscriminate and ill-advised change' (de Jager, 2001, p. 25).

As is shown in the image accompanying this post, there are a lot of change models: but interestingly many of them appear to look back to Lewin's three stage - freeze, unfreeze, and refreeze - model. The presenter in the YouTube video following makes an argument that Lewin's work has been misrepresented, despite constantly working through the 'Freeze, unfreeze, and refreeze model of change' (SAGE Publishing, 2016). Watch the video for more insight. 

Further, the authors provide some advice, in that “When studying change the unit of analysis must be the group, not the individual (as psychology might direct us), the organisation (as modern management studies is want to think) or wider society (as may be the want of the sociologist)" (Cummings et al., 2016, p. 51). Lewin's model contains two key elements: promoting change and promoting constancy. If the group is communicated with and involved (rather than individuals), change processes are more effective. Measuring change is more likely to effective when (a) all stakeholders are involved, and (b) when they work-shop specific processes and alternatives BEFORE agreeing on "the way forward" (Cummings et al., 2016, p. 51).

Sam

References:

Cummings, S., Bridgman, T. and Brown, K. G. (2016). Unfreezing change as three steps: Rethinking Kurt Lewin’s legacy for change management. Human Relations, 69(1), 33-60. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726715577707

de Jager, P. (2001). Resistance to change: a new view of an old problem. The Futurist, 35(3), 24-27.

Lips-Wiersma, M., & Hall, D. T. (2007). Organizational career development is not dead: a case study on managing the new career during organizational change. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 28(6), 771–792. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.446

SAGE Publishing. (11 March 2016). Unfreezing change as three steps [video]. YouTube.  https://youtu.be/iJfdmT1UtBY