Leading Change
1. Explain Lewins’s classic “”unfreeze, changing and unfreezing and refreezing” model
Kurt Lewin is one of the early 20th century psychologists who came up a model to explain stages of change. His works forms the foundations of the various approaches that have been used to explain change in organizations. Lewin’s theory of organizational change involved three stages.
The first stage is Unfreezing. This stage is concerned with creation of precise provisions for change to happen. In most cases, individuals tend to oppose change when they affix a sense of distinctiveness to their environment. Thus, options will always cause uneasiness, even if they are beneficial. The second stage is Change. According to Lewin’s, this is a transitional stage and it is full of confusion. Individuals become alert that their status quo is being disputed, but it is not clear of its replacement, (Richard, 2009). Moreover, efficiency declines as roles change. During this stage, good leadership is very vital to ensure that individuals get into the next stage of change. The third stage and ultimate goal of the model is the refreezing stage. This involves the re-establishment of a new state of immovability and promoting relieves levels through reconnection of the affected individuals back to their familiar, safe environment. This stage is mainly concerned with moving people from a low productivity during the transitional period to a stable and productive position.
2. What is your understanding of how culture influences what can be an effective change strategy?
Culture of organizations entails collective perceptive of the missions of an organization, values guiding the process of decision making, relationship of employees, as well as how the organization conducts its day-to-day activities. Organizational culture can be support or hinder effective change strategy. If an organization has a supportive culture, then the change strategy will have positive impacts, (Gary, u.d). On the other hand, if there is unsupportive culture, an organization may not be successive in implementing changes. Thus, culture plays a significant role in the implementation of effective change strategy. For instance, culture influences the decisions that are made in the organization. Decisions are according to the culture of the particular organization, which might negatively or positively impact effective strategic change. Secondly, it influences the efficiency and speed of doing things. If there is a culture of doing things at a faster rate, change strategies will be implemented at a faster rate. If there is a slow implementation culture, change strategies will take a longer time to be effected. Lastly, is the capacity of the organization to handle changes. Precisely, for effective change strategy to have a significant impact in an organization, the organization must have an accommodative culture.
3. Is having a “vision” just an academic or public relations concept rather than a real tool in delivering change?
It is really dependent on the whether a vision is followed through and fully realized. This is attained by implementing multiple elements necessary to attain the vision, coupled with the establishment of policies and mission statements among others which will ensure the attainment of the set vision. Even most critically, a vision depends on the commitment by individuals, groups or organizations to the realization of the set vision, (Gary, u.d). If these elements are observed, then set visions will become real tools to aid individuals, groups, managers and entire organizations to reach desired objectives. On the other hand, if set visions are not followed through, then they are reduced to mere public relation exercises without any meaningful impact on the attainment of organizational goals.
Comments on the three questions and the new questions
Implementation of change in any organization in most cases proves to be challenging, bearing in mind that changes any changes occurs progressively. This is based on the claim that individual tend to stick to the status quo, has there seems to be uncertainty to any change strategy. Besides, organizational culture has a considerable impact on the outcomes of the aspired changes. Moreover, depending on the way individual perceive the vision of an organization, it might be a tool of delivering change or it might be just an academic concept. Outline and explain the three stages that are involved in the implementation of organizational change according to Lewin, and the impact of culture on the change strategy.
The three stages of change as outline by Lewin are freezing, change and unfreezing. Freezing involves changing the status quo or rather setting favorable grounds to allow the implementation of change. Change is a transitional stage. The affected individuals become aware of the changes but they become confused due to the interruption of the status quo. The third and last stage is refreezing. This involves re-establishment of new state within the organization. The major objective in this stage is to promote productivity of the workforce which declined during the second stage, (Gary, u.d). Culture plays a crucial role as far as implementation of change is concerned. Notably, it can hinder or facilitate change. If the organization has a supportive culture, implementation of change will be less challenging. However, if it has unsupportive culture, implementation of change will not go on smoothly.
What is organizational vision? How is it related to organizational change?
Organizational vision refers to what the organization aspires to achieve in the long-run. It acts like the guiding principle for all the activities of the organization. Thus, organizational vision helps the entire workforce of the organization to focus on the objectives as well as goals of the organization. Organizational vision can be used as a tool to deliver change. This applies only if the members of the organization are always committed to the vision of their organization.
References
Gary, Y. (u.d). Leadership in Organizations 7th ed. London: Pearson
Richard, M.D. (2009). Lewin’s Change management model: Understanding the Three Stages of
Change. Retrieved on 11th July 2011 from http://www.consultpivotal.com/lewin%27s.htm
