Change Management - Theories of Changes

Organizational change is usually triggered by relevant environment shift, either internal or external, that sensed by companies and leads to intentionally generated response (French, Bell & Zawacki, 2006). This paper will discuss several organization development models..

Theories of Change

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 section, several theories of change will be discussed to improve our understanding of change management in theory and practice.

Kurt Lewin's Three-StagesChange Model

Kurt Lewin's three stage force field theory provides guidance for organizational change which involves unfreezing, movement and refreezing. The first step in this process of change is to unfreeze the current situation, followed by a change or movement. The last step in this process is refreezing step to make the new behaviors stick (Levasseur, 2001). Disconfirmation, cognitive redefinition, and induction of survival anxiety are three processes associated with unfreezing (Schein, 1999). When dissatisfaction occurs it signals change is needed resulting in disconfirmation (Schein). The feelings, attitudes, and values associated with learning to use the new behaviors and changing the current behaviors refers to cognitive redefinition. Movement takes place when management plans and implements the move including making modifications and educating staff on new organizational behaviors. Refreezing is defined as a new behavior in conjunction with the old behavior of individuals (Schein).

Lippitt, Watson and Westly's Seven-Phase Model

Based on the Lewin three-phases model,

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