Kurt Lewin’s Three-Step Model
Discuss about the importance of current change management theory or model.
In the current times to make any organization survive in the long-run and evolve it is important to make necessary changes to the business. Change is the only thing constant and adapting and managing the present changes needs adequate time, training and efforts (Matos Marques Simoes and Esposito, 2014). The report focuses on various kinds of change management models that are successfully and effectively applied to the industries and business that aims to deal with the change and transition.
Current change management involves application of pre-planned framework and structured method to foster business growth. The major benefit of change management is to increase the business effectiveness that would lead to produce higher Return on Investment (ROI) (Hornstein, 2015). Amidst the fast paced world and high competition, it is important for the organization to adopt the current change management. The improved technology and new methodologies is effective enough to meet the demand of the customers. The report will further disclose the models and various approaches related to change management.
It is significant to focus on suitable action plan and avoid implementing any kind of random methods to focus on an effective action plan. Change management is also an ongoing procedure involving expertise, time, efforts and dedication to implement and run the processes (Cummings, Bridgman and Brown, 2016). There are various approaches and models that are to be adopted by the organization so that it would be necessary to figure out the necessary changes.
The change management model is highly effective as well as popular change management models. It is created and designed by Kurt Lewin’s in the 1950’s. The model is still valid in the current times. The model includes three major stages, which are unfreezing, change and refreeze. Change is required in the management and major preparation is required for the changes. Unfreeze is the prior phase that is vital as most people all over the world resist changes and is significant to convert the status quo (Van der Voet, 2014). Change within the management is essential as the ultimate transition takes place within this phase. The procedure usually takes adequate time to occur. Nowadays the people usually spend maximum times to embrace new developments change and happenings. During this phase, communication and proper timing are the key elements to make the changes very successfully. Refreeze is the last step in the model that involves the change to be accepted, implemented and embraced by the people, organization and company to make it stable again.
McKinsey 7S Model
Staff and processes began to refreeze and thus the new change is finally accepted by the management. Things start turning back to normal routine and pace. Lewin’s force model helps people to ensure that the changes that are to be implemented should be used to achieve the overall objectives. Gradually, the employees get confident and comfortable for the acquired changes. In the current times, British airways have restructured its entire organization to increase profit. The company eliminated unprofitable routes and applied strategy to modernize its fleet. Through effective management, the change bought by the company led to increase in the profit by $ 284 million.
McKinsey 7S model is widely accepted model in the present time. During the year 1980, it was created previously by the consultants working for the McKinsey & Company (Larsen and Eskerod, 2015). The major seven steps and stages required for managing the changes are as follows:
- Strategy- it is the plan that is created to reach the goals and get past the existing competition. This is the most prior stage related to change management and involves creation of easy procedure related to the plan in future.
- Structure- the attribute or stage of this model that is related to the way in which an organization is divided.
- Systems– to complete the required task, the daily activities are performed and are related to the effective stage (Foss and Saebi, 2017).
- Shared values- it is referred to the core values of an organization and accordance to which it works and run.
- Style- the ways in which the leadership and desired changes are implemented by tge management is referred to the ‘style’.
- Staff- this generally refers to the employees or workforces as well as their working capabilities.
- Skills– this includes all the well defined skills and competencies that are used by the individuals that work within the firm.
This 7S model helps in providing various methods and ways that would help in understanding the organization and obtaining a deep insight in the techniques of its working. It facilitates in providing a directional factor related to the organizational change. The model is also considered to be highly significant and equally worth addressing all the aspects related to its importance (Lozano, Ceulemans and Seatter, 2015). However, McKinsey model of change management is also complex in relation to other models. As all the factors are interdependent and interrelated, therefore failing of one particular element would result in failing of the entire model.
Kotter’s change management theory is highly popular and accepted all over the world. This change management theory is devised by John P. Kotter and is also divided into eight major stages, which focuses on the key principle that is related with the response of people to the change (Larsen and Eskerod, 2015). The stages are described as follows:
- Increase urgency- this leads to creates the importance of urgency among the individuals so that they can motivate them to attain their objectives or goal.
- Build the team- this step is associated with the getting the perfect number of people on the team through proper selections of combined knowledge, commitment and skills.
- Acquiring the vision- the stage involves create an adequate vision by taking into considerations all the important objectives.
- Communicating- effective communication with the people about the change is also significant and is a vital element of the change management theory.
- Empowering actions- empowering actions would be necessary to support and implement feedback in a very constructive way.
- Focus on short-term goals- It would be effective to achieve maximum success without much pressure (Teixeira, Gregory and Austin, 2017).
- Don’t give up- Persistence is important for success and therefore it is vital to have patience and not give up on success during the change management procedure.
- Incorporate change- change should be managed effectively as it is crucial to reinforce it and also make it an important part of the organizational culture.
Kotter’s model can easily be followed and incorporated by the management. In the current times, many successful organizations are implementing this step by step model to achieve success in the long-term (Taylor et al., 2017). The main idea lying underneath the model is to accept this change within the organization. Nokia was one of the greatest suppliers of mobile devices but later on struggled to remain profitable in the competitive environment. ultimately the company was sold to Microsoft by the management team. Recently, the company has changed it focus and mapping technologies. Through effective change management Nokia is building networks besides various other initiatives.
Kotter’s Change Management Theory
In the current scenario, ADKAR model of change is also applied by the successful management that focuses on the various activities and steps that are related to the goals directly. Through this model, the goals are defined and derived in a sequence and are cumulative in nature. By using this model an individual can easily obtain the desired outcome in a systematic manner. This helps in making the necessary change to be implemented effectively. This model for change is used by the mangers so that effective training is given to the employees. ADKARS model helps in providing necessary support and help to the employees so that they can go through the change process. Moreover, it is also important to treat and diagnose the resistance made by the employees towards the desired change. This current change management theory also helps in coming up with an efficient and successful plan to improve the performances of the employees (Oreg et al., 2018).
ADKAR model generally stands for:
- Awareness- for the need as well as conditions for necessary changes
- Desire- to bring about the change and be a major participant
- Knowledge- to identify the change that is to be bought in the business
- Ability- to incorporate the existing change on a continuous basis
- Reinforcement- to keep the change implemented and reinforcing it
In the current scenario, this change management model or theory provide capability of id evaluation for all the reasons that showcase why desirable results are not obtained and changes are not made at working (Van der Voet and Vermeeren, 2017). This model helps in breaking the current changes into various elements and then figuring out the areas where change cannot be proved to be adequate and fulfilling as planned. This model also offers both dimensions of change that includes people and business. Toyota has implemented change and practiced just-in-time approach to increase its manufacturing.
In the current times, one of the critical decisions taken by the mangers is to control the organization to deal with the existing change. The current environment for the business is very competitive and is changing at a rapid rate. The organization that changes efficiently is the one that is going to survive in the long-term (Bucciarelli, 2015). Various organizations slowly start to eliminate when they are unable to succeed with the desired change management. In addition to this, there are high pressures to make the desired changes in most of the industries and making the desired changes due to the advent of latest technologies and increase in level of competition. Change involves maximum effort from the organization and the people in the organization also want to feel highly better about them. Different strategies should be used by the employees to manage the changes. Changes within the management also lead to significant losses of the mangers at various levels (Kazmi and Naarananoja, 2017). Any kind of changes in the organization includes all the possibilities related to changing habits. This means that changing in the manner or process in which the work was actually done within the management. Therefore, this kind of changes involves the way in which it can be interacted both with the people and the tool. Moreover, after implementing the change the new system needs the business management to learn affectively about the latest organizational behavior. Amazon is often characterized by constantly changing itself. in the recent times, Amazon has proved to be successful as the organization is always putting their customer first.
ADKAR Model
In the recent times, competition and technological advancement is increasing at a rapid rate. The HR mangers within the management before implementing any change should also ensure that the changes made in the organization should be for the best interest. The management should ensure that the best and the most effective change model theory is needed to be implemented and practiced by the organization. Customers are the most significant focus of any businesses and without successfully retaining the customers; the business cannot survive for a long term. For making any kind of changes in the organization it is critical to ensure and rethinks what the customers really needs. Communication is the key element to develop change and implement t effectively within an organization. To conduct the change within the organization successfully it is important that all level of the management should participate in the change management process. Any kind of change within an organization can only be successful when the employees are completely motivated towards the change. They are also willing to accept the desired vision that is presented by the organizational leadership.
Conclusion:
In the current climate of evolving economic pressure and political priorities, organizational change has become one of the latest priorities of the business management. It can be therefore concluded that the change management process is a very complex process. The change management process can lead to create both positive and negative outcome on the organization. The outcome is related to the manner in which an employee is willing to accept the current change. There are various kinds of change that an organization has to go through. This includes political, strategic, cultural and organizational changes. There are also various challenges that an organization faces and therefore to achieve maximum success, the organization should adopt the most effective change management theory or model. Furthermore various change management models and its importance is also discussed.
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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), pp.33-60.
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