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Guided Response: Answer any questions your instructor has about your initial post, and respond to at least two of your classmates’ postings by Day 7. Each of your responses to your classmates should be at least 100 words in length. Point out a difference between your conclusions and those of your classmate regarding the impact of culture on individual, team, and organizational performance. Respectfully debate this point with your classmate, offering support for your point of view, and offering a critique of your classmate’s point of view.

DB1

    The concept of change management is a very familiar one in most companies, however, the success of implementing any change model depends on the nature of business, the change, leaders, and the employees.  For my discussion, I chose Kurt Lewin’s Change Management Model.  I chose this model because even though it was created by social psychologist Kurt Lewin in the 1950s it still holds true today as it focuses on human behavior and psychology.  Kurt Levin’s model is known as Unfreeze – Change – Refreeze, and explains how to initiate, manage and stabilize planned change (Kinicki & Williams, 2018).

               The first step in Lewin’s Change Management Model is called Unfreeze, which means that the company should challenge the existing culture and work practices and prepare all employees for the upcoming change.  This is the part of the process that is most difficult and stressful to the employee and might induce strong reactions. However, this is very much needed as without it the leaders and managers would not be able to get the support for the change.  During this step, the leaders and manager need to explain why the change is inevitable and how the company will benefit.  Some of the ways to support this step are for managers to use the stakeholder analysis to identify and win the support of key employees who can help with framing and cascading the message on what and why the change must occur.  This is the stage where leaders and managers need to instill the motivation for change in employees and encourage them to let go of old ways (Kinicki & Williams, 2018).  The second step in Lewin’s Change Management Model is called Change, which means this is where the actual steps are taken to implement change.  This is the stage where employees will look for new ways to do things, start believing and supporting new directions, and uncertainty will dimmish.  Leaders and managers need to communicate timely, clear, and often during this stage as employees need to understand the change and transition.  Employees need to be given new information and new behaviors by leaders and managers (Kinicki & Williams, 2018).  The third step in Lewin’s Change Management Model is called Refreeze, which is about employees starting to embrace change.  This is when the new practices are introduced as a way of working, and this is where the resistance from employees will also take place. Galli (2022) noted that during this stage is important to have leaders and managers as well as resources (training, instructions, etc) available for the team member who are resistant to ease with the transition. The stage of Refreezing is the ultimate stage in which people accept or internalize the new ways of working or change, accept it as a part of their life, and establish new relationships. For strengthening and reinforcing the new behavior or changes in the way of working, the employees should be rewarded, recognized, and provided positive reinforcements, supporting policies or structures can help in reinforcing the transformed ways of working. Leaders and managers need to make sure all changes are incorporated as new ways of doing things and can provide examples to employees by changes in attitudes and behaviors (Kinicki & Williams, 2018).

               How do we know if Kurt Lewin’s change management model is the best for your change project to implement?  For this model to work, there are several assumptions for effective change.  The first one was that there needs to be a change motivator, the second one that employees are at the heart of changes for any company and the third one was that those employees affected by the change need to adapt to new practices.  Another assumption was that even with the process going smoothly being resistance to change will occur (Galli, 2022).  

               One of the main advantages of Kurt Lewin’s model is that it focuses on human behavior and psychology which tends to stay the same with the changing environment. The model is also easy to understand as it only has 3 stages, and it is straightforward compared to other change management models. As Galli (2022) explained this model is great for project teams and large organizations to use for its simplicity and three-step process.   

               One of the main disadvantages is that the most difficult stage is the initial stage, when the leaders and manager introduce the change and receive the most resistance, thus making the stakeholders challenge if the company will be better off after the change.  Another challenge is that the model is perceived not to be detailed enough so leaders and managers must fill in the blanks.  This is addressed by Galli (2022) as the simplicity of the model, prevents leaders and managers with how to deal with the human part of the change.  It can also be seen as combative as during the unfreezing stage the way of work is shaken up.

               For the Kurt Lewin, change management model to be successful leaders and managers need to guide their teams to embrace change by implementing training and development. Leaders and managers drive high-impact reports and they are responsible for employees to achieve goals.  During the unfreezing stage, leaders and managers need to first identify all the procedures they need to change and meet with employees to ask their opinions on what works, what does not work, what should change, and what should not.  During the change stage, leaders and managers need to train employees on how to do things in a new way, they need to prepare deadlines and milestones to meet.  For the freezing stage, leaders and managers need to implement metrics the company can use to evaluate the change as well as schedule meetings to track and evaluate progress.  Leaders and managers need to collaborate with employees in order for this model to be successful, if employees are unwilling to change, the process of implementing change will fail, thus leadership and management communication is critical (Galli, 2022).

 

Galli, B. J. (2018). Change management models: A comparative analysis and concerns. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 46(3), 124-132.  https://doi.org/10.1109/EMR.2018.2866860 (Links to an external site.)

Kinicki, A., & Williams, B. K. (2018). Management: A practical introduction (8th ed.). McGraw Hill.

 

DB2

Kurt Lewin’s Change Management Model

              Kurt Lewin’s Change Management Model outlines three basic steps in the change process. The process first involves the behavioral thaw (unfreezing) the change (transition) and concludes with the recrystallization of the desired behavior or refreezing (Galli, 2022). This model stresses the idea that organizations need time to reflect on the change and analyze the process before entering the unfreezing stage. For example, horsemen across the country have been notified of changes concerning the governing body of horse racing that will go into effect starting July 1st. This period of time between now and July allows individuals to digest the material and become more comfortable with the changes that are going to ensue.

              When the process is ready to begin, the unfreezing phase takes hold. There is initial understanding required in order for the process to begin effectively. This initial understanding requires a high level of analytical thinking for what is and isn’t working within the change. For example, rolling our new CRM software means that there will be new algorithms presented to the sales teams for projected leads. Knowing which leads are legitimate versus ones that are ill-reported is a valuable differentiation that will set the expectations further along in the change process (Galli, 2022).   

              Once there is a plan in place, the change enters the transition phase. This phase is where change typically meets the most resistance from members of an organization. Employees may experience setbacks and make mistakes. However, it is essential that employees feel supported by their managers by having resources readily available. For example, we went from using a very old computer system to a newer one called SAP in my company. This program presented several challenges in adapting to new order processing software. SAP, however, gave us multiple resources to help us with the change in the form of having on-site program specialists and written instruction guides.

              The last phase of Lewin’s change process is refreezing, or the change itself. This stage requires individuals to work actively amongst each other to test, connect, implement and evaluate the change. Employee behaviors will undergo change, and they will adapt to the new normal of doing things. Since change is difficult, managers must watch out for any negative attitudes that may arise due to the change and evaluate them before the attitudes spread and become worse (Kinicki & Williams, 2018).

Strengths and Limitations

              One strength of Lewin’s model is that it provides a good amount of detail as to what the change process should look like in a step-by-step fashion. With details in each step, the change process can be quickly followed and success more likely. In a study conducted by Memon (2022), it was determined that readiness for change (unfreezing) created satisfaction when the transition phase started. The transition phase then bred higher employee engagement during the final strep, refreezing. 

However, it is also suggested that employee readiness for change and satisfaction with change has a direct correlation with an employee’s fear of change. For example, employees who said they started out going into the process with a higher fear of change exited the process with a lower level of productivity and understanding (Memon, 2022). With this in mind, a weakness of the model is that it t it does little to acknowledge the different personalities involved within the chain. Failing to acknowledge various personality traits such as fear of change can result in change failures and an unsuccessful process.

Manager Role and Responsibilities 

              The role of upper managers in enacting change is to outline the process and understand each individual’s learning style, adaptability to change, and level of understanding. For example, someone who is new to the company will probably have an easier time changing and adapting to a new policy than someone who has been with the company for a long time. To this end, a manager can mediate between a colleague’s fear of change and the change process (Memon, 2022). A manager should set up a preview of the change, provide resources during the transition, and make sure that resources are available through the refreezing period of the change. For example, the manager is responsible for asking questions of their employees to make sure that everyone is on the same level before and after the change.

 

Galli, B. J. (2018). Change management models: A comparative analysis and concerns. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 46(3), 124-132. https://doi.org/10.1109/EMR.2018.2866860

Kinicki, A., & Williams, B. K. (2018). Management: A practical introduction (8th ed.). McGraw Hill.

Memon, F. A., Shah, S., & Khoso, I. U. (2021). Improving Employee's Engagement in Change: Reassessing Kurt Lewin's Model. City University Research Journal, 11(1), 144-164. https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/improving-employees-engagement-change-reassessing/docview/2542758465/se-2?accountid=32521