OB Ch 14

Lewin's Force Field Analysis Model - (social psychologist Kurt Lewin)

model of system-wide change that helps change agents diagnose the forces that drive and restrain proposed organizational change

Refreezing the Desired Conditions

realigning organizational systems and team dynamics with the desired changes

Lewin's Force Field Analysis Model: Restraining forces

resistance to change -Employee behaviors that block the change process -Takes many forms e.g. complaints, absenteeism, passive noncompliance etc. -Some concerned with change outcomes, others concerned with change process

Action research approach has dominated organizational change thinking since the 1940s...

some complain that it focuses on the negative dynamics of the group or system

Future search

system-wide group sessions, usually lasting a few days, in which participants identify trends and identify ways to adapt to those changes -One problem - a few people tend to dominate the process -Generates high expectations about an ideal future state that are difficult to satisfy in practice -Employees become even more cynical and resistant to change if they do not see meaningful decisions and actions resulting from these meetings

Lewin's Force Field Analysis Model: Refreezing

the latter part of the change process in which systems and conditions are introduced that reinforce and maintain the desired behaviors

Creating an Urgency for Change

1. Inform employees about driving forces 2. Most difficult when organization is doing well 3. Urgency must be real, not contrived 4. Customer-driven change

Three Approaches to Organizational Change

Action Research Approach (Lewin), Appreciative Inquiry Approach, Parallel Learning Structure Approach

restraining forces: direct costs

-Losing something of value due to change -Examples - resources, personal status, career opportunities

restraining forces: Incongruent team dynamics

*-Norms guide behavior -Team norms may discourage employees from accepting organizational change -Team norms that conflict with the desired changes need to be altered

Appreciative Inquiry Approach: Delivering

-"What will be" -Participants establish specific objectives and direction for their own organization based on their model of what should be

Appreciative Inquiry Approach: Discovery

-"What is" -Discovering positive elements of the observed organization (may involve interviewing, documenting positive events and elements)

Appreciative Inquiry Approach: Dreaming

-"What might be" -Considering what might be possible in an ideal organization -- safer revealing aspirations about an ideal than their own situation

Appreciative Inquiry Approach: Designing

-"What should be" -Participants listen to each others' models and assumptions, and eventually form a collective model for thinking within the team

restraining forces: Saving face

-Accepting change acknowledges own imperfection, past wrongdoing -Resisting change as a political strategy to "prove" that the decision is wrong or that the person encouraging change is incompetent

Elements/effects of the Parallel Learning Structure Approach

-Alternative to changing the entire organization at once, *-Members representative across the formal hierarchy *-Sufficiently free from firm's constraints *-Develop solutions for organizational change which are then applied back into the larger organization -Creates enthusiasm in participants that spread contagiously to their co-workers when they return to the larger organization

Action Research Approach: Introduce intervention

-Applies one or more actions (e.g. managing conflict, team building, changing corporate culture) -Incremental change - fine tunes the system and takes small steps to desired state; risky when organization is seriously misaligned with environment -Quantum change: system is over-hauled decisively and quickly; usually traumatic for employees

Action Research Approach: Evaluate and stabilize change

-Comparing change outcomes against standards established earlier in action research process -Problems: outcomes aren't apparent for a long time; difficult to separate effects of external changes (e.g. changing market share)

Development of the Appreciative Inquiry Approach

-Developed 20 years ago -Only became popular in the past few years -Not always successful - requires participants to have a mind-set where they are willing to let go of the problem-oriented approach, and where leaders are willing to accept its less-structured process

restraining forces: Incongruent organizational systems

-Examples - rewards, information systems, patterns of authority, career paths, selection criteria b. *-When properly aligned, systems and structures reinforce desired behaviors -When systems and structures are not properly aligned employees lose momentum for change

Applying transformational leadership with change agents

-Form a vision of the desired future state -Communicate that vision in ways that are meaningful to others -Behave in ways that are consistent with the vision -Build commitment to the vision

Action Research Approach: Diagnose the need for change

-Gather and analyze data about an ongoing system (e.g. surveys and interviews) -Summarize data and report to the organization (clarify symptoms, problems, and solutions) -Employee involvement: employees agree on appropriate change methods; determine expected standard of successful change

Reducing Restraining Forces: Comm

-Highest priority and first strategy for change -Improves urgency to change -Reduces uncertainty (fear of unknown) -Problems -- time consuming and costly

Reducing Restraining Forces: Employee involvement

-Increases ownership of change -Helps saving face and reducing fear of unknown -Includes task forces, future search events -Problems -- time-consuming, potential conflict

Unfreezing and refreezing

-Occur by altering driving and restraining forces -Generate urgency to change -Address sources of resistance -New systems/structures refreeze desired conditions

restraining forces: Breaking routines

-Organizational unlearning is part of change process -But past practices/habits are valued by employees due to comfort, low cognitive effort

Reducing Restraining Forces: Learning

-Provides new knowledge and skills to fit the organization's evolving requirements -used when employees need to break old routines and adopt new role patterns -Problems: time-consuming and potentially costly

Lewin's Force Field Analysis Model: Unfreezing

-The first part of the change process whereby the change agent produces disequilibrium between the driving and restraining forces -Unfreezing occurs when the driving forces are stronger than the restraining forces --Making driving forces stronger --Weakening or removing the restraining forces --Change rarely occurs by increasing driving forces alone because the restraining forces often adjust to counterbalance the driving forces --Preferred option is to both increase the driving forces and reduce or remove the restraining forces

Reducing Restraining Forces: Coercion

-When all else fails -assertive influence -When used: when other strategies are ineffective and the company needs to change quickly -Problems: Reduces trust; May create more subtle resistance

Reducing Restraining Forces: Stress management

-When communication, training, and involvement do not resolve stress -Removes some of the direct costs and fear of the unknown -used when communication, training, and involvement do not sufficiently ease employee worries -Problems: time-consuming and expensive; doesn't help everyone

Reducing Restraining Forces: Negotiation

-When people clearly lose something and won't otherwise support change -Influence by exchange-- reduces direct costs -Problems: Expensive; Gains compliance, not commitment

restraining forces: Fear of the unknown

-Worry that one cannot adjust to the new work requirements -risk of personal loss

ethical concerns of org change

1. Privacy rights of individuals 2. Management power 3. Individuals' self-esteem

Cross-cultural concerns of org cahnge

1. Western perspective of change is linear (e.g. Lewin's force field model)and assumes that the change process is punctuated by tension and overt conflict 2. These assumptions are incompatible with cultures that view change as a natural cyclical process with harmony and equilibrium as the objectives 3. This dilemma suggests that we need to develop a more contingency-oriented perspective

Steps of Action Research Approach (Lewin) to Org Change

1. form client-consultant relationship 2. Diagnose the need for change 3. Introduce intervention 4. Evaluate and stabilize change

Action Research Approach: Form client-consultant relationship

Determine client readiness for change... -Whether people are motivated to participate in the process, -Are open to meaningful change, and -Possess the abilities to complete the process

When does stability occur in Lewin's model?

Stability occurs when the driving and restraining forces are roughly in equilibrium (approximately equal strength in opposite directions)

Action Research Approach (Lewin)

a problem-focused change process that combines action orientation (changing attitudes and behavior) and research orientation (testing theory through data collection and analysis)

Appreciative Inquiry Approach

an organizational change strategy that directs the group's attention away from its own problems and focuses participants on the group's potential and positive elements

Change agent

anyone who possesses enough knowledge and power to guide and facilitate the change effort

Ways of Reducing the Restraining Forces (in order)

comm, learning, employee involvement, stress management, negotiation, coercion

Lewin's Force Field Analysis Model: What are the restraining forces?

direct costs, saving face, fear of the unknown, breaking routines, incongruent organizational systems, incongruent team dynamics

Steps of the Appreciative Inquiry Approach

discovery, dreaming, designing, delivering

Elements of Lewin's Force Field Analysis Model

driving forces, restraining forces, unfreezing, refreezing

Lewin's Force Field Analysis Model: Driving Forces

forces that push organizations toward a new state of affairs -May be internal or external

Parallel Learning Structure Approach

highly participative arrangements, composed of people from most levels of the organization who follow the action research model to produce meaningful organizational change

"Divine discontent"

leaders continually urge employees to strive for higher standards or new innovations, even when the company outshines the competition