ABSTRACT
Change has become a very important strategy for any company, which is focusing to build itself in this ever changing market or even when it is just trying to survive, which makes the management of change a very important task for any company. This research paper reflects the process a company should pursue to be able to manage the change, the research is based on three theories given by world renounced writers; all three theories show three different eras of change management, Kurt Lewis gave his theory in 1950 Lewis change management model, Robert Waterman and Tom Peters developed the Mckinsey’s 7s model in 1980 and finally John Kotter wrote a book on change management “Leading Change” in 1995. Therefore, this paper not only covers how to manage change but it also shows the development of change management.
This research paper concludes that for a company to be able to manage change, it needs to have desire for change, provide time for change, motivation and contingency plan for any resistance as these are the factor that are common in the three theories leading to this result. But most importantly change management is driven by a change leader, who is the driving force for the change; he is the one who promotes the change that achieves the goal and sustains it.
BODY
A change is most commonly referred as the process to become different, a change can be observed in many forms such as biological change and menopause or metamorphosis, statistical change such as percentage change, but the most important change in the context of an individual is personal development and social change.
From the very first day of birth to the last day of death a human being goes through numerous changes through various times in his life, in the similar way when an organization is formed from the day of inception to the day of liquidation it goes through multiple changes but these changes are controlled by the company’s executives on board and it is dependent on what they perceive to be the correct direction for the company to move. Once, the direction is set then the company uses change management to ensure the change to be successfully implemented from the top to bottom within an organization.
The academic literature that is used to manage change in an organization comprise of three theories by three renounced writers, Psychologist Kurt Lewis presented his Lewis’s Change Management Model, The Mckinsey’s 7s model that was conjured by Anthony Atho, Richard Pascale, Tom Peters and Robert Waterman and finally there is the Harvard University Professor John Kotter, who gave the Kotter’s 8 Step Change Model.
A company will not be using all three models at once but it will naturally be choosing one model to derive the change within and throughout the organization.
LEWIS’S CHANGE MANAGEMENT MODEL
Kurt Lewis, a renounced psychologist developed this theory in 1950’s, which is still considered a very effective explanation of change within an organization, using the idea of the change in shape of an ice cube, Lewis suggested three phases of change Unfreeze - Change – Refreeze Firstly, the ice needs to be melted for it heat should be provided; once the ice has melted into water in whatever shape you desire then there is the need to consolidate that shape by refreezing it; then it can be said that the change has been achieved.
UNFREEZE
Acceptance is the first step towards change, realizing that there is a need for change, which will enable the company to create a mindset of what will come next and it won’t take them as a surprise. The worst thing that can be done during change is that you surprise the employees with the change and implement it all at once which will lead to resistance and failure, but with the unfreeze step a constructive argument is generated and communicated to the entire company in a very subtle way, however, reasons such as poor financial results and dissatisfied customers clearly show the need for change.
The change needs to begin from the epicenter of the company that will be the culture of the company, it is one of the most difficult task during..............
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