Change management
One common type of organizational change may be aimed at reducing outgoing costs while maintaining financial performance, in an attempt to secure future profit margins.
Shortly before his death, Lewin would write two articles called Human Relations which are the foundation of his three-step model.
[7] In 1934, Lewin set up a proposal to create an action research-orientated department of psychology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Shortly after, Lewin moved to America and started up other action research initiatives with children, housewives, religious groups, racial intolerance, and leadership.
[9] In his work on diffusion of innovations, Everett Rogers posited that change must be understood in the context of time, communication channels, and its impact on all affected participants.
[12] In the late 1980s, General Electric under Jack Welch was somewhat shell-shocked and demoralized following several years of organizational restructuring and de-layering that resulted in far fewer people but the same amount of work, while saddled with a stifling bureaucracy.
Welch directed a team that ultimately included Dave Ulrich, Todd Jick, Steve Kerr, and Ron Ashkenas among others, to create a process to "get unnecessary work out of the system."
“In small teams, people challenge prevailing assumptions about ‘the way we've always done things’ and come up with recommendations for dramatic improvements in organizational processes.
It can help create a culture that is fast-moving, innovative, and without boundaries.”[13] In 1990, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization by Peter Senge is published.
The 1990 oil price shock occurred as a result of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990 and contributed to the recession of the early 1990s in the United States.
At General Electric, Jack Welch and the senior leadership team were forced to abandon methodically developed strategic plans.
Welch commissioned a team, including Dave Ulrich and Steve Kerr, to create a process to "accelerate change" throughout GE.
“Thus in 1992 and 1993, some of the external faculty, in collaboration with Crotonville staff, developed and implemented the Change Acceleration Process (CAP) as a follow-up to Work-Out.
[18] In response to lack of understanding in how to manage change in large projects and programs of work, Christina Dean (author of RIMER Managing Successful Change Professional Edition), established the Australian Government National Competency Standards at Diploma Level, and RIMER as the Australian National Competency Standard Certification.
[26][27] Due to the growth of technology, modern organizational change is largely motivated by exterior innovations rather than internal factors.
When these developments occur, the organizations that adapt quickest create a competitive advantage for themselves, while the companies that refuse to change get left behind.
John P. Kotter, the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at the Harvard Business School is considered the most influential expert of change management.
It consists of eight stages: These steps are very much tied to Lewin's model and build upon his simplistic process of creating change.
The focus on small-scale plan testing initially, which lowers the possibility of broad problems and encourages fault avoidance, is what distinguishes PDCA.
Organizations may practice scientific management and promote continuous improvement by employing PDCA, which focuses on finding and fixing the underlying causes of issues.
[citation needed] Traditionally, organizational development (OD) departments overlooked the role of infrastructure and the possibility of carrying out change through technology.
It also requires a balance in bureaucratic organizations between top-down and bottom-up management, ensuring employee empowerment and flexibility.
[43] Furthermore, in cases where a company has seen declining fortunes, for a manager or executive to view themselves as a key part of the problem can be very humbling.
[44] To assist with this, a number of models have been developed which help identify their readiness for change and then to recommend the steps through which they could move.
[45] This model was developed by researcher and entrepreneur Jeff Hiatt in 1996 and first published in a white paper entitled The Perfect Change in 1999.
[46] Hiatt explained that the process of becoming ready for change is sequential, starting from the current level of each individual,[47] and none of the five steps could be avoided: "they cannot be skipped or reordered.
When trying to change at an organizational level, these tactics developed by Irving Calish and Donald Gamache[50] help companies in trying to enter into new markets and with creating new products.
These tactics are more optimal for when an organization is trying to implement change at an organizational level or trying to enter into a new product space, but still work for other avenues.
At a Vietnamese University there was a desire to use Lewin's change theory to create a more "effective working environment where lecturers collaborate in a constructive spirit to improve their teaching practices and learning outcomes.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) conducted an analysis at a federally qualified health center in Kentucky and looked to "improve its delivery of preventive care services, close care gaps, and reduce health disparities among its patient population.
