Change

* Lack of communication

* Lack of honesty and Trust

* Lack of Participation from employees

(ADD TO THIS IF WORD COUNT IS LOW?)

Use of Models for Change

Our world is changing therefore it is necessary for organisations to keep up with the latest trends and change as quickly as they possibly can. Organisations that handle change well are successful however those who do not handle change well or do not pay attention to the environment may struggle to survive.

This is where the concept of ‘change management’ comes to play and is now familiar with many organisations. It depends on the nature of the business; the change and the people involved seeing how successful organisations are in managing change.

There are many different Models that can be used to manage change within a company successfully. One model is Lewin’s Model of Change. This model involves three practical steps; these are the Unfreeze, Change and Refreeze Stages.

Lewin’s Change Management Model: Understanding the three stages of change

Kurt Lewin developed a model for understanding and implementing organisational change back in the 1950’s. It has since then been revised by Schein (1964), Beyer and Trice (1988) and Isabella (1990). He viewed this change process as consisting of the following three steps: -

* Unfreezing

* Change and

* Refreezing

When two companies combine into one larger company, the hierarchy of people who work together must often change dramatically in order to achieve new goals. Managing change involves recognizing the organisational culture of each separate organization. The other may not share values and traditions held by one company. Preparing a workforce for organisational change due to a merger involves clearly establishing the purpose, creating a compelling vision statement, and overcoming resistance to change by explaining why the status quo is insufficient (Tuggan, 2010).

We will now discuss each stage of Lewin’s change management model...