The Change Process and Its Phases

THE CHANGE PROCESS AND ITS PHASES

Table of Contents

Table of Contents 1

List of Figures 1

1. Introduction 2

2. The imperative for change 3

3. The change process and its phases 4

3.1 Understanding change: Lewin’s change management model 4

3.2 Implementing change: Kotter's 8-Step Change Model 5

3.3 Coping with change: the change process by Kostka and Mönch 7

4. Application of Lewin’s and Kotter’s model and main criticisms 9

5. Conclusion 10

Bibliography 11

List of Figures

Fig. 1. Phases of the change process…………….…………………………………………..7

1. Introduction

With the fast pace of current economic and technological development, change has become a common feature to all modern organizations independently of industry and size. Change can be defined as the process of transitioning from a present to a future state that businesses undertake in order to react to changing external conditions.

Change management is nowadays a common practice in most organizations; however, the successful implementation of change strictly depends on how far managers understand the change process, its phases and the way people typically react to change.

Which are the typical phases of a change process? What are the stages that managers have to consider to create successful and permanent change? And finally, how do individuals react when confronted with change?

This assignment covers the above mentioned questions and focuses on the so-called planned change. This term describes a transformation process that is planned and initiated by an organization and its members with the aim of pursuing specific objectives, like for example improving performance, increasing efficiency, adapting to environmental changes or solving problems.

It starts in Chapter 2 with a description of the main issues modern organizations have to cope with in order to survive and which create a clear imperative for internal change.

Chapter 3 introduces three theoretical approaches that...