Managing Change

Lewin’s ‘Force Field Model’ for identifying applicable driving and restraining forces

Kurt Lewin’s model is a professional tool that has complete reliability in proposing change to organization (Cervone, 2013). In case of Clear – Fresh Water company driving forces and restraining forces to change in present situation are as follows:

Driving Forces – Reasons which positively influence implementation of change are in Clear – Fresh are termed as driving forces. These encouraging forces to change are drawn down:-

Management control – Change in present span of management will be helpful in enforcing new transforms for improvement in all areas of organizational working system.

Profit maximization – Proposed changes can help in improving profit margins for the company with minimization in wastage of resources (Adams and McNicholas, 2007).

New team development – New arrangement for team building based on requirement of work at each job according to time and technologies (Cervone, 2013).

Technological advancement – I-pad is proposed to be given to all engineers for better management of time & transportation cost (Hiatt and Creasey, 2003).

Reduce prices to customer – With the help of proper allotment of work company will be able to reduce its prices for the sake of its customers.

Less customer complaints – Positive, timely and effective completion of each job will trim down the number of complaints of customers (Parker and et. al., 2013).

Operating cost saving – With appropriate management of human resources (engineers) working in the firm less cost is required for each operation of business (Connelly, 2014).

Avoiding wastage of resources – Optimum utilization of time, money and men will result in less possible wastage of all resources (Hiatt and Creasey, 2003).

Intensity of competition – Completion of each job with increased amount of strength will result in positivity at work environment and motivated work force of Clear – Fresh Water Company (Ronnenberg, Graham and Mahmoodi, 2011).

Restraining Forces– There are some hurdles that appear while enforcing change to organization; these are collectively termed as restraining forces to change (Parker and et. al., 2013). Restrictive forces to change in Clear – Fresh Water Company are as follows:-

Time constraints – Time is specified for each job to be performed be a team and after the time completion team have to move for a new job directly.

Computerized team selection – A new computer system will select members of each team according to nature of job unlikely to old pattern of self team selection (Cripps, 2013).

Automatic work allotment – Computerized system will allot work according to the number of complaint in one area to the team already working nearby (Paton and McCalman, 2008).

Lack of understanding of proposed changes – Some employees need more time in understanding proposed change and they face difficulty in doing job with changes imposed (Lunenburg and Ornstein, 2011).

Learning new techniques – Engineers are provided new and improved gadgets to get in touch with the work station but several people are not happy with this thing (Cameron and Green, 2012).

Concern about job security – People of Clear - Fresh are also concern about their job security because of the consequences may happen if they are unable to perform in new system of working (Adams and McNicholas, 2007).

Fear of inability to deal with new system – Training and learning is required for adopting new framework of organizational technical change. This will lead to fear of inability in coping with new style of working (Cripps, 2013).

Direct & instant supervision - With the change in management panel, direct supervision of managing director is going to observe working and completion of all jobs for better usage of resources in new working system of firm (Cameron and Green, 2012).

Kurt Lewin developed the model of force field analysis mostly used for psychological and scientific research studies in early 1900’s. But in 21st century businesses are getting benefited by this appropriate change management tool (Elsey and Tse, 2007). Findings of this force analysis model provide an adequate amount of chance to apply successful change in organization. Every business comprises of two opposite forces for change. By creating a proper balance between both driving and restraining forces, improvement can be taken into action in current scenario of firm (Paton and McCalman, 2008). The force field model put together three steps of change process as unfreezing the present stability, finding the way towards required change and refreezing the changed environment for smooth and problem free implementation of change (Ronnenberg, Graham and Mahmoodi, 2011).

Changes introduced in a planned and controlled manner with the help of 5 Stages of Kotter’s ‘8 Point Plan’ and its usefulness

RMR department of Clear – Fresh Water Company is going through very bad situation. This division is creating burden on company’s profit margin and dissatisfaction in customers (Letchfield and et. al., 2014). Even market image of the firm is also ruined due to fall in share prices and management is unable to increase profit with increasing prices. So the managing director has decided to introduce change in working conditions of RMR division in a carefully planned and controlled manner (Elsey and Tse, 2007).

First 5 stages of John Kotter's 8 Step Plan for change in context of Clear ­ Fresh Water plc is effectively applicable. These stages are as follows:

Create a sense of urgency – People of the RMR division need to understand the urgency of desired change for the purpose of earning customer satisfaction as well as increased profits (Appelbaum and et. al., 2012). For this purpose managing director of the company need to create described guidelines about the current situation of the business in comparison to others and provide this information to all employees for better identification of change required (Ronnenberg, Graham and Mahmoodi, 2011). By the help of analytical review of present situation of market, competitors, share holders, customers, employees and company, people will start knowing the requirement of break from traditional work culture and necessity of solving problems as soon as possible (Appelbaum and et. al., 2012).

Form a guiding association – Implication of change needs to be correctly guided by management to all employees of the firm. A positive outcome of this is the employees can identify needs and requirements of desired change and find less complex and easily adoptable improvements in working style (Letchfield and et. al., 2014). A guiding coalition needs to be formed for helping employees in all stages of change process and creating a sense of fast pace improved working environment in the organization (Ronnenberg, Graham and Mahmoodi, 2011). For this purpose a team of some positive and committed engineers has to be put together, who are good with communicating requirements, leadership capacity, right skills, honest & opened behavior, a capacity to understand, problem solving nature, grievance handling, etc (Teutonico and Matero, 2003).

Create a right vision – A proper image after change situations are ascertained by the managing director for the future condition of RMR division is needed. The clearly stated vision has to be shared with the employees, so they will also see the futuristic approach of improvement, development and continuous change initiated by management of Clear ­ Fresh Water Company (Teutonico and Matero, 2003). The vision is an answer to questions relating to our future, changing scenario, market needs, customer requirements, government policies, competitors of business, working conditions, problems & solutions, financial levels, strategic necessities, etc. the vision of company has to be in as very simplified manner for fast and better understanding of changes (Brown and Osborne, 2012).

Communicate the vision – The transformational changes in organization need to be communicated with lots of information to generate a sense of clarification (Banks, 2010). Otherwise employees will not understand the idea and start resisting to the vision of management. This appears to have been successful largely because John Kotter has described this stage as a governing stage for further process of change implementation (Brown and Osborne, 2012). The vision has to be clearly communicated with covering all aspects of amendment in the smooth running of RMR divisions’ operations. There is also a need of regular communicating simple ideas to impose change and making positive acceptance for all modifications like time management, job distribution, team buildup, etc. Company must choose clear communication channels for avoiding misunderstanding and restraining forces for applying transformation in careful and effective manner (Sabri, Gupta and Beitler, 2006).

Empower others to act on the vision – After communicating vision to the employees, they need to be empowered with the actions to be taken for change initiative. Management need to be eligible for introducing new plans, policies, strategies, process and technologies for fast and better application of change (Sabri, Gupta and Beitler, 2006). Training secessions are developed to instruct about new ideas and process of implementation can be learnt by the engineers of RMR division. They need to learn the use of I-pad introduced by management for tacking of employees and working with new teams based on computer selection is also necessary for smooth running of all operations. The sense of incapability has been eliminated from employees mind set and comfortable learning and handling situations can be taken into regular practice (Burnes, 2009). Empowerment give motivation to employees towards changing work environment and the sense of optimum utilization of resources is initiated by themselves. Even the experience of will help in boost confidence of all workers of RMR division.

John Kotters’s 8 point plan is prove to be very useful for applying change in the Clear – Fresh Water Company and the managing director find the perfect way for making engineers of RMR department comfortable with management initiatives for achieving organizational objectives and coping with changing market requirements (Burnes, 2009). This approach is mainly useful in circumstances where right things in right order are required for successful transformation of Clear – Fresh Water Company and achievement of long term goals like: customer satisfaction reduced operating cost, less complaints, increased profits, effective system, optimum utilization of resources, appropriate technology, market image, employee relations, etc (Banks, 2010). The practical implications of this model need to be carefully considered from the 6th step of this 8 point change plan where as the first 5 stages are considered to be useful for the company’s perspective.

Conclusion

For developing a new and improved working system in Clear – Fresh Water Company a clear vision of management is required. With the application of Kurt Lewin's Force Field and John Kotter's 8 Step Change Plan managing director can find correct way of implementing change in the working system of the firm. Employees are motivated by driving forces of change and management learned to cope up with restraining forces of change. Through proper follow up in the process of change implementation right things can take right place in desired time. These models of managing change are completely applicable to Clear – Fresh Water Company and going to be proved very effective in long term running of business.

References

• Adams, A. C. and McNicholas, P., 2007. Making a difference: Sustainability reporting, accountability and organisational change. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal.
• Appelbaum, S. H. S. and et.al., 2012. Back to the future: revisiting Kotter's 1996 change model. Journal of Management Development.
• Banks, B. V. C., 2010. Managing change and transitions: a comparison of different models and their commonalities. Library Management.
• Brown, K. and Osborne, P. S., 2012. Managing Change and Innovation in Public Service Organizations. Routledge.
• Burnes, B., 2009. Managing Change: A Strategic Approach to Organisational Dynamics. Prentice Hall/Financial Times.
• Cameron, E. and Green, M., 2012. Making Sense of Change Management: A Complete Guide to the Models Tools and Techniques of Organizational Change. Kogan Page Publishers.

UPTO50%

Avail The Benefit Today!

To View this & another 50000+ free

Enter Email

Submit