Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Why might it be
argued that Change Management is an outdated approach?
- One early model of change was introduced by Kurt Lewin. This is known as the
model or organisational change and it described change as a three stage process.
The first stage is known as unfreezing where the mind begins to dismantle all
previous notions and beliefs the individual previously holds. The second stage is
where change begins to take place and the individual will be in a period of
confusion. The third and final stage is the freezing stage where the individual
begins to adapt and accept the changes and the mind is back to the stage where it
was previously comfortable with.
- Another criticism is that the top management usually failed to consider or ignored
the feelings of the ground staff when they implement change. As such, junior
managers, supervisors will face the uncertainty of assuming new responsibilities
and tasks. In addition, lower level employees will also feel insecure, confused and
even to the extent of feeling threatened of the possibility of losing their jobs.
- If trust is lacking between the employees of the organisation and the various
levels of management, resistance will be all the higher. Management normally
oversimplify a complex issue as change affects many people and certain idealistic
individuals hoping for a smooth transition of change might experience a more
difficult time than what they expected to be. Thus, changes give rise to the
possibility that employees might be alienated from the top management and
introduce unnecessary disruptions to the organisation if changes are not
implemented properly.
- Despite its simplicity, Lewin model is criticised for assuming that “Change” is a
one-off, isolated transformation of an organisation. In keeping with the “changing
world”, it is argued that organisations should instead be gearing themselves
towards continuous change, utilising a flexible structure and continuing
developing their staff to meet shifting challenges.
- The organization has to be open to enquiry and tolerant of criticism and debate.
There must be a willingness to try new idea and lack of defensiveness about the
culture.
- The organization can adapt the learning model where employees constantly go for
upgrading and reskilling. This helps to prepare the employees to be successful in a
new or changing environment. Preparation can include on the job training,
external training, coaching or mentoring to gain skills, knowledge and experience.
- As more and more organizations turn to learning organizations, the very existence
of the concept of change management might be rendered obsolete. In the modern
society, access to good education is always increasing year after year. As people
gets more educated, their capacity towards learning and attitude towards openness
and innovation increase. Thus, most organizations will be able to tap on such a
diverse and knowledgeable workforce to evolve into a learning organization in the
foreseeable future.