1.

0 Background of the Study

The organisation and nature of work in today’s times has drastically changed and moved
along with the turn of events especially with factors like technology, pandemic (COVID 19),
demographics, economic and others. This is obvious and seen in the vast change in
availability of jobs and its composition in different parts of the world. For instance, series of
job roles and types are being revamped and others entirely removed through the use of
technology and artificial intelligence. According to Brynjolfsson & McAfee (2014), this is
termed as technological unemployment due to the fact that technology, robotics and other
forms of artificial intelligence are being used to replace humans on their jobs. Alongside
technological aides replacing humans, the prevalence of these permanent jobs is currently
being over crowded by forms of new jobs and customers who decided to source for their
own income (Dokko et al., 2015).

This report analyses the nature of changing work environment and how organisations can
get ready for the ever-changing nature of work with the use of Lewin’s three stage model.
Furthermore, the pandemic has revealed the slow pace of work flexibility and usability of
artificial intelligence at its full force where work can be done anywhere outside the office as
shown in figure 1 below. For instance, the changing nature of work which helps to keep
livelihood in place keeps developing where cultural and environmental systems are evolving
into new ones which makes this study one to delve into.

Figure 1: A pictorial representation of people working remotely due to the pandemic

2.0 Theoretical Review

For every business environment that exist, there is a constant factor that exist which is
change and this ensures continuous growth and competition in the business environment as
a whole. The Kurt Lewin’s model of change will be used for evaluating the ways

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organisations can prepare for change in their nature of work. The following are the three
stages of Lewin’s model of change;

2.1 Unfreezing

According to Lewin (1951), he identified the human behaviour as a state of mental mindset
and physical ability which can be reached but supposedly in a place that can not be reached
to enable the mind absorb without reaching its ability. For instance, a fast-spreading infection
can go viral in the midst of a vast population without succumbing to the initial measures put
in place to prevent it from escalating but will eventually be treated and leave the pupylation
after treatment (Hussain et all., 2017). This applies to future work conditions where change
in organisational settings follow same resistance as the infection but the society prevents
employees from accepting this change from the organisation and the society. To ensure a
future workplace where change is constant and acceptable, the workplace has to be in
equilibrium state to incorporate a form of behaviour that is change receptive (Choi, 2011).
Also, according, group forces and dynamics could be disrupted by emotional imbalance
which concerns self-righteousness in the midst of individual team members. What need to
be changed must be determined, management support must be gotten and the need for
change must be created.

2.2 Change Process

After unfreezing the status-quo, all factors of change to be implemented in an organisation

can be put in place. Every organisation must look out for flow of information, expertise and
skills at all levels of the organisation clearly in order to ensure the implementation is across
board (Edward and Montessori, 2011). Also, leaders who are influential should be used to
motivate, promote, empower, involve and enhance organisational goals and vision in the
change process as it is a common success drive.

2.3 Refreeze

According to Lewis, the purpose of this stage is to enhance change sustainability. The new
changes implemented will be the new status-quo and this can be achieved by making the
new changes an organisational culture, develop and promote different ways to sustain
changes in the future for long term basis (Edward and Montessori, 2011). Organisational
leadership is adapted to the change and structure while putting feedback and a reward
system in place for all who adapt to change. Lastly, in preparing for future organisational
changes, employees should be trained, informed and supported in order to sustain change
and make it long-term.

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Figure 2: Lewin’ change management process.

3.0 Findings and Discussion

Organisational leaders need to understand change management process because it is of

different dimension and can come into play in an organisation in various forms caused by
different factors (Ganta and Manukonda, 2014). Also, change management process can
improve employee confidence, organisational growth, competitive advantage and group
dynamics in an organisation which reflect on leaders as being effective and efficient.
Furthermore, leaders should understand change management process because it is vital to
understand the ways to lead change in order not to fail in the change process (PMI, 2013).
This means that the gradual change in workplace activities changes behaviours too and this
relates to the transition process thereby affecting the success of change implementation in
the organisation. Championing the change management process is more than just
organisational management therefore, a leader mist show responsibility in the process by
ensuring management functions are incorporated into organisational strategies in order to
achieve a successful change integration and management process (PMI, 2014).

4.0 Future implications

There are possible challenges that human resource (HR) might encounter for implementing
Lewis model of change in an organisation for change in future work (Bowe, 2011).
Implementing this theory causes insecurity amongst employees in the organisation making
HR seem partial. That is, employees show concern on their performances on the job at the
instance of change as it creates doubt in their subconsciousness on their expertise on the

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job. Also, the refreezing stage requires HR and the change committee to spend a lot of
freezing time while settling for new changes (Santhidran, et al., 2013). The organisation may
find it hard to get accustomed to the changes as they are constantly modified in the
challenging environment. The Lewin’s model is also not detailed enough and too simple
which can be implemented in different ways (Norshidah, 2011). The model doesn’t reflect
modern times as it is rigid in terms of freezing behaviour which will still be unfrozen again as
a result of fast technology evolving. This makes implementation of company’s policies
difficult to relate to employees in the process of change management.

PART B
What are the work processes that are currently automated in their organisation?

According to the interviewee, there are myriads of work processes in the organization she
worked all which relate directly with each department. For instance, the account and finance
department have different work processes from the Information Technology (IT) department.
As a means to enhance work effectiveness, efficiency and automation in the organisation as
a whole, the organisation automated the increment and digitalisation of all the processes
used in receiving information in the organisation regardless of the department. The
organisation is a news agency and receiving information used to be manual same as
sourcing for information but in order to ensure efficiency and automation in their mode of
data collection, the organisation changed all the process of data collection from using just
newspapers to receiving them on the digital platform. The company also incorporated the
use of social media platforms to source and gather information instead of the usual paper
and pencil or manual way. Looking at this mode of data collection, it has greatly improved
the news agency’ ability to provide information to the public on real time basis and when
needed leading to organisational productivity and efficiency.

What are their experiences of Lewin’ model of change in their place of work?

The interviewer was able to explain their point of view and experience of the Lewin’s model
of change in the aspect of the unfreezing stage. This stage of the Lewin’s model faces
resistance and that is the same issue with the interviewee. For instance, the interviewer
asked the interviewee about their experience with the Lewin model in their work place and
their response was

“When the new information about automation of news and information collection was sent to
all in the organisation, it met a lot of resistance. As you know, I am working in the local
government where most of the staff are elderly people”.

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The interviewer mentioned that the new norm of automation of information met resistance to
its acceptance due to the fact that most of the employees are old and they preferred the old
way they work and not that which the new human resource wants to incorporate. The new
HR was a much younger personnel hence, wants the use of automated processes that will
enhance work activities and processes in the organisation in order to enhance performance
and eradicate the old processes that were not effective and in tune with the world of work
and technology. The interviewer specifically mentioned that

“So, these were the factors, factors like late information, slow news production and response
time all contributed and influenced change in the organisation”.

Is Lewin’ model still valid?

The interviewee expressly stated that

“Yes, it is very much valid because as at when I resigned, the processes incorporated were
still in place and everything we were doing was much smoother”.

This is an indication from the interviewee that the Lewin’ model is valid and effective in
organisational processes and enhancing effective change management. The interviewee
stated that all stages of the Lewin’s model were incorporated even though the unfreezing
stage came with a lot of struggles and resistance from elderly employees but in due course
and time, despite not being easy to implement, all work processes became digitalised. The
refreezing stage in the organisation ensured that all processes put in place did not go back
to status quo hence, the employees were trained and awareness of the processes in the
company was done through workshops. Most of the employees were trained on how to
efficiently use Microsoft excel and other Microsoft 365 packages in order to completely
eradicate the paper mode of information collection.

How are the students interviewed preparing themselves for the work of the future?

From the interview, the student emphasised on keeping trends with technology to prepare
for the work of the future. Technology keeps growing and replacing old means of doing
things hence, in preparing for the future, the student is increasing their knowledge by
furthering their education to increase and grow in depth knowledge. Furthermore, the
students are learning to accept change and not be resistant in any form towards change in
organisational work processes.

Conclusion

From the student’s interview, they stated that every organisation should implement the
Lewin’s model of change in their processes if they are yet to because not implementing it

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shows that they are not on track and evolving with the growth and change in technology,
organisational growth and future work processes. Also, the students suggested that
organisations are advised to implement the Lewin’ model of change in their organisation
because it shows their level of growth and learning curve as an organisation in the global
change environment.

PART C

The usefulness and impact of other students’ contribution to develop my knowledge.

Having participated on the group discussion with other students, I have been able to
understand further limitations of the Lewin’ model especially in the modern era where some
complex situations can come up during implementation of change in an organisation. These
complex situations come in play when the management of an organization has to decide
about either supporting or opposing forces to the change and this could result to confusion
when pointing out facts and lapses. Conclusively, Muhammad Omer explained that if leaders
support the wrong cause, the whole change implementation could take a wrong direction
and lead to huge and serious consequences. The learning discussion also made me
understand the importance of joint contribution in idea generation, some of the group
members’ contribution helped me to develop point while working on my Part A of the
assignment.

Lastly, I have been able to identify how to implement change in an organisation with the use
of the Lewin’s models, I am in the know of the limitations hence, I will ensure that employees
are not challenged on their job or performances when trying to implement change by
preventing the feelings of insecurity by informing them of the change process before its
implementation.

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Reference

Bowe, R (2011). Change Management Coach. Washington DC: Oxford Press

Choi, M. (2011). Employees’ attitudes toward organizational change: A literature review.

Human Resource Management, 50(4), 479–500.

Edward P and Montessori NM (2011) A critical return to Lewin: Exposing discourse and
identification in a Participative Action Research project. Presented at Critical Management
Studies. 7, Naples, July

Ganta, V. C. and Manukonda, J. K. (2014). Leadership During Change And Uncertainty In

Organizations. International Journal of Organizational Behavior & Management
Perspectives, 3(3), 1183

Hussain,S., Shen Lei, Tayyaba Akram, Muhammad Jamal Haider, Syed Hadi Hussain,
Muhammad Ali (2017). Kurt Lewin´s change Model: A critical review of the role of leadership
and employee involvement in organizational change. Journal of Innovation Knowledge.

Lewin, K. (1951). Field theory in social science. New York: Harper and Row.

Lewin, K. 2010. Retrieved on December 12, 2021. http://change-management-

consultant.com/kurtlewin.html.

Norshidah, N. (2011). The influence of emotional intelligence, leadership behaviour and

organizational commitment on organizational readiness for change in higher learning
institution. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 29, 129-138.

PMI Report. (2013). Managing Change in Organizations: A Practice Guide.

PMI Report. (2014). Enabling Organizational Change Through Strategic Initiatives.

Santhidran, S., Chandran, V. G. R.. & Borromeo, J. (2013). Enabling organizational change -
leadership, commitment to change and the mediating role of change readiness. Journal of
Business Economics and Management, 14(2), 348-363.

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Appendix

Transcript

00:00:07.589 --> 00:00:09.120

Adeola: Hi, good evening.

00:00:24.270 --> 00:00:25.320

Munirat Calfos: hello, good evening.

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Adeola: yeah can you introduce yourself.

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Munirat Calfos: My name is Munirat Shalewa.

00:00:43.740 --> 00:00:46.260

Munirat Calfos: My name is Munirat Calfos.

00:01:00.030 --> 00:01:03.240

Adeola: Okay, so, can you tell me where did you or do you work?

00:01:04.620 --> 00:01:11.640

Munirat Calfos: I worked at legal state Environmental Protection Agency in Lagos Nigeria.

00:01:12.450 --> 00:01:19.080

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Adeola: Oh good So what are the work processes that are currently automated in your
organization.

00:01:20.010 --> 00:01:23.880

Munirat Calfos: Well, I don't currently work there, but when I was working...

00:01:24.900 --> 00:01:42.450

Munirat Calfos: The work processes that were automated was the increment and
digitalization of all the processes, we used to receive information.

00:01:43.560 --> 00:01:47.520

Munirat Calfos: departments and we're in charge of everything.

00:01:48.840 --> 00:02:05.790

Munirat Calfos: Regarding news of the agency at first on joining the Agency is to receive
newspapers and you know, do everything manually both when the work processes became
automated.

00:02:07.170 --> 00:02:12.450

Munirat Calfos: We started receiving and doing everything digitally in terms of.

00:02:14.070 --> 00:02:17.880

Munirat Calfos: Our social media platform in terms of.

00:02:19.200 --> 00:02:20.040

Munirat Calfos: Working with.

00:02:21.150 --> 00:02:24.210

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Munirat Calfos: other agencies as well, everything became automated.

00:02:25.980 --> 00:02:26.250

Adeola: Good.

00:02:27.390 --> 00:02:32.580

Adeola: So what are the experiences of Lewins model at your place of work.

00:02:34.050 --> 00:02:37.560

Munirat Calfos: um the experiences of Lewins model...

00:02:38.670 --> 00:02:44.160

Munirat Calfos: I can only say in terms of that agency was the.

00:02:45.870 --> 00:02:47.220

Munirat Calfos: Un freezing stage.

00:02:49.410 --> 00:02:53.550

Munirat Calfos: Yes, so when they first came with the whole.

00:02:55.080 --> 00:03:01.050

Munirat Calfos: idea that everything had be automated it met a lot of resistance, as you
know, i'm.

00:03:03.270 --> 00:03:05.370

Munirat Calfos: Working in local government .

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00:03:06.690 --> 00:03:12.030

Munirat Calfos:working in local governments in Nigeria is mostly feud with a lot of elderly
workers.

00:03:12.390 --> 00:03:13.650

Munirat Calfos: So the reason that they resisted the change because they are used to the
way things are, but because of the new hr.

00:03:20.580 --> 00:03:38.580

Munirat Calfos: That was brought in, which was a much younger person, the person realized
that the processes we had in place was not effective and was not in tune with how the world
works and how technology is now so she introduced.

00:03:39.810 --> 00:03:43.140

Munirat Calfos: The digitalization of the departments.

00:03:44.400 --> 00:03:50.190

Adeola: Okay, fine So what are the factors that influenced change at the organization.

00:03:51.240 --> 00:03:54.690

Munirat Calfos: Like I said when they brought in the new hr.

00:03:56.340 --> 00:04:27.060

Munirat Calfos: Lady she realized that everything we were doing were outdated and not in
tune with the new processes and she realized that everything that we were doing were
backdated and was not up to date, so those were the factors,factors like em late
information,factors like slow news production and response time.

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00:04:29.430 --> 00:04:30.360

Munirat Calfos: Slow news production.

00:04:39.780 --> 00:04:42.900

Adeola: Right so is Lewins model still valid?

00:04:44.520 --> 00:04:49.380

Munirat Calfos: Yes, is very much valid because, as at when I resigned.

00:04:51.630 --> 00:05:08.970

Munirat Calfos: The processes were still in place and everything we were doing was much
smoother

00:05:09.840 --> 00:05:12.150

Adeola: Okay, so what stage was implemented?

00:05:13.050 --> 00:05:19.950

Munirat Calfos: We actually implemented all three stages,which is the.

00:05:20.010 --> 00:05:33.450

Munirat Calfos: Unfreeze,freeze and refreezing stage because like I said when they brought
the unfreezing stage, a lot of people resisted which is normal, which is expected.

00:05:34.170 --> 00:05:34.500

But.

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00:05:35.700 --> 00:05:45.420

Munirat Calfos: After the processes were put in place, and all that came the change
stage,we were actually mandated and there was

00:05:45.930 --> 00:05:57.750

Munirat Calfos: nothing we could do about it, so there were lots of struggle and a lot of
resistance from mostly the elderly employees.

00:05:59.940 --> 00:06:08.640

Munirat Calfos: civil servants, but in due course and in due time,It was not an easy process
but everything became digitalized.

00:06:10.290 --> 00:06:29.640

Munirat Calfos: And then the refreezing stage where everything had already been put in
place so to reiterate the processes to make sure that we don't fall back into the old
processes we went through a lot of training, awareness,

00:06:31.050 --> 00:06:46.320

Munirat Calfos: The workshops you know telling us what to do if we dont understand how to
use certain systems we were trained on how to do it, a lot of civil servants who do not have

00:06:47.970 --> 00:06:59.880

Munirat Calfos: excel background, you know Microsoft 365 did a lot of training on that so that
everything concerning paper

00:07:00.990 --> 00:07:12.840

Munirat Calfos: Everything concerning paper was digitalized so everything that we needed to
do except we needed to write something physically and it was very important everything
became digitalized.

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00:07:14.910 --> 00:07:17.820

Adeola: So do you think the change process was successful.

00:07:18.900 --> 00:07:23.730

Munirat Calfos: Yes, in my opinion, is successful, because they are still using those methods
till date.

00:07:24.720 --> 00:07:28.980

Adeola: Good So how are you preparing yourself, for the work of the future?

00:07:29.580 --> 00:07:39.120

Munirat Calfos: Well I will say i'm preparing for the wolk of future by keeping on trend with
technology, we all know how.

00:07:40.170 --> 00:07:50.880

Munirat Calfos: Things are going and technology, this technology that and if you're not really
in tune yeah kind of outdated like what was happening at my work place,so.

00:07:51.660 --> 00:08:06.450

Munirat Calfos: i'm preparing by increasing my knowledge getting as much education I can, I
am in school now, and that is part of increasing and preparing myself for the future and
trying to grow and increase my knowledge.

00:08:07.980 --> 00:08:12.240

Adeola: Alright,what's your conclusion, based on the evidence.

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00:08:13.320 --> 00:08:16.770

Munirat Calfos: Conclusion based on the evidence is that.

00:08:23.820 --> 00:08:29.430

Munirat Calfos: every organization needs to implement Lewins model.

00:08:30.930 --> 00:08:41.730

Munirat Calfos: model if they haven't because it means that they are not on track and they're
not evolving with the way things are going, except its working for the organization.

00:08:42.750 --> 00:08:52.320

Munirat Calfos: Then I think every organization should implement Lewins model, because it
means the organization is growing and learning as times come.

00:08:53.760 --> 00:08:55.770

Adeola: All right, thank you so much.

00:08:56.070 --> 00:08:57.090

Munirat Calfos: Thank you for having me.

00:08:57.840 --> 00:08:59.310

Adeola: Thank you so so much for your time.

Screenshot of personal contribution

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