Lewin’s and Kotter’s Models of Change

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Determine how leaders can use each of the models to lead organizational change initiatives efficiently.

Leaders are the decision-makers of any business organization. They take decisions on various levels starting from the implementation of the new strategy and exclusion of any old strategy to assess the operation of the given strategy.  According to Cummings & Worley (2014), leaders influence the employees of the organization to achieve the desired goals and for that, they guide and motivate them in various ways. They stated that often the leaders use methods to ensure transitions at individual and organizational level for reshaping the organizational framework. It is known as Change Management. As discussed by Rothaermel (2015), psychologist Kurt Lewin and Professor of leadership John Kotter have given two models that describe how the leaders implement planned change. The essay will differentiate between these two models and analyze the leader’s role in the change management. Some scholarly articles will be highlighted for an in-depth study.

Change may take place without showing any prior symptoms too. Therefore, an organization should always review the organizational works to find out the symptoms. Otherwise, crisis may occur. According to Rothaermel (2015), it is in this case the term “crisis management” has gained importance. The leader is responsible to identify the crisis for the improvement of the situation and make the employees adaptable with the change. Rothaermel (2015) stated that an effective leadership incorporates the necessary changes into the organizational framework through skill, commitment, and investment.

Rothaermel (2015) said that kurt Lewin has outlined a model of change that demonstrates the responsibility of the leader according to the following ways:

• Unfreeze
• Change
• Refreeze

Lewin opined that motivation of change should operate before the change occurs. The first stage of his model is the “Unfreeze” stage, which suggests that various assumptions regarding oneself and the relationship one maintain with others should be re-examined by the leaders to identify the areas where change is necessary. It is from this “Unfreeze” stage that the change starts taking place. Before the leaders chalk out the new plan for the change, he must break the existing working procedure to analyze the areas of improvement. The leader starts the analysis from the very core of the situation by questioning the existing beliefs, attitudes, and values operational within the organizational framework. Sometimes this process involves creation of a controlled crisis that puts everything off balance only to rebuild a new structure out of it.

Literature Review

The second stage is named “change”. At this stage, the employees are motivated to solve the problems identified in the first stage. They embrace the change and find out the new ways that works. It is a time taking process. The third and the final stage is the “Refreeze” stage in which the changes actually take place. The leaders help the employees to adapt the changes and internalize them within the organization. He ensures that the employees are utilizing the changes in their everyday business. Through this process, the employees are made to accept the changes with comfort.

Pollack & Pollack (2015) discussed that there is another model for change proposed by John kotter that analyzed the eight steps for change. He opined that an effective leadership should include the following of these eight steps to usher a change.

According to Pollack & Pollack (2015), the eight steps are the following:

• Establishing a sense of Urgency
• Forming a Powerful Guiding Coalition
• Creating a Vision
• Communicating the Vision
• Empowering Others to Act on the vision
• Planning for and Creating Short-Term Wins
• Consolidating Improvements and Producing still More Change
• Institutionalizing New Approaches

At the first step, the leaders should use the opportunities to encourage the employees for the change. Next, they should assemble the group, energize them with power and lead them towards the change. The third stage involves shaping a vision that could see the change and according to that, the leaders should develop the strategy to achieve the vision. In the fourth stage, the leaders should develop a large section of people or employees who will bring this change. The stage five includes removing the obstacles that hinder the change. In the sixth stage, the leaders aim at achieving short-term goals. The job is to produce consistently, track the situation and evaluate the outcomes. The Seventh stage involves promoting and developing the employees for achieving the ultimate vision of the organization. Here, the changes occur in the structure, policies and the systems. New projects are given to the employees so they can understand the situation and improve accordingly. In the last and the eighth stage, the leaders enable the communication between the new structure and the organizational success. They focus on the leadership development to achieve the success by marinating a balance between the change and the success. (“Change Management – Kotter International”, 2016)

As discussed by Gorran Farkas (2013), whereas Lewin was a believer of rebuilding the structure out of the old one, Kotter never suggests for this deconstruction method. According to his theory, the first job of the leaders is to find out the probable areas where change is required. Therefore, leaders should imbibe and practice the skills to judge the whole situation and find the problematic areas out of it. He analyzed that Kotter’s model is step-by-step process in which each steps are bound to each other to achieve the vision of change. His theory stresses the importance of vision. A leader is responsible for the vision and his main job is to spread the vision among his employees and work collaboratively with them to achieve that vision. Lewin, however, focus more on finding out the areas where change is essential after the deconstruction is done. Both the unsettlement and the problem finding are the two major responsibilities of the leaders. Gorran Farkas, M. (2013) added that unlike the Koter’s model, the model of Lewin considers not only what should be done but also the way things occurred in the past. van den Heuvel et al (2013) discussed the another point that the deconstruction process involved in the Lewin’s model often includes the creation of the crisis so that the problem areas are brought to the notice. van den Heuvel et al (2013) added that, again, the leaders following the Lewin’s model considers the individual’s acceptance level during and after the process of change.

The following discussion will be based on articles by Battilana et al (2010), Rizwan & Latif (2012), Van der Voet et al (2014). Kuipers et al 2014 opined that in their article, Battilina et al (2010) have pointed out the importance of implementation of change by the leaders. The leaders play different role within the organization for implementing the planned organizational change. The task involves a lot of complexities. The research done by Battilina et al (2010), according to Benn et al (2014), tried to analyze both theoretically and practically the relationship between the competencies of the leaders and the various activities involved in the change management process. The competencies are judged by following the task-oriented and person-oriented models of behavior. Benn et al (2014) added that the hypothesis that they present brings out the need for communication between the employees and the leaders. The communication is about why and when change is required. However, the article stresses the point that the effective leadership should focus more on the person-oriented behavior. They said that it is a process to mobilize the employees of the organization for the change, i.e. reshaping the existing process so that the employees can adopt the change. The data collected for the purpose of the research were collected using Global Leadership Life Inventory (GLLI) to analyze the leadership competencies.

Another article by Van der Voet et al (2014) stated that effective change takes place when the leaders reinterpret and rebuild the organizational commitments other than replacing the old norms with the new ones. They have also discussed the differences present in the planned and emergent process of the organizational change. According to Vaccaro et al (2012), one interesting point that they have brought out is that communication is obviously an important element but the process of change include more than communication only. Whatever the leaders plan to do should be in a harmony with the organization’s vision of change. As discussed by SEO et al (2012), in the article of Rizwan & Latif (2012) they have analyzed the leadership activities as proposed by Kotter and Lewin. The argument’s main focus is to emphasize how much change is essential in the present situation because of the growing competitive scenario in the market. They also discussed how much these two models are applicable to a leader.

Conclusion

The responsibility of a leader is multifarious within an organization. Leadership skills require the ability to maintain and organize the systematic operations of the organization. He plays the role of the decision-maker and responsible for the change. However, the strategies that he undertakes should be harmonious with the organizational structure and objectives. Therefore, it is pivotal that he understands and considers the situation very well. An effective leadership can save a company from a crisis situation and also can prevent the crisis before it takes place. Over the ages, the researchers have propounded many such theories that set the guidelines for leadership roles. Some of them emphasize on the problem finding and some have given importance to the vision of change. Throughout this essay, various aspects of leadership roles are discussed relating it with various research works and theories.

References

Battilana, J., Gilmartin, M., Sengul, M., Pache, A. C., & Alexander, J. A. (2010). Leadership competencies for implementing planned organizational change. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(3), 422-438.     Battilana et al (2010)

Benn, S., Dunphy, D., & Griffiths, A. (2014). Organizational change for corporate sustainability. Routledge.

Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2015). Making sense of change management: a complete guide to the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.

Change Management – Kotter International. (2016). Kotter International. Retrieved 9 September 2016, from https://www.kotterinternational.com/       

Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2014). Organization development and change. Cengage learning.

Gorran Farkas, M. (2013). Building and sustaining a culture of assessment: best practices for change leadership. Reference services review, 41(1), 13-31.

Kuipers, B. S., Higgs, M., Kickert, W., Tummers, L., Grandia, J., & Van der Voet, J. (2014). The management of change in public organizations: A literature review. Public Administration, 92(1), 1-20.

Pollack, J., & Pollack, R. (2015). Using Kotter’s eight stage process to manage an organisational change program: Presentation and practice. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 28(1), 51-66.

Rizwan, A., & Latif, K. F. (2012). Why is it not Possible to Produce a Blue Print for Managing Organizational Culture Change?. Abasyn University Journal of Social Sciences, 5(2).   Rizwan & Latif (2012)

Rothaermel, F. T. (2015). Strategic management. McGraw-Hill.

SEO, M. G., Taylor, M. S., Hill, N. S., Zhang, X., Tesluk, P. E., & Lorinkova, N. M. (2012). The role of affect and leadership during organizational change. Personnel Psychology, 65(1), 121-165.

Vaccaro, I. G., Jansen, J. J., Van Den Bosch, F. A., & Volberda, H. W. (2012). Management innovation and leadership: The moderating role of organizational size. Journal of Management Studies, 49(1), 28-51.

van den Heuvel, M., Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2013). Adapting to change: The value of change information and meaning-making. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 83(1), 11-21.

Van der Voet, J., Groeneveld, S., & Kuipers, B. S. (2014). Talking the talk or walking the walk? The leadership of planned and emergent change in a public organization. Journal of Change Management, 14(2), 171-191.  Van der Voet et al (2014)