Burnes (2008) Kurt Lewin and the Planned Approach to Change Flashcards
Key message:
Lewin believed that the key to resolving social conflict was to facilitate learning and so enable individuals to understand and restructure their perceptions of the world around them.
Though Field Theory, Group Dynamics, Action Research and the 3-Step model of change are often treated as separate themes of his work, Lewin saw them as a unified whole with each element supporting and reinforcing the others and all of them necessary to understand and bring about Planned change, whether it be at the level of the individual, group, organization or even society.
Field theory
This is an approach to understanding group behaviour by trying to map out the totality and complexity of the field in which the behaviour takes place.
Lewin maintained that to understand any situation it was necessary that: ‘One should view the present situation – the status quo – as being maintained by certain conditions or forces’
Group behaviour is an intricate set of symbolic interactions and forces that not only affect group structures, but also modify individual behaviour.
Therefore, individual behaviour is a function of the group environment or ‘field’, as he termed it.
Consequently, any changes in behaviour stem from changes, be they small or large, in the forces within the field.
Lewin defined a field as ‘a totality of coexisting facts which are conceived of as mutually interdependent . . .’.
A field is in a continuous state of adaptation and that ‘Change and constancy are relative concepts; group life is never without change, merely differences in the amount and type of change exist’.
Lewin’s view was that if one could identify, plot and establish the potency of these forces, then it would be possible not only to understand why individuals, groups and organizations act as they do, but also what forces would need to be diminished or strengthened in order to bring about change
Group dynamics
Lewin was addressing two questions:
* What is it about the nature and characteristics of a particular group which causes it to respond (behave) as it does to the forces which impinge on it?
* How can these forces be changed in order to elicit a more desirable form of behaviour?
Group Dynamics stresses that group behaviour, rather than that of individuals, should be the main focus of change.
Lewin maintained that it is fruitless to concentrate on changing the behaviour of individuals because the individual in isolation is constrained by group pressures to conform.
Consequently, the focus of change must be at the group level and should concentrate on factors such as group norms, roles, interactions and socialization processes to create ‘disequilibrium’ and change.
However, understanding the internal dynamics of a group is not sufficient by itself to bring about change.
Lewin also recognized the need to provide a process whereby the members could be engaged in and committed to changing their behaviour.
* This led Lewin to develop Action Research and the 3-Step model of change.
Action research
Eager people feel themselves to be in a fog. They feel in a fog on three counts:
(1) What is the present situation?
(2) What are the dangers?
(3) And most importantly of all, what shall we do?
Lewin conceived of Action Research as a two-pronged process which would allow groups to address these three questions.
- Firstly, it emphasizes that change requires action, and is directed at achieving this.
- Secondly, it recognizes that successful action is based on analysing the situation correctly, identifying all the possible alternative solutions and choosing the one most appropriate to the situation at hand.
o To be successful, though, there has also to be a ‘felt-need’ (urgency).
o Felt- need is an individual’s inner realization that change is necessary.
Action Research draws on Lewin’s work on Field Theory to identify the forces that focus on the group to which the individual belongs. It also draws on Group Dynamics to understand why group members behave in the way they do when subjected to these forces.
Routines and patterns of behaviour in a group are more than just the outcome of opposing forces in a forcefield. They have a value in themselves and have a positive role to play in enforcing group norms. Action Research stresses that for change to be effective, it must take place at the group level, and must be a participative and collaborative process which involves all of those concerned.
3-step model
Lewin developed his 3-Step model Lewin was not thinking only of organizational issues. Nor did he intend it to be seen separately from the other three elements which comprise his Planned approach to change. Rather Lewin saw the four concepts as forming an integrated approach to analysing, understanding and bringing about change at the group, organizational and societal levels.
A successful change project, Lewin (1947a) argued, involved three steps:
Step 1: Unfreezing.
The stability of human behaviour was based on a quasi-stationary equilibrium supported by a complex field of driving and restraining forces.
The equilibrium needs to be destabilized (unfrozen) before old behaviour can be discarded (unlearnt) and new behaviour successfully adopted.
The key to unfreezing ‘. . . was to recognise that change, whether at the individual or group level, was a profound psychological dynamic process’.
Three processes necessary for unfreezing:
* Disconfirmation of the validity of the status quo
* The induction of guilt or survival anxiety, and
* Creating psychological safety.
Those concerned have to feel safe from loss and humiliation before they can accept the new information and reject old behaviours.
Step 2: Moving.
- Unfreezing creates motivation to learn but does not necessarily control or predict the direction.
- Any attempt to predict or identify a specific outcome from Planned change is very difficult because of the complexity of the forces concerned.
- Instead, one should seek to take into account all the forces at work and identify and evaluate, on a trial and error basis, all the available options.
- It is this iterative approach of research, action and more research which enables groups and individuals to move from a less acceptable to a more acceptable set of behaviours.
- However, without reinforcement, change could be short-lived.
Step 3: Refreezing.
Refreezing seeks to stabilize the group at a new quasi-stationary equilibrium in order to ensure that the new behaviours are relatively safe from regression.
New behaviour must be, to some degree, congruent with the rest of the behaviour, personality and environment of the learner or it will simply lead to a new round of disconfirmation.
This is why Lewin saw successful change as a group activity, because unless group norms and routines are also transformed, changes to individual behaviour will not be sustained.
