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Managing Change
7th edition
Chapter 9
Planned change and
Organization Development (OD)
Copyright © 2017, 2015, 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Planned change and OD
• 1940s: Lewin, Planned change, New Britain and
the birth of the NTL.
• 1950s: T-groups and the creation of OD.
• 1960s: T-groups: from boom to bust.
• 1970s: Red flags for OD.
• 1980s: New perspectives on change and the
decline of Lewin.
The Planned Approach
Kurt Lewin
Kurt Lewin
‘There is little question that the intellectual father of
contemporary theories of applied behavioral
science, action research and planned change is
Kurt Lewin. His seminal work on leadership style
and the experiments on planned change which
took place in World War II in an effort to change
consumer behavior launched a whole generation
of research in group dynamics and the
implementation of change programs’.
(Schein, 1988: 239)
Lewin’s philosophy
• The resolution of social conflict.
• The problems of minority or disadvantaged
groups.
• A strong belief that only the permeation of
democratic values into all facets of society could
prevent the worst extremes of social conflict.
The planned approach
Kurt Lewin
Four elements:
• Field Theory/Force Field Analysis
• Group Dynamics
• Action Research
• Three-Step model of change.
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 (Back, 1992).
Figure 9.2
Force Field Analysis
Group Dynamics
‘…the word ‘dynamics’ …comes from a Greek word
meaning force.… ‘group dynamics’ refers to the
forces operating in groups.… it is a study of these
forces: what gives rise to them, what conditions
modify them, what consequences they have, etc.’
(Cartwright, 1951: 382)
Action Research (1 of 4)
A participative approach to resolving social and
organisational problems.
No action without research.

No research without action.
It involves three groups:
• The organisation (Managers)
• The subject (Employees)
• The change agent (Consultant).
They all work together under mutually agreed
terms of reference.
It is a two pronged process:
• Change requires action
• Action must be based on analysis and consideration
of all the options.
Effective change
Successful change requires:
• Individuals and groups to reflect and learn;
• All those concerned to be involved and be able to
make choices; and
• Everyone to be convinced of the need for change.
Drawback:
• Ignores regression.
Three-Step model
1. Unfreezing the behaviour
• Create dissatisfaction with the existing situation.
• Create a willingness to change.
2. Moving the behaviour
• Identify and implement change.
• Involve people.
3. Refreezing behaviour
• Take steps to stabilise and reinforce the change.
• Maintain the momentum
─ Joint goal-setting
─ Feedback
─ Rewards.
Figure 9.5
The Coping Cycle
The Coping Cycle (1 of 2)
Stage 1 – Denial: When faced with the need to make or
accept significant changes, the first reaction by many
people or groups is to deny there is a need for change.
Stage 2 – Defence: Once people realise that change is
taking place and they cannot stop it, they may feel rejected
and depressed. This can turn into defensive behaviour
whereby people will defend their past practices and
behaviours and deny that the new ways are suitable to
them and their job.
Stage 3 – Discarding: If people realise that the change will
take place whether they like it or not, and that it does affect
them and that they need to adjust to the new situation, they
begin the process of discarding past behaviour –
recognising that what was suitable in the past is no longer
suitable for the current situation.
The Coping Cycle (2 of 2)
Stage 4 – Adaptation: No proposed change is ever likely
to be 100 per cent suitable at the outset. Therefore, for
change to be successful, not only must those affected by it
adapt to the new ways, but the new ways must also be
adapted to fit in with the existing people and circumstances.
Stage 5 – Internalisation: This the stage of the Coping
Cycle where change becomes fully operational, and new
ways of working and behaving have been developed.
People reach the point where, psychologically, they see the
changes not as new but as normal – the way things should
be.
Figure 9.6
Three-Step model and the Coping Cycle
Planned change: summary
Lewin identified two essential requirements for
successful change:
1. To analyse and understand how social groupings
were formed, motivated and maintained. To do this, he
developed both field theory and group dynamics.
2.To change the behaviour of social groups. The
primary methods he developed for achieving this were
Action Research and the Three-Step model of change.
Organization development (1 of 2)
• The standard-bearer for Planned change.
• It is an industry.
• It operates across the world.
• It regulates itself.
• It has its own qualifications.
• It has approved tools and techniques.
Organization development (2 of 2)
‘Organization development is a unique organizational improvement
strategy that emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s. … [It] has
evolved into an integrated framework of theories and practices capable
of solving or helping to solve most of the important problems
confronting the human side of organizations. Organization development
is about people and organizations and people in organizations and how
they function. OD is also about planned change, that is getting
individuals, teams and organizations to function better. Planned change
involves common sense, hard work applied diligently over time, a
systematic, goal-oriented approach, and valid knowledge about
organizational dynamics and how to change them. Valid knowledge
derives from the behavioral sciences such as psychology, social
psychology, sociology, anthropology, systems theory, and the practice
of management’.
(French and Bell, 1995: 1–2)
OD – core values
Source: French and Bell (1973).
Main approaches to OD
• Empowering employees to act.
• Creating openness in communications.
• Facilitating ownership of the change process
and its outcomes.
• The promotion of a culture of collaboration.
• The promotion of continuous learning.
(Hurley et al, 1992)
The expansion of OD
• OD has adopted an Open Systems perspective
which allows it to look at organisations in their
totality and within their environments.
• This organisation-wide perspective caused OD
practitioners to broaden out their perspective in two
interrelated ways. Firstly, they developed an interest
in managing organisational culture. Secondly, they
developed an interest in organisational learning.
• OD practitioners have become involved in
transforming organisations in their totality rather
than only focusing on changes to their constituent
parts.
OD dilemmas
OD in the 1990s–2000s: ‘An Out of Date
Fad’
‘Lewin’s model was a simple one, with
organizational change involving three stages;
unfreezing, changing and refreezing… This
quaintly linear and static conception – the
organization as an ice cube – is so wildly
inappropriate that it is difficult to see why it has not
only survived but prospered… Sufﬁce it to say
here, first, that organizations are never frozen,
much less refrozen, but are fluid entities with many
“personalities”.’
(Kanter et al, 1992: 10)
Planned change (1 of 2)
Summary
• Moving behaviour from one stable state to another.
• Management initiated.
• Finite objectives.
• Must be self-sustaining.
• Is a collaborative, learning process.
• Underpinned by democratic-humanist values.
• Is a cyclical process:
─ Diagnosis
─ Action
─ Evaluation
─ Further action
─ Further evaluation.
Planned change (2 of 2)
Criticisms
• Assumes environmental stability.
• Ignores power and politics.
• Too reliant on managers.
• Not applicable to situations that need rapid,
directive transformational change.
• It is a ‘one best way’ approach.
• Limited applicability.
• There are other, more appropriate approaches
to change, especially the Emergent approach.
Planned change
Responses to Criticisms (1 of 2)
• Assumes environmental stability: Its main focus is
individual and group behaviour, which does tend to be
stable.
• Ignores power and politics: This might have been the
case in the early days of OD, but is not the case now.
• Too reliant on managers: OD stresses the need for
employee participation.
• Not applicable to situations that need rapid, directive
transformational change: Lewin never saw it as being
applicable to such situations, but from the 1980s, newer
OD approaches to do address transformational change,
though not coercive or directive change.
Planned change
Responses to Criticisms (2 of 2)
• It is a ‘one best way’ approach with limited applicability:
OD comprises a very wide range of different tools,
techniques and approaches, which can be applied to a
diverse range of situations.
• There are other, more appropriate approaches to
change, especially the Emergent approach: OD
proponents question the practicality of Emergent
change.

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Managing Change

(Cartwright, 1951: 382)

No action without research.

Source: French and Bell (1973).

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