preview

Factors Influencing The Change Process

Better Essays

Introduction Change is an important part of organizational life and is affected by a multitude of complex factors both within and without the organization. While numerous theories exist to explain the change process, the organization and leadership within an organization, the change process fails more often than not (Gilley, McMillan & Gilley, 2009). The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors limiting the change effort and how to transition to successful change. Change Defining the change process in an organization is an important aspect in determining whether the change was successful and how the process can be improved. It is also important to understand why change is necessary. According to Goodstein and Burke (1999) the …show more content…

To understand the change process, many models have been developed. The seminal work in the field of change theory is that of Kurt Lewin in 1947 where he defines three steps for successful change: unfreezing, movement, refreezing (Gilley, McMillan & Gilley, 2009; Goodstein and Burke, 1991). Many models have followed and expanded on Lewin’s three steps, including models by Burke and Litwin (1992), Nadler and Tushman (1980), and Tichy (1983) however all of these models have been criticized for being too linear while the change process is clearly not (Gilley, McMillan & Gilley, 2009; Goodstein and Burke, 1991). In addition to the models that explain the change process, the type of change that the organization is going through also plays a role. In their review of literature Gilley, McMillan & Gilley (2009) identified three types of change: transitional, transformational and developmental. Transitional changes are small changes, transformational are radical shifts and developmental are continuous changes. Goodstein and Burke (1991) see two different levels of change as well and call them fundamental, which is similar to the transformational change identified by Gilley et al. and fine-tuning which is similar to the transitional changes identified by Gilley et al. Likewise, Weick and Quinn (1999), basing their work on

Get Access