Organizations often run on a particular culture and system that makes progress stunted or very slow, thus affecting the expected outcome of the organization. Change agents analyze the desired results, the factors that hinder progress, and the most effective changes to be implemented depending on the parties affected. Affected parties when implementing changes are; the customers, the employees, the stakeholders, and the company’s goal. Change agents acquire the power to implement the necessary adjustments after establishing the grounds for change and the best that come with adopting new cultures and redesigning the organization’s initial goal. However, change encounters several challenges that hinder its effectiveness and longevity. Such circumstances brought about Lewin’s Force Field Analysis theory that enabled change agents to properly plan and ensure the transition becomes efficient and brings forth the desired results from the organization.
Lewin’s Force Field Analysis theory suggests that change can only be made possible when the current organizational situation is unfrozen. Unfreezing describes dissociating the organization’s everyday activities, status, and culture. Each organization has a specified system that governs the behavior of the employees and members of the organization. The culture develops over time and becomes habitual to a certain extent, whereby new employees or stakeholders are informed of the organization’s norms. The external and internal environment greatly determine the current situation of the organization and the reasons for change to be endorsed. The unfreezing stage requires the driving forces to progress to be strengthened while the opposing party is weakened or eliminated for the intended change to become more accessible and practical (Butler, Barrow & Annamaraju, 2021).
The most common driving forces are IT development and globalization, which have conditioned change agents to interfere with an organization’s behavior and endeavors. These external factors drive change such that the growth and development of organizations are greatly determined by the kind of technology used and the capability to keep up with the upgrades in the field. Furthermore, leaders’ efforts are internal factors that work hand in hand with the external drives to bring forth results appealing to the members affected by the change. Transition is not often acknowledged to bring forth the best results, but change agents estimate the effects through the analysis made on the current situation and expect outcomes. The unfreezing stage involves passing on information to the employees and stakeholders on the desired change, areas affected, the impact of change, possible risks to be expected, and potential mitigation measures (McNett et al., 2022). The limiting factors should be eliminated to ensure that the organization’s transition is smooth and efficient.
The next stage is implementing the change within the organization and acknowledging the relevance of change. While transitioning an organization, the finances must be accounted for, whereby an estimation of the desired funds needed and the release of the stated amount. For instance, shifting from analog to digital filing and data entry systems means that the company involves in manual records to digital record keeping. The amount of machinery purchased, employee training, and installation should be stated and released by the account’s office. Employee resistance is among the limiting factors for change; therefore, effective communication and involvement of employee opinions is necessary, whereby they feel included and understood. Training should be voluntary, thus motivating a high employee turnout, and open-mindedness implements skills like having employees select their spokespeople to outline their worries and pass them on to the administration.
Change agents are mandated to implement change but are considerate of the needs of the people affected and their opinions. Being at the equilibrium of the driving and opposing forces centers on a business, but the driving forces need more than the opposing forces for the change to be effective. Back to the example used, the driving forces like the need for advancement, quality leadership skills, and increasing financial inputs create the purpose for technology to be adopted within the organization. Opposing factors like employee resistance, poor accountability, and poor computing skills should be eliminated to ensure the change is made (Kaminski, 2011).
The last stage is sealing the contract in other terms, freezing the changes made when the changes are in place, and the feedback received determines whether the idea for change was beneficial and brought about losses. The driving forces are clearly stated; the stakeholders or beneficiaries of the change are the employees, the company, and the clients. Partners for change are the financial advisers, the shareholders, and organizational heads that ensure the smooth transitioning of the organization. Feedback can be obtained in several ways whereby the clients describe the quality of services received before and after the transition. Progress can be monitored through the annual income curve of the organization in terms of the profits gained compared to previous years, the speed and accuracy of the employees, and the accountability for mistakes. Implementing technology includes installing CCTVs, giving the clients a feedback platform, and rewarding employees through the feedback obtained from each client (Butler, Barrow & Annamaraju, 2021).
Consider a psychiatric patient that came in a terrible state of mind in a real-life scenario of health care. A nurse takes the patient and embarks on the Lewins change theory on their patient’s health status. Psychiatric patients reflect the unfreezing stage whereby the nurse and doctor get to study the patient and their current state of mind. They understand the patient’s mental health to get to the change stage. At this stage, the doctor analyzes the most appropriate treatment befitting the patient that would rehabilitate them back to their healthy state. The psychiatrist implements the form of treatment and ensures that all efforts are made with proper medication to reinstate the patient. The implementation stage is the toughest; the patient needs time to conform to the treatment and eliminate the vises accrued over time. The final stage is the freezing stage, whereby the patient has been treated, and the doctor needs to motor the progress and cement the changes made along the way to avoid relapsing the patient. Mental health patients require patience to be understood and catered for; therefore, follow-ups should be regularly on the patient’s health. For instance, the treatment plan would have included an indoor patient program in the implementation stage. Once the patient is recovered and discharged, the freezing stage would involve having outpatient meetings that allow the doctors to keep track of the progress and allow the patient to keep being healthy psychologically.
In conclusion, change agents thoroughly analyze the organization’s current state and desired goals and then identify what hinders the two from the meeting. Furthermore, driving and restraining forces are identified before suggestions are made on the necessary changes that ensure the shift is positive and increases the inputs. The obstacles, once identified, are minimized or eliminated to confirm that the change is effective and efficient. Lewin’s theory has three stages; Unfreezing stage, change implementation, and freezing steps that aid in the smooth transition of the organization and ensure the desired outcomes are met.
References
Butler, T., Barrow, J., & Annamaraju, P. (2021). Change Management. Statperals. https://europepmc.org/article/nbk/nbk459380.
Kaminski, W. (2011). Theory applied to informatics – Lewin’s Change Theor. Canadian Journal Of Nursing Informatics,6(1). http://cjni.net/Journal_original/Winter2011/cjni.net-_Theory_applied_to_informatics_%96_Lewin%92s_Change_Theory___CJNI_Journal_.pdf.
McNett, M., Tucker, S., Zadvinskis, I., Tolles, D., Thomas, B., Gorsuch, P., & Gallagher-Ford, L. (2022). Using an implementation framework, a qualitative force field analysis of facilitators and barriers to evidence-based practice in healthcare. Global Implementation Research And Applications, 2(3), 195–208. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43477-022-00051-6
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