Business Analysis: Miles/Weaver

1972 Words4 Pages

Introduction

Organizations and human systems are complex and are always evolving in today’s turbulent and changing world. A firm’s survival depends on satisfying shareholders; therefore managers conduct change in order to produce better organizational performance (Palmer, Dunford, Akin, 2009). The success or failure of a planned change process is significantly affected by management’s ability to engage the staff and demonstrate why maintaining the status quo will not be productive. Furthermore, management needs to clearly describe a compelling future and outline how the organization will benefit from the change (Palmer et al., 2009).

Individuals have studied the change process for decades. One of the earliest models of planned change was designed by Kurt Lewin. Kurt Zadek Lewin was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology. Lewin is often recognized as the "founder of social psychology" and was one of the first to study group dynamics and organizational development (Burnes, 2004). Lewin identified a particular set of group behaviors that are challenging to organizational change and the managers who conduct that change. While one group strives to maintain the status quo another group pushes for change (Burnes, 2004). Therein lays the problem managers face, they are told to change their organizations or risk perishing, while at the same time they’re told that their organizations are at risk of perishing because of the disruptive impact of change.

Lewin argued a successful change project involved three steps: First: Unfreezing, Lewin believed that the stability of human behavior was based on an equilibrium supported by driving and restraining for...

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...go to meet their goal of one corporate structure, identity, and culture, but they are certainly on the right path.

References

Aguinis, H. (2009). Performance management (2nd ed.) Upper Saddlle, NJ:

Prentice Hall.

Burnes, B. (2004). Kurt Lewin and the Planned Approach to Change: A Re-appraisal. Journal of Management Studies, 41(6), 977-1002. doi:10.1111/j.1467- 6486.2004.00463.x

Miles|Weaver (2011). Tourism Marketing Leader Miles Media Acquires Select Assets of Weaver Multimedia Group. Retrieved: March 6, 2011. From: http://www.milesmedia.com/news/detail.php?newID=34

Palmer, I., Dunford, R., Akin, G. (2009) Managing organizational change: A multiple perspectives approach. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Spector, B. (2010). Implementing Organizational Change Theory Into Practice (2nd Edition). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Pearson Education, Inc.

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