Changing to participatory leadership

Implementation Model:

Lewin’s Force Field Theory: 3 step process to increase the forces for, or decrease the resistance to change.


1. Unfreezing: Promote Understanding of Need, Motivate and Prepare to Overcome Resistance

2. Changing: Implement New Practices, Teach New Skills and Behaviors

3. Refreezing: Coaching , Training, and Rewarding to Solidify Implementation


Lewin’s Force Field Theory: To successfully implement change leaders must increase the forces for change or decrease the resistance through a three stage process: unfreezing, changing, and refreezing, (Nahavandi, p. 302). In order for an organization to change something must upset the balance between the forces that drive change and the forces that resist change, to implement a more modern participative leadership style, then increasing the drive to change would be my proposal. To “unfreeze” the organization leadership needs to clearly communicate throughout the firm that the change is necessary and they must do so with a sense of urgency, and with the desirable end result in mind, in order to drive the change and upset this balance, (Holt, Dorey, Bailey, & Low, 2009). The organization’s employees confidence will be bolstered if the benefits of the change to both the organization and its individuals are well communicated, and if the employees are allowed to participate in the planning and introduction. Kouzes and Posner state that change needs to be broken down into small doable steps, by doing so you encourage your employees to say yes to the change numerous times at each step in the process, rather than just once, (p. 208). The “change” step then needs to be accomplished in incremental steps in order to be effective. Finally, “refreezing” after the change can be accomplished by presenting a compelling vision to the employees through positive role models that work to reduce learning anxiety, (Stragalas, 2010). Leadership needs to ensure that current management is committed to its vision of participative management teams in order to accomplish this process step, actively encouraging the employees to embrace the learning process, and demonstrating that the rewards will be greater success for the organization holistically. Significantly, Nahavandi notes that a specific barrier to change is not rewarding employees for successful change initiatives, (p. 307).

Implementation Process Steps:

Unfreezing Steps:
1. Recognition of Need
2. Development of Ideas

Changing Steps:
3. Adoption of Ideas
4. Implementation

Refreezing Steps:
5. Allocation of Resources
6. Evaluation


To accomplish a planned change to adopt participative management teams the following implementation steps should be utilized:

Recognition of need: Alerting followers to leadership’s vision and clearly communicating the reasoning behind the change. As stated previously this should be communicated with of a sense of urgency. Leaders and followers must be aware that the change is important to the survival or effectiveness of the organization, (Nahavandi, p. 304). Activities include firm-wide written and oral corporate communications from leadership to all employees explicitly stating their concerns and expressing the need and the urgency for the change. A series of meetings should be scheduled and announced to employees letting them know you will be addressing their individual and collective concerns. Employees should be notified at these meetings that leadership will be encouraging their participation in the change process through forums in preparation for the next step.

Development of ideas: Include followers in this process step so that change messages are delivered implicitly and followers are invested in the change process. Nahavandi states that encouraging input and participation by those who are most affected will ease implementation, (p. 304). Leadership needs to promote an open and honest atmosphere that is conducive to the sharing or ideas where leadership can listen and respond to concerns expressed by followers. Activities include forums and brain-storming sessions between the various levels of leadership and management, and also by managers and their subordinates, in small groups or teams. Especially consideration needs to address the concerns of those who express cynicism regarding the change in these forums so that leadership can set the groundwork for establishing credibility in the next step.

Adoption of ideas: Leadership selects the ideas from various sources that are the most conducive to the change and formulates an implementation plan from these ideas. Leadership gains credibility through participation of members in this development process, (Holt, Dorey, Bailey, & Low, 2009). Activities include evaluation of ideas and then a written confirmation outlining the process steps of the change, clearly defining the new behaviors and skills that are expected of all employees, and leading to the thoughtful distribution of implementation steps throughout the firm in the next step of the process.

Implementation: Leadership needs to demonstrate commitment to followers, and be able to correct the course of action as needed, while maintaining the importance of the change during this phase, (Nahavandi, p.303). Activities include alerting employees to the implementation steps in advance and then coaching and teaching followers to adopt new behaviors and skill sets. Additionally groups should meet periodically to discuss the progress of the implementation and evaluate any unforeseen obstacles so that leadership can make subtle changes. Leadership should be evaluating how to reward successful implementation at this point.

Allocation of Resources: Existing resources must be redistributed or new resources must be supplied to “freeze” the change demonstrating leadership’s commitment to the change, (Nahavandi, p. 305). Activities include budgeting for follow up training sessions to reinforce the change. Additionally, an identified reward system should be activated during this step of the process and employees should be notified that leadership will continually be monitoring the successfulness of the implementation to prepare employees for the next step.

Evaluation: So that change is maintained evaluation needs to be a continuous process, (Nahavandi, p. 305). The change needs to be evaluated to ensure that the participative teams are communicating effectively. Activities can include written and oral surveying of employee attitudes concerning the effectiveness of the change and sanctions against employees who resist.

Conclusion:

Lewin’s 4 Key Characteristics of Change:

1. Importance of Recognizing the need for Change

2. Inevitable Presence of Resistance to Change

3. Focus on People as the Source for Change

4. Need to Support New Behaviors


Kurt Lewin identified four characteristics of change: recognize and communicate the need, understand the employees will initially be resistant, focus on your employees as the key to successful change, and support their new behaviors by rewarding them, (Nahavandi, p. 304). By following the preceding six process steps that effectively address these key characteristics, a corporation should be able to successfully change the current hierarchical leadership style to a more modern participatory leadership style. Unsuccessful implementation of these steps will cost in the long run by either having to repeat the change process and delaying the change, or by the loss of productivity through not changing and maintaining their current leadership style.