Question

Why is organizational change and the Lewin’s change process. important at both the organization level and for supervisors, managers, and directors?

Answer 1

Importance at the Organizational Level

At organizational level change is important because of the following factors:

1) Technology - One of the biggest reasons why change at this level is important is technology. As the technology changes, the old one becomes redundant and less efficient. This inefficiency, if not removed from the system, might result in losses of thousands of dollars, and therefore, to keep the organization competitive it is important to adapt to the technological change.

2) Customer Needs - Customer needs change with times. No one uses typewriter these days. Desktops have been taken over by laptops and tablets, and they might become redundant too. To make sure that your organization survives it is important to offer what customer wants.

3) Opportunities in the market - Organizations change because of the growth opportunities in the market as well. The best companies keep looking for openings in the market and grab them as soon as possible. The ones that don't end up being laggards.

For supervisors, managers and directors

1) The change is important at this level because these are the people who would be effected the most by any change happening in the organization, and this effect would be immediate. To quote an example, when the leadership at organizational level changed in Microsoft, Nadella motivated its employees to work towards innovation more than ever before. Initaially there was some resistance as most of the microsoft products are leaders in the category, but after sometime this bacame the reason for microsoft's sustained success.

The change can be both negative and positive.

2) The change happening also forces these people to renew their skills and learn new ones. This takes time and is not an easy thing to accomplish. This is one of the reasons why there is so much resistance to organizational change.

Lewin's change process is a process of unfreezing, changing and refreezing the organization. It is a process where the need for change is identified, the ways are identified, and then the change is carried out with the help of various stakeholders. Once this change is implemented it is important to make this an integral part of the organization, and for this a process of refreezing is adopted. This process may consist of training, supporting the change, explaining the need to change and celebrating it etc.