What is it about?
Kurt Lewin’s ‘changing as three steps’ (unfreezing. Changing, refreezing) is regarded by many as the classic approach to managing change. Based on a comparison of what Lewin wrote about changing as three steps with how this is presented in later works, we argue that he never developed such a model. We investigate how and why ‘changing as three steps’ came to be understood as the foundation of the fledgling subfield of change management and to influence change theory and practice to this day, and how questioning this supposed foundation can encourage innovation.
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Why is it important?
Our counter history, along with others that seek to look and think differently about the history and future of different elements of management studies, promotes a sort of liberation from the present: one that inspires us to be more ‘retro-active’ so as to recreate what we see as historically important and think differently for the future of management and human relations.
Perspectives
This paper won Human Relations' Paper of the Year Award for 2016 and is part of our ongoing efforts to challenge some of the foundations of management studies. You can see more in our book A New History of Management (Cambridge University Press). www.cambridge.org/historyofmanagement
Associate Professor Todd Bridgman
Victoria University of Wellington
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Unfreezing change as three steps: Rethinking Kurt Lewin’s legacy for change management, Human Relations, September 2015, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0018726715577707.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Unfreezing change as three steps
An animated video of the paper.
Bringing Foundational Research in from thehe Cold
A blog on SocialScienceSpace about the paper.
In Praise of Archives
A blog discussing our archival research for this paper at the Tavistock Institute.
3 Strengths and 3 Weaknesses of OD
A blog post by OD practitioner Paul Thoresen which draws on our paper.
Victoria academics uncover truth behind popular change management theory
Victoria University of Wellington press release.
Powerpoint Presentation
Our presentation of the paper at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting in 2013.
A Personal History of ‘Human Relations,’ With Chocolate
A blog and podcast celebrating 70 years of Human Relations, which began with Lewin's 1947 article that we feature in our paper.
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
