Applying a Change Model in an Organization

Change Model
The best change model for this particular scenario would be Lewin’s Change Model, which has three important stages to it that can help any organization implement an effective change (Shirey, 2013). The three steps in Lewin’s Change Model are: 1) unfreeze, 2) change, and 3) refreeze. The process begins first by creating in the minds of stakeholders (including employees) the idea that a change is needed. Then the workers can be moved to embrace the new, desired behavior. Next, the desired behavior is solidified, and finally the solidified behavior is the new norm. Lewin’s Change Model has been utilized by many professionals in many different fields, from business to nursing (Manchester, Gray-Miceli, Metcalf et al., 2014), and it would certainly work for Sea Treasures as the company attempts to shift its business to the Web.
The basic idea behind Lewin’s Change Model is that before a transformational change can be implemented, the old behaviors that are embraced as the norm among workers have to be unthawed—or unfrozen as Lewin’s model shows—and melted away. In most cases, resistance to change is natural: people get attached to doing things the old way because it is easy and they do not want to have to learn a new method of doing their work. They believe that the old method is just fine and that there is no reason for changing. This is where the first steps of the model come into play: in order unfreeze the current behavior, the leaders of the organization must educate the workers as to why the old process is no longer working sufficiently. By appealing to workers’ reason and by also giving them a vision to help motivate them, leaders can help the unfreezing process to take effect (Sutherland, 2013). The effect of the unfreezing process, which is the first step of the change model, would be to liberate the workers from their old ways of approaching their work, and give them the chance to learn a new way and a new behavior. This can help the leaders of the organization to feel more confident that change is taking root and that there is a clear pathway to the desired behavior.
The second step is to implement the change itself—i.e., to teach the desired behavior. In this case, it would be to introduce the Web layout and the methods by which the organization’s products will be sold online. If the first step was enacted appropriately, the workers will already have a sense of what is to come; and having learned that the world is not digitalized, it will make sense to them that the business needs a web-based platform. In this stage, they will learn how to make that concept into a reality. Leaders within the organization will have to be supportive, patient, encouraging, and motivational all along the way of this step. If resistance rears its head again, the leaders will have to be quick to remind the workers of the reasons for the change (Manchester et al., 2014): so long as the business of change remains logical and rational, employees will ultimately come around to it and throw their weight behind it in order to see the organization succeed.
The third step, once the desired behavior has been introduced and implemented, is to freeze the process. This means that the new behavior becomes the norm and all the employees know that this new way of working is what is now expected of them and it is also the way they want to work. The employees should now feel the same way about the new way of doing business as they did about the old way of working. This turns the new behavior into the accepted behavior (Shirey, 2013) and essentially allows the organization to get back to focusing on its core objectives.
For the managers of the employees, the effects of this change are substantial: managers, first of all, have to be the ones to help support the change—i.e., they have to be the ones giving the vision, helping workers adapt, explaining and educating along the way, and always keeping a positive attitude. The more that workers see how managers are embracing and accepting the new change, the more that they will ultimately put down their resistance. This reinforces the influence of the managers and helps workers to grow more united with management in terms of pursuing the objectives of the organization.
The effect that Lewin’s Change Model can have on executives in the company is that it allows them to enjoy the fruits of the transformational change without having to worry about a resistance that will undermine the change process. Because the change model is rooted in rationality, the executives simply have to rely on the logic of the change, the power of their managers to convey this logic in a friendly manner to the workers, and the vision that the executives themselves pass on to the managers who can then present it to the workers. Once the change is implemented, the executives can guide the organization towards its objectives confident that the workers will now be utilizing the desired behavior as it will be the new norm for them.
In conclusion, the appropriate change model for Sea Treasures to use to help it transform from a brick and mortar retailer to an e-commerce business would be Lewin’s Change Model. This model allows the organization to unfreeze the old norms through education and inspiration, implement the new change and desired behavior, and make the desired behavior the new norm. This will allow the organization to confront resistance in a supportive and rational way that will help the workers to see the logic behind changing their approach to their work.
References
Manchester, J., Gray-Miceli, D. L., Metcalf, J. A., Paolini, C. A., Napier, A. H., Coogle,
C. L., & Owens, M. G. (2014). Facilitating Lewin’s change model with collaborative evaluation in promoting evidence based practices of health professionals. Eval Program Planning, 47, 82-90.
Shirey, M. R. (2013). Lewin’s theory of planned change as a strategic resource. Journal
of Nursing Administration, 43(2), 69-72.
Sutherland, K. (2013). Applying Lewin's change management theory to the
implementation of bar-coded medication administration. Canadian Journal of Nursing Informatics, 8(1-2).