The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast Lewin’s and Kotter’s change theories and identify the main concepts. These theories will show how change is essential in order to motivate people for long-term success and how these theories play important roles in the change process for any organization. The similarities and differences of the theories will also be presented.
Kurt Lewin identified three stages of change theory (Lewin, 2010). He stresses that all employees should be aware of a need for change from the status quo and take actions based on awareness of change and commit to the effort until new standards are rooted in the organization. Lewin “views behavior as a dynamic balance of forces working in opposing directions. Driving
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In this step, a chaotic state can take place because the old behavior and practices can collide with new behavior in the organization. This stage can negatively affect the organization’s productivity temporarily. Therefore, to reduce negative effects, leaders should encourage all employees to participate in viewing problems and communicating the desired changes. The third stage, “Refreezing” is to stabilize the changes. Employees become more comfortable with new change. They accept new standards and go through a new work environment. According to Kritsonis, this stage reinforces new standards and institutionalizes them through policies and procedures (Robbins, 2003, p. 564-565). Without this step, employees can revert to old behaviors. John Kotter introduced the eight stages of change theories (Kotter, 1996). The first stage is to recognize a sense of urgency. Employees should be aware of why change is needed in the organization. “This is a critical step because without a sense of urgency people will cling to the status quo and resist change” (Neumeier, 2013). The second stage is to gather a large leading group to make change. This group should have a lot of knowledge and skills to help employees have new …show more content…
Both are processes, so they are easy to follow. The first stage of Lewin’s theory represents the first four stages of Kotter’s model. The second stage of Lewin’s model corresponds to Kotter’s middle three stages. The final stage of Lewin’s model is categorized in Kotter’s last stage (Lunenburg, 2010). In each process, Lewin and Kotter both identify how challenging it is to move people away from the status quo in order to allow a change to happen. After identifying the problem, they create a strategic plan for change and implement it and institutionalize new behaviors as organizational