Identify a model of change to help explain change within an organization you have experienced?
Kurt Lewis change management model can help to explain the fine tuning of medium of instruction for secondary school done by Education Bureau.
This model includes three stages which are unfreezing, moving and refreezing.
Unfreezing is to identify what and why need to be change. And after the implementation of mother tongue teaching policy, the education department consult with the stakeholder about this policy in 2008 and 2009 and many of them reflect there is a need to change the policy in order to improve the English standard of Hong Kong students.
Moving refers to the process of change. Having the idea to fine tune the teaching medium policy, EDB informs the principals, teachers and parents about the policy through press release, workshop and letters etc. EDB build up a framework for designing the most suitable teaching medium for different school. The fine tuning policy was implemented starting from 2010/2011 school years.
Refreezing refers to establishing policy or activities to maintain the stability after the change. To support the fine tuning policy, professional development trainings are held for teachers. The school teaching medium will be clearly listed in the secondary school profiles which can let parents be acknowledged.
The 3 steps in the change management model is a cycle. When there are new problems raise from the fine tuning policy, we can expect the government will go through the same process to furthering tuning the teaching language policy again in Hong Kong.
Actually, Kurt Lewis change management theory can also explain the change in my workplace. As I mention before, I work in a training branch which responsible for staff’s training.
My branch just established in 2010 and all the training events are mainly handled by the HR department and before. However, the management is not satisfied with the performance of HR department in organizing training as they lack of experts in organizing operational and technical trainings. I think this is what Kurt Lewis concept of “Unfreezing” as the management identifies the problem in arranging training event.
The management finally decides to set up a new branch which responsible for offering operational (such as training about training about electrical and mechanical)and technical training (such as training about natural gas)to staffs and HR will responsible for management, language and other skills trainings. And I think this is Kurt Lewis concept of “Moving” as we have new arrangement of training events.
The management periodically reviews the new arrangement of training events to see whether any things need further improvement such as they find that more manpower is needed in the training branch and then they hire more new staffs etc. We can consider this as Kurt Lewis concept of “Refreezing” as the management tries to maintain the operation of the new branch.
My workplace example
Actually, Kurt Lewis change management theory can also explain the change in my workplace. As I mention before, I work in a training branch which responsible for staff’s training.
My branch just established in 2010 and all the training events are mainly handled by the HR department and before. However, the management is not satisfied with the performance of HR department in organizing training as they lack of experts in organizing operational and technical trainings. I think this is what Kurt Lewis concept of “Unfreezing” as the management identifies the problem in arranging training event.
The management finally decides to set up a new branch which responsible for offering operational (such as training about training about electrical and mechanical)and technical training (such as training about natural gas)to staffs and HR will responsible for management, language and other skills trainings. And I think this is Kurt Lewis concept of “Moving” as we have new arrangement of training events.
The management periodically reviews the new arrangement of training events to see whether any things need further improvement such as they find that more manpower is needed in the training branch and then they hire more new staffs etc. We can consider this as Kurt Lewis concept of “Refreezing” as the management tries to maintain the operation of the new branch.
Reference: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_94.htm
BY:Chan Siu Yin, Vanice
Hi Vanice,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the information about your organization. I think you have used the "Kurt Lewis change management model" to help describe the change of your organization. It helps me get a deeper understand of this model of change. It seems like you have not talked about the same organization as the session 1 and you offered the information about some educational organization.
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DeleteThanks for your questions. I decide to take the adaptation of mother tongue policy in Hong Kong as this week example as the case is familiar to most of the Hong Kongers which can let us easily understand the Kurt Lewis change management model.
DeleteActually, Kurt Lewis change management theory can also explain the change in my workplace and I add my workplace example to my article. Please refer to it and thanks.