Kurt Lewin's Change Theory in the

Field & in the Class



Kurt Lewin's Change Theory in the Field & in the Class

Background & Purpose of the Article

The article “Kurt Lewin's Change Theory in the Field & in the Class” was written by Edgar H. Schein in 1996 and was published by Systems Practice (Vol. 9, No. 1). In this article Edgar H. Schein tried to represent that the spirits and assumptions underlying in Lewin's theories are profoundly rooted in his own work, and many of his social group members practicing the 'organization development' art. Thus the purpose of this article is to provide certain significant dictums of Lewin and to represent their impact on his work as well as others' contemporary work. Furthermore, this article also illustrates how the thinking of writer had evolved regarding theory to application, mainly with respect to the Lewin's change model.

Main Arguments & Application

The article emphasizes on the effectiveness of Lewin's theory; how effectively Lewin theorized, based on developing a model of processes. It provides focus on the right type of variables that are required to be observed and conceptualized (Schein, 1996). In order to back up the perception that Lewin's theories are highly effective and applicative, author provides varies theory or models of Lewin and their application in his own work as well as other's contemporary work.

Change process in human system is one of author's most emphasized models, build by Lewin (Burnes, 2004). Author explained the application and soundness of this model by showing how he found this model to be primarily essential for explaining different phenomena he had observed. According author's perception, this model lent itself quiet well for enhancement and amplification. The author supported his statement by explaining his experience of early clinical or social psychology that dealt with changes in attitude of military prisoners of Chinese Communists occurred during the Korean War (Weick, 1999). He emphasized that Lewin's key model of change i.e. unfreezing, changing, and refreezing is theoretical foundations on which theory of change can be developed solidly (Schein, 1996). The main assumption behind this is to see that change in human, either at group level or else at the individual level, is a deep psychological vibrant procedure.

The article covers many aspects of Lewin's theories and explains its application with reference to author's own life (Burnes, 2004). Unfreezing is concept of model change which is most emphasized by author. Main argument of author regarding this concept is that in order to bring change, it is essential that unfreezing must be altered under complex psychological circumstances (Weick, 1999). This observation results in significant insights that counterforce to maintain equilibrium can only be change by removing restraining forces, but these forces are harder to get at as they are mostly one's own psychosomatic resistance or cluster standard rooted in the culture of a society or an organization (Schein, 1996). In order to describe what happened to POWs, author has to further unpack the concept of freezing by explaining ...