Andy Luker
MW 12:00-1:15
Organizational Behavior Final

1. Combine John Kotter’s 8 steps of organizational change with Kurt Lewin’s 3 steps of organizational change. Give the name of one of John Kotter’s books that lists and describes his 8 steps.

John Kotter’s 8 steps can be broken down and put under Lewin’s three steps. I would put steps one through four under Lewin’s unfreezing step. Kotter breaks this down further than just unfreezing. He starts with creating a sense of emergency and forming a team to look at change. If there is no sense of emergency, there is no sense of need to change. Forming a coalition allows more than one person to set new vision. Steps three and four are important in unfreezing because it sets the organization ready to move. By creating a new vision and casting the new vision you can have people get onboard with where you are about to take them. You cannot just move someone without them getting on board. As Kotter describes this in his book “Our Iceberg is Melting” you have to communicate this vision by keeping it simple and through repetition.
Next, steps five through seven can be placed under Lewin’s step of Movement. This is where you take the organization and implement the change. First you empower those in the organization. This may be accomplished by giving jobs to people and set responsibilities that allow them to be part of the change, and not just being forced to change. Next, you create short-term goals. This helps the group by letting them see progress in the here and now, not just years down the road. The last movement step is reassessing and adjusting. This step is very important because you need to see what is working in the plan and what is not. Also, you must be flexible enough to change what is not working.
Once you get to Kotter’s step eight, it fit right under Lewin’s refreezing step. This is because