Organizational Change Management: A Literature Review

Abstract

Change Management at organizational level has been conceived to be an important aspect of successful change implementation programmes in modern organizations. In order to benefit from the efficiency that appropriate management of change offers in structured organizations, the study of management has ascribed importance to the study of change management as a management concept. This study has attempted to review existing literature on the subject. The study presented a conceptual analysis of the concept of change and the principles developed by practitioners for the management of change. A theoretical review of the concept was undertaken with focus on the Kurt Lewin’s force field theory which has been generally accepted as the theoretical foundation of change as attested by the acceptance of the theory as the bases for all other theories of change and this ascribed the title father of change management to Kurt Lewin. This study analyzed the basis of Kurt Lewin’s force field theory built on three steps of Unfreeze, Change and Refreeze for an effective change management programme. The Study adopted a case study research conducted by other researchers to validate the effectiveness of the three stages of effective change management as propounded by Kurt Lewin.