Edgar Schein has been a leading researcher and practitioner in the fields of individual, organizational and cultural change over the last 20 years. His seminal works have included Process Consultation and Organizational Culture and Leadership.
SCHEIN’S MODEL
Stage One
Unfreezing: Creating the motivation to change:
- Disconfirmation.
- Creation of survival anxiety or guilt.
- Creation of psychological safety to overcome learning anxiety.
Stage Two
Learning new concepts and new meanings for old concepts:
- Imitation of and identification with role models.
- Scanning for solutions and trial-and-error learning.
Stage Three
Refreezing: Internalizing new concepts and meanings:
- Incorporation into self-concept and identity.
- Incorporation into ongoing relationships.
Schein sees change as occurring in three stages:
- Unfreezing: creating the motivation to change.
- Learning new concepts and new meanings from old concepts.
- Internalizing new concepts and meanings.
During the initial unfreezing stage people need to unlearn certain things before they can focus fully on new learning.
Schein says that there are two forces at play within every individual undergoing change. The first force is learning anxiety. This is the anxiety associated with learning something new. Will I fail? Will I be exposed? The second, competing force is survival anxiety. This concerns the pressure to change. What if I don’t change? Will I get left behind? These anxieties can take many forms. Schein lists four of the associated fears:
- Fear of temporary incompetence: the conscious appreciation of one’s lack of competence to deal with the new situation.
- Fear of punishment for incompetence: the apprehension that you will somehow lose out or be punished when this incompetence is discovered or assessed.
- Fear of loss of personal identity: the inner turmoil when your habitual ways of thinking and feeling are no longer required, or when your sense of self is defined by a role or position that is no longer recognized by the organization.
- Fear of loss of group membership: in the same way that your identity can be defined by your role, for some it can be profoundly affected by the network of affiliations you have in the workplace. In the same way that the stable equilibrium of a team or group membership can foster states of health, instability caused by shifting team roles or the disintegration of a particular group can have an extremely disturbing effect.