Page 211 - 100 Great Business Ideas: From Leading Companies Around the World (100 Great Ideas)

Figure 6.5 Force - Field Analysis

Pressures for Change Restraining Forces

Need to provide flexibility EQUILIBRIUM

IBM is perceived as superior Fear resulting from recent
to current vendor restructuring
Demand from customers to be
more responsive

Need for networking among PCs

Pressures for Change -2-1 0+1 +2 Restraining Forces
CHANGE
Need to provide flexibility Reduce fear of losing job
.EQUILIBRIUM by guaranteeing training
IBM is perceived as superior
to current vendor Reduce fear of unknown
Demand from customers to be by providing information
more responsive
Reduce fear resulting from recent
Need for networking among PCs restructuring by assuring them
there won't be any more

-2.10+1+2

Source: Reprinted with the permission of Macmillan College Publishing Company from The Management
Challenge: An Introduction to Management by James M. Higgins. Copyright © 1994 by Macmillan College

Publishing Company, Inc.

tive strengths of competing driving and restraining forces. 1° 101
The driving forces push the organization toward change; the CREATIVE
restraining forces push against change. The actual change PROBLEM
that emerges is a consequence of the interaction of the two SOLVING
sets of forces. If you want change, you should push. But the TECHNIQUES
natural tendency of those you are pushing is to resist the
change, to push back. According to Lewin, the driving forces 125
activate the restraining forces. He suggests that decreasing
the restraining forces is a more effective way of encouraging
change than increasing the driving forces.

Figure 6.5 portrays the use of force-field analysis to reduce
resistance to a change from using a single computer vendor,
UNISYS, to using multiple computer vendors—IBM, Digital
Equipment Company (DEC), and UNISYS—for the informa-
tion division of a major entertainment company. This is a
partial analysis of the situation as viewed by that division's
managers." As you can see, the managers determined that