It has been said that management theory is a series of footnotes to Drucker.
It might be said with equal truth that the study of group dynamics and
organisational behaviour is a set of footnotes to Kurt Lewin (1890 – 1947) -
known as the father of modern social psychology. He was the first to use
scientific methods and experimentation to study social behaviour.
His study of groups led to the understanding that the process of group
interaction was just as important as and indeed an integral part of any outcomes.
This is now a vital part of facilitation processes.
Field theory
Lewin is perhaps most renowned for his development of ‘field theory’ - that
human behaviour is the function of both the person and the environment. Obvious
as this may seem to us now, psychologists at the time accepted the
psychoanalytic theory that all human action was the result of blind pushes from
within the self. Lewin thought of motives as goal-directed forces.
Our behaviour is
purposeful; we live in a psychological reality or life space that includes not
only those parts of our physical and social environment that are important to
us but also imagined states that do not currently exist.
Lewin's field theory is essentially the demonstration that behaviour is the
result of a combination of personality and social situation - and that neither
study of the individual not study of the social environment will be enough to
account for, or indeed predict, behaviour on their own. This 'nature or
nurture' argument has long been current in social psychology and has perhaps
been given further impetus by breakthrough learning about the nature and
function of parts of the human brain. One might include the work of Simon
Baron-Cohen here as an example.
Action research
Lewin’s field theory lead to his developing action research.
The research needed for
social practice can best be characterized as research for social management or
social engineering. It is a type of action-research, a comparative research on
the conditions and effects of various forms of social action, and research
leading to social action. Research that produces nothing but books will not
suffice.
From this quotation, it can be seen that action research is aimed at
improving practice - that it is a matter of the practitioner acting, collecting
data on the results, reflecting on alternatives, seeking improvement and then
acting again. At its very centre is the collection and analysis of hard data.
It has been described as:
... inquiry or research
in the context of focused efforts to improve the quality of an organization and
its performance. It typically is designed and conducted by practitioners who
analyze the data to improve their own practice. Action research can be done by
individuals or by teams of colleagues. The team approach is called
collaborative inquiry.
Unfreeze, change, refreeze
Part of Action research is the three-step model of change in organisational
development- unfreeze, change, refreeze. The central concept is that
an organisation needs to be shaken out of its current values and mode of
operation first, then changed and then set running in its new mode with new
values. Today, many thinkers would argue that refreezing is not a good idea and
that change is constant.
Group dynamics
Action research was part and parcel of Lewin's deep interest in the
working of social groups. In 1944, he established the Research Center on Group
Dynamics at Massachusetts's Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) with a programme
to study:
- Group productivity –
seeking to understand why groups are so often unable to get results.
- Communication – seeking to
understand how influence works in groups
- Social perception – seeking
to discover how group membership affects perception of perceived social
events
- Intergroup relations –
seeking to identify what helps and hinders relationships between groups
- Group membership – seeking
the way in which individuals adjust their behaviour to fit in with
different groups
- Leadership training –
seeking ways top enable managers to lead groups more effectively
He said of groups that they existed for two reasons. A group’s existence
continues for as long as:
- People in it realize their
fate depends on the fate of the group as a whole
- Members of the group are
dependent on each other for achievement
He worked with Ronald Lippitt on a study of three group models - democratic,
autocratic and laissez-faire – and concluded that there was more originality,
group-mindedness and friendliness in democratic groups. In contrast, there was
more aggression, hostility, scapegoating and discontent in laissez-faire and
autocratic groups.
T- groups
Lewin was also party to, indeed leader of, the development of what became
known as T-groups at the National Training Laboratory in Bethel, Maine.
As well as ...
- Made popular in recent times
by David A Kolb, Lewin put forward a model of human learning - action,
reflection, generalization, and testing. This may find an echo in Tom
Peter's later comment, 'Try it. Do it. Fix it.' and indeed is
central to Action Research.
- Lewin was the first to make
use of the word feedback, taken from electronic engineering.
Taken from the Call of the Wild Development Academy
For more information on our team and leadership programmes visitCall of the Wild's
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