IntroductionHuman organizations and systems are complex and constantly evolving in today's turbulent and changing world. The survival of a company depends on shareholder satisfaction; managers therefore lead change in order to produce better organizational performance (Palmer, Dunford, Akin, 2009). The success or failure of a planned change process depends significantly on management's ability to engage staff and demonstrate why maintaining the status quo will not be productive. Additionally, management must clearly outline a promising future and describe how the organization will benefit from the change (Palmer et al., 2009). Individuals have been studying the process of change for decades. One of the first models of planned change was designed by Kurt Lewin. Kurt Zadek Lewin was a German-American psychologist, known as one of the modern pioneers of social, organizational, and applied psychology. Lewin is often recognized as the “founder of social psychology” and was one of the first to study group dynamics and organizational development (Burnes, 2004). Lewin identified a particular set of group behaviors that pose a challenge to organizational change and to the managers who lead that change. While one group strives to maintain the status quo, another group pushes for change (Burnes, 2004). Therein lies the problem managers face: they are told to change their organization or risk perishing, while at the same time they are told that their organization risks perishing because of the disruptive impact of change. . Lewin argued that a successful change project involved three steps: First: Unfreezing, Lewin believed that the stability of human behavior was based on a balance sustained by leadership and restraint for...... middle of paper .. ....go to achieve their goal of a corporate structure, identity and culture, but they are certainly on the right track. References Aguinis, H. (2009). Performance Management (2nd ed.) Upper Saddle, NJ:Prentice Hall.Burnes, B. (2004). Kurt Lewin and the planned approach to change: a reappraisal. Journal of Management Studies, 41(6), 977-1002. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6486.2004.00463.xMiles|Weaver (2011). Miles Media, leader in tourism marketing, acquires certain assets of the Weaver Multimedia group. Accessed March 6, 2011. Retrieved from: http://www.milesmedia.com/news/detail.php?newID=34Palmer, I., Dunford, R., Akin, G. (2009) Managing organizational change: a multiple prospective approach. New York, NY: McGraw Hill. Spector, B. (2010). Putting organizational change theory into practice (2nd edition). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. Pearson Education, Inc..