Learning Goals

a brief history of change management

There are four specific stages representing the progression of change management. The first stage is considered to be prior to the1990s, the second stage is generally held between the 1990s to the 2000s, the third stage is considered to have started in the 2000s. Finally, the fourth stage is used to reference the future of change management.

1. The first stage or the foundation of change management began, as early as1909 when anthropologist Arnold van Gennep proposed that human beings go through three phases of change. This stage involved an increase in the study and research of change in humans along with the development of frameworks such as Lewin's three stages of change in 1946 (Prosci, n.d.) The first change management workshop was offered during this stage (LaMarsh, 2015).

2. Identified in 1989, the second stage denotes when businesses and organizations began to discuss the human side of change management and the theory that change does not occur by chance, but with support and repetition. This is also when change management started to be considered a new approach to address the people side of organizations and change management began to develop as a new discipline.

3. The third stage in the evolution of change management occurred with the implementation of change management as a formal discipline with certificates and accreditation.

4. The fourth or future stage, of change management, is one that continues to evolve and developed over time ( Prosci, n.d).