ABSTRACT
During the 1970s, a new focus of attention emerged in the organizational literature of social work. It concerned the initiation of change on the part of staff on the lower rungs of an agency's hierarchy so as to enhance the agency's responsiveness to its clients. A tool for assessing the prospects of organizational change that incorporates the several criteria cited is force-field analysis, derived from Kurt Lewin's field theory. In analyzing a field of forces for organizational change purposes, a range of variables is identified which have a probability of influencing the preferences of significant organizational members with respect to a desired change. The preferences of formal groups such as individual work units, professional groupings, or such classes of organizational actors as line or supervisory staff must be evaluated. An assessment for organizational practice must include assumptions about the operation of relevant variables as they support stability or may predispose change.
