Changing Executive Style: A Model for Professional Development.

Change is basically a learning process. It is neither a regular nor a cohesive nor an unrepetitive experience. Change, especially of the kind found in executive development, may be viewed as a cycle. That is, developmental change is usefully conceptualized as a two-sided happening in which the sides alternate in some definable pattern. Discussing attitude change, the great social psychologist Kurt Lewin, identified three stages or phases [2] which he labeled unfreezing, change and refreezing. In this paper we have created a model, a model of the cyclical processes of executive development. The model has focused on those preconditions and processes which varied experience has shown to be the essential elements in developmental change. The use of such a model should enable scholars to investigate the development of executives more systematically and trainers to more easily and adequately design effective change efforts; and perhaps most important, the model hopefully provides a means for the participants in executive development to enhance this essential process themselves.