Effective School Management

Figure 17.4
Readiness and capability chart
FORCE-FIELD ANALYSIS
Force-field analysis is another technique which can be used at the diagnostic
stage of problem-solving, especially in situations where people’s attitudes
and reactions are important. It uses Lewin’s concept of dynamic equilibrium
(familiar in another form to chemists and physicists), which explains the
apparent immobility of a social system as the result of the opposing forces
acting on it balancing each other exactly. The forces can be needs, drives,
aspirations, fears and other feelings generated either within oneself or in
interpersonal, intergroup or organizational-environmental situations affected
by a proposed change from the present to the desired condition. Not all the
forces impeding change are inertial; they could be political or ideological forces.

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EFFECTIVE SCHOOL MANAGEMENT
Some of the forces tend to drive the point of equilibrium towards the
desired condition; others restrain such movement. Force-field analysis is the
identification of the forces, their direction and their strength. Relative
strength can be shown by the length of an arrow, in a diagram such as Figure
17.5. In using the diagram, each arrow is labelled with the force it represents.
It is implicit in the theory underlying the model that, in general,
movement towards the desired condition can most readily be achieved by
reducing or removing the restraining forces. Intensifying the driving forces
before reducing the restrained forces tends to build up a counter-reaction
which increases the tension without moving the point of equilibrium.
The technique is usually used in groups, with the diagram drawn on a
flipchart. The steps in the process are
(1) define specifically the change that is desired and ensure mutual
understanding;
(2) consider all the forces at work in the present situation; do not consider
possible or hoped-for events or solutions. Try to understand the forces
felt by the people or groups affected by the change – not by the group
doing the analysis; and
(3) draw arrows of length proportional to the strength of the forces and label
them. If insufficient information is available to estimate the strength,
decide how it can be obtained.