Definitions and types of change

Change, by its general definition, is "Converting one situation into another" (Fox, 2004:27). The most simple and most familiar type of converting is the movement from being stationary to being in motion (external change). However, motion itself can also be hastened or slowed (internal change), or its direction altered (Watzlawick, Weakland and Fisch, 1979).

This study deals with behavioral and social studies, in which phenomena of 'change' are harder to identify than in the world of science and far more complicated. For this reason several categorizations have been used, one of which divides change into two main branches: (Fox, 2004):

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1. Change caused by time: Change in the individual's immediate surroundings that occur naturally or as planned in the part of their life array, known also as transitions. This category includes change that is not under one's control such as the transition from school to the army, or to other learning frameworks; planned change such as marriage, parenthood, divorce and so on; change in one's health;

change in the work framework such as being fired or retirement or in the life conditions such as imbroglios, financial success and so on.

2. Change not caused by time: This is external change that affects the individual, and/or personal-inner change initiated by the individual him/herself. The external changes are usually forced on the individual and cannot be altered, therefore one must adapt to them.

This category includes technological, scientific, political, environmental and value changes. The internal changes have reciprocal relations with external changes that serve as a source of stimulation, motivation or necessity for individual change. They are likely to occur one or more of three systems that comprise the human experience (Fox 2004: 38-39):

a. The cognitive system – that refers to beliefs, perceptions, opinions, thoughts, judgment and assessment (value, viability, size etc.);

b. The emotional system – comprised of a collection of feelings, emotions, assessments (positive or negative) and the moods of the individuals towards themselves, others or objects, products or ideas;

c. The behavioral system – built on reactions, external manifestations and discovery about decision-making, activities that represent new skills or operating tools that have not yet been used previously and so on.

All of these systems are separate but closely connected. Change in one system will lead to change in the others. There is not always full compatibility between the two key arenas of change - the group–systemic arena and the personal arena. Dissonance between the systems will occur when the changes are not compatible (in pace, time, extent). This happens constantly.

The internal changes can stem from influential processes such as therapy, education or an accumulation of factors that is hard to track, adding to the difficulty in exploring change.

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Another classification of the changes offered by Watzlawick, Weakland and Fisch. (1979) is the consideration of their intensity and occurrence (impact). Two categories can be distinguished:

1. Change of the first order – occurs within the system of values, interests, accepted norms, but the system itself does not change.⁶² These are changes that maintain the continuity between the past and the future, their scope is limited and they do not arouse great opposition. They are also known as 'branch changes' (Fox, 2004: 32) as a sign of their superficiality and belonging to the logical developmental dimension with linear and quantitative significance.

2. Change of the second order – alters the system itself⁶³ and is also known as transformation (Ofek and Aharonov, 2005) or 'rooted change' (Fox, 2004:32) = significant change. The change occurs in the foundations and thus undermines the existing value structure, the assumptions and the objectives. It is a complicated combination of factors and systems that are in need of a string of inner changes. It entails a personal and political process, a deep inner process whose results will be far-reaching. It has great theoretical importance and,

therefore, also practical importance, since it guides the path out of the existing system. The change generates developmental detachment and creates something totally new, revolutionary or, according to Smith (1982), 'Invasion of the genetic code' that affects the present and the future. Because of their chaotic character, these changes will arouse much antagonism.

A system can create many changes of the first order, but as long as the structure is not altered it will not embrace change of the second order.

This kind of change can occur in both the internal arena and the external, described above. This researcher dares to claim that the changes that occurred in the female context are mostly of the first order, which is perhaps one of the reasons for the ongoing situation.

Change occurs as a result of

1. A feeling of ongoing discomfort 2. A crisis

3. Exposure to the new opportunity that enables development or success

62 Galois coined the term 'Group theory' in the 19^th century to explain the phenomenon of change within a framework.

63 Changes outside the framework: Logical type theory is needed here. The group is a collection of organs, unified by particular attributes but are not the organ itself ( Watzlawick et al., 1979).

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Recognition of the need for change according to Lewin (1951) is a basic condition for the start of change. In other words, every change starts with the first stage of intuition; the second stage is knowledge or developing awareness (Crispin, 2005) that is generated and occurs in a three-stage process:

a. Primary awareness: Basic recognition of the existing situation without fearing it, rejecting it or ignoring it. This stage is accompanied by feelings of anger, embarrassment, disbelief, frustration, desperation and depression. Overcoming all these will lead to the next stage.

b. Observant awareness – the ability to observe oneself from outside, identifying the weaknesses and laughing at them. "Yes, I know that….but…" This is awareness that analyses past deeds and is interested in altering them in the future.

c. Planned awareness – the knowledge that is accumulated in the process will serve as a platform for avoiding repetition of past failures in a planned way.

The third stage of knowing is a result of information becoming knowledge that enables the existence of this stage. This is the Socratic Rational model⁶⁴ (Bunker and DeLisle, 1991; Chin and Benne 1985).

People are rational creatures who are motivated by personal interests.

Conveying new information will lead to recognizing the need to change and will emphasize the advantages that will lead to motivating, accepting and applying change. The means to this will be education, persuasion and providing knowledge.

The meaningful change for which we strive is 'social change' since it pertains to change in the status of women and may be divided into four topics (Fox, 2004):

1. Change in attitudes – exploring why people are so deeply entrenched in their primary attitudes and how to motivate them to adopt other attitudes; According the normative model the change will be assimilated if it meets the norms accepted in society (Bunker and DeLisle, 1991; Chin and Benne 1985).

2. Change in behavior – falling into the remedial domain, according to the model based on learning principles, to which the researcher would add the support groups, workshops and courses that have recently developed greatly. It is based on the behaviorist model (Bunker and DeLisle, 1991; Chin and Benne, 1985) averring that behavior will alter if the change enjoys suitable compensation or support. This model is part of the learning principles.

64One of six change models appears inBunker and DeLisle (1991) and in Chin and Benne (1985).

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3. Personal change – or transitions, experienced by everyone during their lives, such as marriage, divorce, death of a family member and so on, or change in role – parenthood, maturity etc. (Fisher and Cooper, 1990) The psychological-social model (Bunker and DeLisle, 1991; Chin and Benne, 1985) of change stresses the three subjects described before. Lewin (1951) notes three stages in this process:

a. Unfreezing – in a situation of imbalance/tension, the individual /organization recognizes the need for change;

b. Moving – in order to regain the feeling of balance, the process of moving or change in attitudes/behaviors commences until balance is regained;

c. Refreezing – a combination of behaviors or the new approach to an existing totality of behaviors/attitudes to become a new experience, and positioning the change.

4. Organizational change – connected to work and career. Some of it will be a result of the coercion/power model: Change occurs due to the need to avoid being harmed by a more powerful outside source.

This change is first applied without agreement and internalization (Bunker and DeLisle, 1991; Chin and Benne, 1985).

The female gender arena deals with all four topics. However, the researcher suggests' that a tier of social institutional changes should be added to organizational change since all the institutional and non-institutional systems entail relevant consideration of women and the need for change. The systematic model emphasizes the need for influential, systemic external change, that will necessitate coping and implementing the change. (Bunker and DeLisle, 1991; Chin and Benne, 1985). The study of change would be easier to conduct in organizations due to their organized, neutral and objective character. Such study has lead to developing the intervention tools in order to 'control' the changes or to lead to processes of change. Thus in the fifties concepts such as 'planned change' (Bennis, Benne and Chin, 1985) and 'techniques for introducing change' were introduced – amongst other things through instructional groups that employ experiential means and try to arouse the participants' awareness of themselves, of the development of the group and the processes within it. The findings of working with groups provide a basis for the theories of mechanisms through which the change can be applied (Benne, 1985; Blake and Mouton, 1985).

For this reason, the world of content that is connected to leading change talks in male terms, since the organizations then, and most of them even now, are largely a male, hierarchical product. Terms such as

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management, leadership, output, models, formula and diagrams and so on are rampant.

Since personal change is even more complex and harder to measure and assess, psychological research tries to identify the rules according to which people operate in order to solve a problem or introduce change for which other tools are needed for measurement and evaluation (Fox, 2004). A subjective approach is adopted in determining personal change in which change will be defined as such if those experiencing it, or other reasonable people⁶⁵ who did not experience change but were witness to it, note that there was change.

Change at individual level will only be defined as such if all the four following criteria exist (Fox 2004:28):

a. The new situation is not the natural and gradual result of change over time;

b. This, or a similar situation, was not common and routine in the past, and, from the psychological perspective, is a new and primary experience;

c. The difference between what occurred until the time of change and what occurred with the change is clear, significant and absorbed by a person's senses. Minute changes discerned only by measuring tools will not be defined by people as change.

d. The new situation is relevant to the individual's life and has direct or possible impact on them. The individual can define it as important and significant.