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Force Field Analysis Tweet
When decisions are made by managers they have to weigh up the reasons for and against that particular decision. In 1951 Kurt Lewin developed a model that allowed managers to visualise these points. He called it the Force Field Analysis Model.
The analysis enables a manager to weigh the number of reasons ‘for’ to ‘against’. If there are more ‘against’ then a decision has to be made whether they should go ahead with that particular route. The manager also needs to assess whether these reasons against can either be turned into ‘for’ or whether they can be dealt with or the severity of the ‘against’ reduced. If there are more things going against you, say for a launch of a product then then you would need to deal with those factors.
Each forces for and against are allocated a number based on the severity. 0 is usually neutral and 4 is strong. Lets look at what a typical force field analysis decision will look at.
As you can see from the diagram forces for are the customers trust the brand (4), the firm is moving into new segments (3) and, should all go well there will be an increase in sales (4). The major factors against are cost implications (4), moving into a new area of business (3) even with a trusted brand it is risky business and competitor reactions (2).. A possible solution to the risk of moving into a new area of business could be to buy an established competitor that already makes cereals and use their skill and expertise. But again this has its own risk associations.
To summarise a force field analysis helps a company at strategic level to weigh up the reasons for and against a particular business decision.
Studying Management? Visit www.learnmanagement2.com
Further reading:
Principles of Marketing by Philip Kotler
Principles of Marketing by Frances Brassington
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