Paul C. Endrejat, Franz Baumgarten, Simone Kauffeld

• Although more than seven decades have passed since Lewin laid the foundation for how employees’ behaviour could be changed within organizations, his ideas are far from being obsolescent. Accordingly, this article demonstrates how Lewin’s concepts can still be of use in tackling current issues (i.e. the need to raise energy-saving behaviours within organizations). In order to revive Lewin’s concepts, we combine his approaches on organization change with Motivational Interviewing (MI), a facilitation approach that fits well with his democratic and participatory mind-set. After a theoretical consideration of how Lewin’s ideas could be accompanied by MI principles, we outline a practical concept for raising the level of employees’ energy-saving behaviours to a higher standard. The usefulness of our concept is highlighted on the basis of qualitative (a force field analysis) and quantitative (an increase of energy-saving norms and – behaviours) data. Lewin’s legacy for current organization development, and the theoretical as well asAlthough more than seven decades have passed since Lewin laid the foundation for how employees’ behaviour could be changed within organizations, his ideas are far from being obsolescent. Accordingly, this article demonstrates how Lewin’s concepts can still be of use in tackling current issues (i.e. the need to raise energy-saving behaviours within organizations). In order to revive Lewin’s concepts, we combine his approaches on organization change with Motivational Interviewing (MI), a facilitation approach that fits well with his democratic and participatory mind-set. After a theoretical consideration of how Lewin’s ideas could be accompanied by MI principles, we outline a practical concept for raising the level of employees’ energy-saving behaviours to a higher standard. The usefulness of our concept is highlighted on the basis of qualitative (a force field analysis) and quantitative (an increase of energy-saving norms and – behaviours) data. Lewin’s legacy for current organization development, and the theoretical as well as practical implications for how his ideas could be applied through a combination with MI practices, are discussed.…