Organizational Change, Exam 1

Not on the Scale

"Sweat the small stuff", "grease the wheels, fix the minor problems

sensemaking theory:

"what we do when we face a problem"

Four factors of sense making theory:

Animation (experiment/exploration), Direction (action direct at purpose or goal), Attention, and Respectful Interaction

Controlling dimension of change management styles:

Autocratic/directive

Change management images that are more reactive..

Caretaker and nurturer

Dimensions of Change

Choice of management approach and expectations concerning the outcomes

Shaping change managers:

Coach, Nurturer, and Interpreter

Management Approaches:

Controlling and Shaping

Change management images that are more active, intentional, more positive, and directional...

Director, coach, and navigator

Controlling change managers..

Director, navigator, and caretaker

According to Edmondson, for effective post-incident change, those who report failures—the "messengers"—should be penalized, rather than praised.

False

According to the life-cycle theory, maturity is the final stage of the natural development cycle of an organization.

False

According to the receptive organizational context, organizational receptiveness is likely to be high when there is no pressure for change.

False

According to the star model, processes and lateral capability relate to how performance is measured and compensated, in ways that align individual actions to organizational objectives.

False

As compared to external drivers of organizational change that arise from trends and developments in the wider environment, internal drivers are far more powerful.

False

Change is simply a matter of reacting to events.

False

Deep change in an organization involves tightening up documentation and reporting and reallocating resources.

False

Eddie Lampert, the chairman of Sears Holdings Corporation, restructured the company as a classic retailer.

False

Gap analysis is usually criticized as being overly complex in terms of reviewing an organization's position.

False

In the 7-S framework, "strategy" refers to an organization's vision.

False

It is best to use shallow changes to address strategic challenges.

False

Most estimates put the failure rate of planned changes at around 98 percent.

False

Organizational politics is mostly played in the management boardroom, and almost always results in loss of profit and reputation.

False

Organizations and human systems can be reduced to a single objective of maximizing shareholder value.

False

Paradoxes occur when two or more ideas are in opposition to each other.

False

Power-coercive strategies of change assume that changes occur when people abandon their old orientations and commit to new ones.

False

Process theories lack the ability to reveal the mechanisms or logics behind a sequence of events.

False

Tension exists when two or more apparently correct ideas contradict each other.

False

The built-to-change organization uses design principles that assume the need for a planned organizational transition from one state to another.

False

The caretaker and nurturer images are more frequently discussed in relation to change management and are more widely accepted in domains of organization theory where there is more practice orientation.

False

The reorganization of Sears Holdings Corporation under its chairman, Eddie Lampert, resulted in better collaboration and cooperation among various department heads.

False

The strategic inventory involves a much less sophisticated analysis than that provided by the widely used SWOT approach to understanding an organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

False

There has been less attention paid to the images of intended change outcomes in commentary on change management than to unintended change outcomes.

False

When Mike Duggan was elected as the mayor of Detroit in 2013, the city had stark racial, economic, and social divisions.

False

Shallow Change

Fine-tuning: cut costs, improve effeciencies

Which of the following is a characteristic of organizational change?

From a management perspective, it is seen as problematic.

Which of the following is one of the steps taken by Eddie Lampert in response to the problems faced by Sears Holdings Corporation?

He implemented a decentralized organizational structure.

Which of the following was the outcome of the new organizational model implemented by Eddie Lampert, the chairman of Sears Holdings Corporation?

It encouraged the divisions to turn against each other.

Which of the following is most likely an advantage of adopting a multiple perspectives approach to the management of organizational change?

It encourages the search for creative solutions.

Which of the following statements is true of active learning?

It refers to implementing changes.

Shaping dimension of change management styles:

Participative/engaging

what does POSDCoRB stand for?

Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting, Budgeting

Identify the major problem faced by Sears Holdings Corporation two years after the merger of Kmart and Sears Roebuck.

Profits were down by 45 percent.

Six-Box Organizational Model:

Purpose, structure, rewards, helpful mechanisms, relationships, and leadership

Which of the following reasons makes it difficult for a practicing manager who is less interested in theoretical perspectives to know what works in the management of organizational change?

The cause and effect across complex processes that unfold over time is difficult to establish.

Which of the following features of the literatures on change management makes it difficult to access and to absorb?

The concepts that are used vary widely in scale.

Metaphorical Diagnostics

The technique in which people are asked to describe their organization and how it works using an image or a simile

Which of the following statements is true of transformational "off the scale" changes?

They are more challenging than shallow changes.

Which of the following statements is a characteristic of process narratives?

They expose the nature and significance of the causal factors acting on events.

Controlling dimension of change

Top-down hierarchy, organization is a machine, POSDCoRB

According to Hambrick and Fredrickson, misalignment of the five elements—arenas, vehicles, differentiators, staging, and economic logic—indicates a potential need for change.

True

According to London and Lund, the trade intensity of manufactured goods is falling globally.

True

According to the four-frame model, without the capacity to use multiple frames, managers may become locked into their one favored way of seeing the world—and their organization—and then fail to see other critical aspects or issues

True

According to the receptive organizational context, organizational receptiveness is likely to be high when there is no pressure for change.

True

According to the star model, for an organization to be effective, its strategy, structure, processes, rewards, and people practices have to be in alignment.

True

According to the star model, misalignment between the structure of an organization and its strategy leads to friction.

True

Accounts of how other organizations have handled change can be a rich source of ideas that can be adapted creatively to address similar problems in other settings.

True

Both intended and unintended consequences may emerge from the actions of change managers.

True

Change is a political process because there are often "winners and losers."

True

Changing organizations is as messy as it is exhilarating, as frustrating as it is satisfying, as muddling-through and creative a process as it is a rational one.

True

Diagnosis with regard to organizational change is going to happen whether or not explicit diagnostic tools are used.

True

Evidence suggests that about 70 percent of planned change programs fail to meet their objectives.

True

In general, the implication of population ecology theory is that managers have little sway over change where whole populations of organizations are affected by external forces.

True

Managers face a decision paradox as, on the one hand, they are advised to change rapidly or perish and on the other, they are advised to avoid the risks of implementing too many changes at the same time.

True

Organizational change can occur as a simple response to the latest management fad or fashion.

True

Population ecology theory draws on biology and neo-Darwinism.

True

Power-coercive strategies rely on achieving the intended outcomes through the compliant behavior of those who have less power.

True

Since 2016, the external environment for most organizations, consisting of social, financial, technological, economic, political, and geopolitical conditions has become much more turbulent and unpredictable.

True

The image of management as a controlling function has deep historical roots, based on the work of Henri Fayol and his contemporaries who described what managers do, captured by the acronym POSDCoRB.

True

The image of management as a shaping function, enhancing both individual and organizational capabilities, has deep roots, based on the "human relations" school of management from the 1930s and on the organization development movement.

True

Cultural Web is

a map and understanding of the components of the orgs culture. It's often taken for granted and identifies barriers to change

change manager as a navigator may

achieve some intended change outcomes but has little control over some results; controlling

Force-Field Analysis is

assessing the driving and restraining forces for a given change and manages the balance of forces to encourage the change

Change manager as a nurturer is..

assuming small changes have major impacts, shaping, outcomes will be wilder and more chaotic

Shaping dimension of change

based on human relations, high employee involvement

Deep Change

change mission/values/vision/philosophy, radical shift in behavior/thinking, new goals/objectives/targets

The three pressures:

coercive, mimetic, and normative

unintended outcomes..

common theme in mainstream organization theory, outcomes are often a result of chance rather than planned

Confucian/Taoist Theory

constant ebb and flow, based on maintaining equilibrium, journey oriented, normal rather than exceptional

change manager as a caretaker is

constrained by internal/external forces; controlling

Off the Scale Changes are:

costly, time consuming, affect larger numbers of people in more significant ways, and potentially generate greater resistance

change manager as a interpreter is

creates meaning for others, shapes organizations rather than dictates

Six images of change management

director, coach, navigator, interpreter, caretaker, and nurturer

In the context of assessing the depth of change, _____ involves radically new business models and working methods.

disruptive innovation

In the context of assessing the depth of change, which of the following changes falls at the top of the scale?

disruptive innovation

Off the scale

disruptive innovation, redraw dramatically boundaries

In the context of assessing the depth of change, which of the following is an example of change that is categorized as "off the scale"?

dramatically redrawing organization and sector boundaries

The varied settings property of the literature on organizational change management means _____.

evidence and examples come from a range of organizational types and contexts, using different methodologies

Unlike Starbucks' founder Howard Schultz, its chief operation officer Roz Brewer's management style focused on _____.

evidence, data, and the numbers

Change Agent

external expert management consultant who is paid to work out what was going wrong in an organization and to implement change to put things right

Top five future threats:

extreme weather events, climate change, natural disasters, cyber attacks, and data fraud

Minor organizational changes...

facilitate and augment major change

Change manager as a director must

follow steps regardless the nature of change; controlling

Health

how effectively people work together to pursue a common goal

Population ecology theory:

how environment selects organizations for survival or extinction - perceive change as variation (random chance), selection (environmental best fit), and retention (forces that counteract variation and selection)

Passive learning is

identifying lessons

In the context of assessing the depth of change, which of the following is an example of deeper change?

identifying new ways of doing business

active learning is

implementing changes

Expectations concerning the outcomes are..

intended, partially intended, and unintended

Demographic trends:

life expectancy rising, birth rates falling, global migration, age discrimination

mimetic pressure:

looking at other organizations success and structuring yours to that structure/practice

normative pressure:

managers adopt similar values and working methods through the professionalization of work

institutional theory:

managers take broadly similar decisions and actions across whole populations or organizations

Change literature / advice is hard to absorb or access because there are..

many perspectives, rich history, range of concepts, blurred boundaries, and varied settings

New tech brings what concerns?

mass unemployment, creation of two tier workforce, risk of exploitation of self-employed workers, and potential increase in cyber crime.

Chaos Theory:

nonlinear organizational change, fundamental rather than incremental, doesn't necessarily entail growth

Life-cycle theories:

organizations going through well-defined stages from birth to growth, maturity, and then decline or death

Intended outcome..

outcomes can be achieved as planned, relentless

Deeper

paradigm shift, new ways of thinking/doing business/solving problems

Pestile Framework:

political, economic, social, technological, legal, and ecological

Stories that not only describe change but also provide an explanation of the results of change initiatives are called _____.

process narratives

In the context of different cultures in organizations, skilled change agents are most likely to struggle in _____.

rules-based organizations

change manager as a Coach is

shapes rather than dictates

7-S Framework

skills, strategy, structure, style, systems, and staff

coercive pressure:

social/cultural/government mandated expectations

partially intended outcomes..

some, but not all, planned change outcomes are achievable. intended outcomes may be altered along the way

Process Theories

stories that reveal the mechanisms, or logics behind a sequence of events

The Star Model:

strategy, structure, processes/capability, reward systems, and people practices

Four Frame Model:

structural, human resource, political, symbolic

Environmental pressures for change:

technology, demographics, climate change, corporate response to divisive issues, changing expectations, and globalization.

contingent theories means

the appropriate approach is contingent on the context and circumstances, does not have "one best model" to follow

Stories are considered process theories because _____.

they can uncover the mechanisms behind a sequence of events

Sustaining Innovation

tighten up documentation/reporting/controls, reallocate sources

Which of the following changes is most likely to create the most resistance in an organization?

transformational "off the scale" changes

categories of business risk:

transition risk (carbon emissions becoming more strict) and physical risk (environmental health - storms/riing sea levels)

Scenario planning is...

used to explore best-case/worst-case possibilities and to encourage creative out-of-the-box thinking and "blue skies" decision making

paradox

when two or more apparently correct ideas contradict each other

tension

when two or more ideas are in opposition to each other

GAP Analysis questions:

where are we now, where do we want to get to, and what do we need to get there?