Ch. 7 Managing Change and Innovation

An innovative organization is likely to have the following characteristics:

> Accept ambiguity. Too much emphasis on objectivity and specificity constrains creativity. > Tolerate the impractical. Individuals who offer impractical, even foolish, answers to what-if questions are not stifled. What at first seems impractical might lead to innovative solutions. > Keep external controls minimal. Rules, regulations, policies, and similar organizational controls are kept to a minimum. > Tolerate risk. Employees are encouraged to experiment without fear of consequences should they fail. Mistakes are treated as learning opportunities. You don't want your employees to fear putting forth new ideas. A recent study found that one fear employ- ees have is that their coworkers will think negatively of them if they try to come up with better ways of doing things. Another fear is that they'll "provoke anger among others who are comfortable with the status quo."62 In an innovative culture, such fears are not an issue. > Tolerate conflict. Diversity of opinions is encouraged. Harmony and agreement between individuals or units are not assumed to be evidence of high performance. > Focus on ends rather than means. Goals are made clear, and individuals are encouraged to consider alternative routes toward meeting the goals. Focusing on ends suggests that several right answers might be possible for any given problem. > Use an open-system focus. Managers closely monitor the environment and respond to changes as they occur. For example, at Starbucks, product development depends on "inspi- ration field trips to view customers and trends." Michelle Gass, now the company's senior vice president of global strategy, "took her team to Paris, Düsseldorf, and London to visit local Starbucks and other restaurants to get a better sense of local cultures, behaviors, and fashions." She says, "You come back just full of different ideas and different ways to think about things than you would had you read about it in a magazine or e-mail."63 > Provide positive feedback. Managers provide positive feedback, encouragement, and support so employees feel that their creative ideas receive attention. For instance, at Research in Motion, Mike Lazaridis, president and co-CEO says, "I think we have a culture of innovation here, and [engineers] have absolute access to me. I live a life that tries to promote innovation."64 > Exhibit empowering leadership. Be a leader who lets organizational members know that the work they do is significant. Provide organizational members the opportunity to participate in decision making. Show them that you're confident they can achieve high performance levels and outcomes. Being this type of leader will have a positive influence on creativity

Employee __________ can provide stress relief

counseling

Role conflicts

create expectations that may be hard to reconcile or satisfy

Competitive factors or new innovations within an industry often require managers to introduce new ____________, __________, or ____________.

introduce new equipment, tools, or operating methods

Type A personality

is characterized by chronic feelings of a sense of time urgency, an excessive competitive drive, and difficulty accepting and enjoying leisure time.

Role ambiguity

is created when role expectations are not clearly understood and the employee is not sure what he or she is to do

Role overload

is experienced when the employee is expected to do more than time permits

Autonomy

tends to lessen stress. Jobs in which temperatures, noise, or other working conditions are dangerous or undesirable can increase anxiety

One thing a manager can do in terms of job-related stress is to make sure that an employee's ________ match the job ________.

abilities, requirements

Idea champions

actively and enthusiastically supporting new ideas, building support, overcoming resistance, and ensuring that innovations are implemented

What "favorable conditions" facilitate cultural change?

- One is that a dramatic crisis occurs, such as an unexpected financial setback, the loss of a major customer, or a dramatic technological innovation by a competitor - Leadership changes hands. New top leadership can provide an alternative set of key values and may be per- ceived as more capable of responding to the crisis than the old leaders were - The organization is young and small. The younger the organization, the less entrenched its culture - Culture is weak. Weak cultures are more receptive to change than are strong ones

Techniques for Reducing Resistance to Change:

1) Education and communication can help reduce resistance to change by helping employ- ees see the logic of the change effort 2) Participation involves bringing those individuals directly affected by the proposed change into the decision-making process 3) Facilitation and support involve helping employees deal with the fear and anxiety asso- ciated with the change effort 4) Negotiation involves exchanging something of value for an agreement to lessen the resistance to the change effort 5) Manipulation and co-optation refer to covert attempts to influence others about the change 6) Coercion can be used to deal with resistance to change

Two conditions are necessary for potential stress to become actual stress:

1) First, there must be uncertainty over the outcome 2) Second, the outcome must be important

5 categories of organizational stressors:

1) Task demands: are factors related to an employee's job. They include the design of a person's job (autonomy, task variety, degree of automation), working conditions, and the physical work layout. 2) Role demands: relate to pressures placed on an employee as a function of the particular role he or she plays in the organization 3) Interpersonal demands: are pressures created by other employees 4) Organization structure can increase stress 5) Organizational leadership represents the supervisory style of the organization's managers

Why do people resist change?

1) The main reasons include uncertainty, habit, concern over personal loss, and the belief that the change is not in the organization's best interest. 2) we do things out of habit 3) the fear of losing something already possessed 4) a person's belief that the change is incompatible with the goals and interests of the organization

Improved organizational _________ will keep ambiguity-induced stress to a minimum.

communications

Organizational change

Any alteration of people, structure, or technology in an organization

Organizational Development (OD)

Change methods that focus on people and the nature and quality of interpersonal work relationships.

Types of change

Changing structure: includes any change in structural variables such as reporting relationships, coordination mechanisms, employee empowerment, or job redesign Changing technology: encompasses modifications in the way work is performed or the methods and equipment that are used Changing people: refers to changes in attitudes, expectations, perceptions, and behav- ior of individuals or groups

The most visible technological changes have come from ___________________.

computerization

External and Internal Forces for Change

External • Changing consumer needs and wants • New governmental laws • Changing technology • Economic changes Internal • New organizational strategy • Change in composition of workforce • New equipment • Changing employee attitudes

Stressors

Factors that cause stress

________ competent, efficient employees and _________ that they are happy is another important job of the human resource manager

Finding, ensuring

Change-Capable Organizations

Link the present and the future. Think of work as more than an extension of the past;think about future opportunities and issues and factor them into today's decisions. • Make learning a way of life. Change-friendly organizations excel at knowledge sharing and management. • Actively support and encourage day-to-day improvements and changes. Successful change can come from the small changes as well as the big ones. • Ensure diverse teams. Diversity ensures that things won't be done like they've always been done. • Encourage mavericks. Because their ideas and approaches are outside the mainstream, mavericks can help bring about radical change. • Shelter breakthroughs. Change-friendly organizations have found ways to protect those breakthrough ideas. • Integrate technology. Use technology to implement changes. • Build and deepen trust. People are more likely to support changes when the organization's culture is trusting and managers have credibility and integrity. • Couple permanence with perpetual change. Because change is the only constant, companies need to figure out how to protect their core strengths during times of change. • Support an entrepreneurial mindset. Many younger employees bring a more entrepreneurial mindset to organizations and can serve as catalysts for radical change.

Type B personality

People who are relaxed and easygoing and accept change easily

Popular OD Techniques

Sensitivity Training: A method of changing behavior through unstructured group interaction. Team Building: Activities that help team members learn how each member thinks and works. Survey Feedback: A technique for assessing attitudes and perceptions, identifying discrepancies in these, and resolving the differences by using. Process Consultation: An outside consultant helps the manager understand how interpersonal processes are affecting the way work is being done Intergroup Development: Changing the attitudes, stereotypes, and perceptions that work groups have about each other.

Change agent

Someone who acts as a catalyst and assumes the responsibility for managing the change process

Innovation

Taking creative ideas and turning them into useful products or work methods

Creativity

The ability to combine ideas in a unique way or to make unusual associations between ideas

Stress

The adverse reaction people have to excessive pressure placed on them from extraordinary demands, constraints, or opportunities

Kurt Lewin's

Three-step change process: Unfreezing > Changing > Refreezing According to Lewin, successful change can be planned and requires unfreezing the status quo, changing to a new state, and refreezing to make the change permanent. The status quo is considered equilibrium. To move away from this equilibrium, unfreezing is necessary. Unfreezing can be thought of as preparing for the needed change. It can be done by increasing the driving forces, which are forces pushing for change; by decreas- ing the restraining forces, which are forces that resist change; or by combining the two approaches. Once unfreezing is done, the change itself can be implemented. However, merely introduc- ing change doesn't ensure that it will take hold. The new situation needs to be refrozen so that it can be sustained over time. Unless this last step is done, there's a strong chance that employ- ees will revert back to the old equilibrium state—that is, the old ways of doing things. The objective of refreezing, then, is to stabilize the new situation by reinforcing the new behaviors

A(n) ________ is any alteration of people, structure, or technology

organizational change

A ________ __________ program can help employees whose personal lives suffer from a lack of planning to sort out their priorities

time management

A company in change in an industry in change is an accurate description of what change is like in the ________.

white-water metaphor

Changing Culture

• Set the tone through management behavior; top managers, particularly, need to be positive role models. • Create new stories, symbols, and rituals to replace those currently in use. • Select, promote, and support employees who adopt the new values. • Redesign socialization processes to align with the new values. • To encourage acceptance of the new values, change the reward system. • Replace unwritten norms with clearly specified expectations. • Shake up current subcultures through job transfers, job rotation, and/or terminations. • Work to get consensus through employee participation and creating a climate with a high level of trust