Principles of Management, Chapter 7: Innovation and Change
Managing Resistance to Change: Refreezing is
supporting and reinforcing new changes so that they stick.
Testing is
the systematic comparison of different product designs or design iterations.
A Product Prototype is
a full-scale, working model that is being tested for design, function, and reliability.
A Dominant Design is
a new technological design or process that becomes the accepted market standard.
The Change Agent is
the person formally in charge of guiding a change effort.
Discontinuous Change is
the phase of a technology cycle characterized by technological substitution and design competition.
Incremental Change is
the phase of a technology cycle in which companies innovate by lowering costs and improving the functioning and performance of the dominant technological design.
Design Competition is
competition between old and new technologies to establish a new technological standard or dominant design.
How to Create a Results-Driven Change Program
1. Set measurable, short-term goals to improve performance. 2. Make sure your action steps are likely to improve measure performance. 3. Stress the importance of immediate improvements. 4. Solicit help from consultants and staffers to achieve quick improvements in performance. 5. Test action steps to see if they actually yield improvements. If they don't, discard them and establish new ones. 6. Use resources you have or that can be easily acquired. It doesn't take much.
General Steps for Organizational Development Interventions
1: Entry; A problem is discovered, and the need for change becomes apparent. A search begins for someone to deal with the problem and facilitate change. 2: Startup; A change agent enters the picture and works to clarify the problem and gain commitment to a change effort. 3: Assessment and Feedback; The change agent gathers information about the problem and provides feedback about it to decision makers and those affected by it. 4: Action Planning; The change agent works with decision makers to develop an action plan. 5: Intervention; The action plan, or organizational development intervention, is carried out. 6: Evaluation; The change agent helps decision makers assess the effectiveness of the intervention. 7: Adoption; Organizational members accept ownership and responsibility for the change, which is then carried out through the entire organization. 8: Separation; The change agent leaves the organization after first ensuring that the change intervention will continue to work.
When Coca-Cola purchased first a part and then all of Honest Tea, what would have been appropriate ways to help this change be successful? Check all that apply. A: Train employees on Coca-Cola's payroll and expense reimbursement systems since Honest tea uses them. B: Survey Honest Tea employees to identify sources of anxiety and conflict related to the acquisition. C: Conduct team-building exercises to help groups of employees from Coca-Cola and Honest Tea communicate effectively and address conflict. D: Use a change agent to freeze Honest Tea's very successful culture before Coca-Cola could have any impact.
A: Train employees on Coca-Cola's payroll and expense reimbursement systems since Honest tea uses them. B: Survey Honest Tea employees to identify sources of anxiety and conflict related to the acquisition. C: Conduct team-building exercises to help groups of employees from Coca-Cola and Honest Tea communicate effectively and address conflict.
If a technological innovation follows the S-curve pattern of innovation, a flat slope at the beginning of the curve indicates that: A: it has reached its performance limits and any additional significant improvements in performance are highly unlikely. B: an increased effort can bring only small improvements in its performance. C: any effort to improve performance can further deteriorate its performance. D: even small amounts of effort can result in significant increases in performance.
B: an increased effort can bring only small improvements in its performance. Early in a technology cycle, there is still much to learn, so progress is slow. In the typical S-curve pattern of innovation, a flat slope at the beginning of the curve indicates that increased effort (in terms of money or research and development) can bring only small improvements in technological performance at extreme ends of the cycle.
Discontinuous change is characterized by _____, in which an old technology and several different new technologies compete to establish a new technological standard or dominant design. A: technological lockout B: design competition C: design substitution D: technological singularity
B: design competition Discontinuous change is characterized by technological substitution and design competition. Design competition is the part of discontinuous change in which the old technology and several different new technologies compete to establish a new technological standard or dominant design.
The Five Stages of Organizational Decline are
Blinded Inaction Faulty Action Crisis Dissolution
One change that Seth mentions is the PlantBottle. Another is using grape juice instead of sugar to sweeten drinks. What is true about these changes? A: Implementing multiple changes to products is an example of having a dominant design. B: The PlantBottle is a potentially technological discontinuity; grape juice-sweetened drinks are a technological lockout. C: The PlantBottle is a potentially technological discontinuity; grape juice-sweetened drinks are an incremental change. D: Neither innovation would have been possible without outside partners.
C: The PlantBottle is a potentially technological discontinuity; grape juice-sweetened drinks are an incremental change. The PlantBottle is made from renewable plant resins instead of petroleum-based plastic. Thus, it is sourced from farmers instead of from factories, and its own manufacture is a new process. This has the potential to be a technological discontinuity. If customers strongly prefer the PlantBottle and it becomes the standard for the industry, it will dramatically change how packaged drinks and packaged foods of many kinds are made, and only companies that package their products this way will be competitive. Changing the recipe for drinks to use one sweetener instead of another (white grape juice instead of sugar) is an example of an incremental change. A incremental change is a different way of making the product, often so the manufacturing process is more efficient or higher quality.
Person-Focused Intervention
Counseling/Couching: An intervention designed so that a formal helper or coach listens to managers or employees and advises them on how to deal with work or interpersonal problems. Training: An intervention designed to provide individuals with the knowledge, skills, or attitudes they need to become more effective at their jobs.
Large-System Interventions
Sociotechnical Systems: An intervention designed to improve how well employees use and adjust to the work and technology used an an organization. Survey Feedback: An intervention that uses surveys to collect information from the members of the system, reports the results of that survey to the members, and then uses those results to develop action plans for improvement.
Small-Group Interventions
Team Building: An intervention designed to increase the cohesion and cooperation of work group members. Unit goal setting: An intervention designed to help a work group establish short and long-term goals.
A Design Iteration is
a cycle of repetition in which a company tests a prototype of a new product or service, improves on that design, and then builds and tests the improved prototype.
A technology cycle is
a cycle that begins with the birth of a new technology and ends when that technology reaches its limits and is replaced by a newer, substantially better technology.
Organizational decline is
a large decrease in organizational performance that occurs when companies don't anticipate, recognize, neutralize, or adapt to the internal or external pressures that threaten their survival.
The S-curve pattern of innovation is
a pattern of technological innovation characterized by slow initial progress, then rapid progress, and then slow progress again as a technology matures and reaches its limits.
Organizational development is
a philosophy and collection of planned change interventions designed to improve an organization's long-term health and performance.
Flow is
a psychological state of effortlessness, in which you become completely absorbed in what you're doing, and time seems to pass quickly.
The Experiential Approach to Innovation is
an approach to innovation that assumes a highly uncertain environment and uses intuition, flexible options, and hands-on experience to reduce uncertainty and accelerate learning and understanding.
The compression approach to innovation is
an approach to innovation that assumes that incremental innovation can be planned using a series of steps and that compressing those steps can speed innovation.
Generational change is
change based on incremental improvements to a dominant technological design such that the improved technology is fully backward compatible with the older technology.
Results-driven Change is
change created quickly by focusing on the measurement and improvement of results.
Change forces are
forces that produce differences in the form, quality, or condition of an organization over time.
The contrast to change forces, Resistance Forces are
forces that support the existing conditions in organizations.
Milestones are
formal project review points used to assess progress and performance.
Managing Resistance to Change: Unfreezing is
getting the people affected by change to believe that change is needed.
Resistance to change is
opposition to change resulting from self-interest, misunderstanding and distrust, and a general intolerance for change.
Innovation Streams are
patterns of innovation over time that can create sustainable competitive advantage.
General Electric fastworks is
quickly experimenting with new ideas to solve customer problems and learn from repeated tests and improvements.
Technological Lockout is
the inability of a company to competitively sell its products because it relies on old technology or a nondominant design.
A Technological Discontinuity is
the phase of an innovation stream in which a scientific advance or unique combination of existing technologies creates a significant breakthrough in performance or function.
Managing Resistance to Change: Change Intervention is
the process used to get workers and managers to change their behaviors and work practices.
Technological substitution is
the purchase of new technologies to replace older ones. Smartphones replacing digital cameras, DVD's replaced VHS tapes, etc.
Managing Resistance to Change: Coercion
the use of formal power and authority to force others to change. Coercion should only be used when a crisis exists or when all other attempts to reduce resistance to change have failed.
Agile change is
using daily standups, or "huddles," to review the progress of multidisciplinary teams or "Scrums," who break problems into small, clearly defined parts that team members work on in sprints.
Multifunctional teams are
work teams composed of people from different departments.
Creative Work Environments are
workplace cultures in which workers perceive that new ideas are welcomed, valued, and encouraged.