Chapter 7 Innovation and Change

Touchstone Hardware was a popular company that specialized in making floppy disks. At the start of the 21st century, when people began switching to CDs and DVDs to store their information, it was brought to the notice of senior managers that the company needed to switch its focus to the production of new storage devices. However, the managers did not feel it was important to make this switch. They dismissed CDs and DVDs as just a passing phase. Which of the following stages of organizational decline best illustrates the current situation of the company?

Blinded stage

Which of the following methods for managing resistance to change should only be used as a last resort or under crisis conditions?

Coercion

Over the long run, which of the following is the best way for a company to sustain competitive advantage?

Creating innovation streams

Which of the following is an aspect of the experiential approach to innovation?

Design iteration

When resistance to change is based on insufficient, incorrect, or misleading information, which of the following is the best approach that a manager can use to manage resistance to change?

Education and communication

in the context of the experiential approach to innovation, which of the following is true of design iteration?

Frequent design iterations improve understanding.

Portrance's iX processor is the latest installment in the Portrance microprocessor product line. It is fully backward compatible with the earlier versions of the microprocessor. Which of the following terms best describes this dominance of Portrance's new iX processor over its older versions?

Generational change

Which of the following statements is true about the compression approach to managing innovation?

It aims at consistent improvement of existing designs

Which of the following is a characteristic of the inaction stage of organizational decline?

Managers wrongly assume that they can easily correct the problems, so they don't feel the situation is urgent.

If a technological innovation follows the S-curve pattern of innovation, a flat slope at the beginning of the curve indicates that:

an increased effort can bring only small improvements in its performance.

The _____ assumes that innovation is a predictable process that can be planned using a series of steps and reducing the time it takes to complete those steps can speed up the innovation process.

compression approach to managing innovation

Levio is a company that develops mobile applications. It aims to become the market leader in its field. Levio focuses on developing a culture where workers are made to feel that new ideas are welcome. It plans to do this by offering challenging work and supervisory encouragement to its workers. In this scenario, the company is attempting to develop a(n) _____.

creative work environment

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.

design competition

Before TREX Mobiles launched its latest smartphone, it built a prototype of the phone and tested its performance repeatedly, improving the model each time. In the context of the experiential approach to innovation, this process is called _____.

design iteration

When significant improvements in performance can only be gained through radical new designs or new performance-enhancing materials, it is likely that a company is at the _____.

end of the technology cycle

Xamber Tools, a metal tool manufacturing firm, is facing a threat of organizational decline due to the rising costs of raw materials, decreasing profits and lower market share. To fix these problems, the management decides to cut costs of production to increase efficiency and profit. The cost cut does not help the company, and the company eventually files for bankruptcy. In this scenario, Xamber Tools is most likely in the _____ of organizational decline.

faulty action stage

A particular technology becomes the dominant design because of critical mass, which means that:

it is used by most people.

A technology is most likely to become a dominant design if:

it solves a practical problem.

In the context of managing change, _____ support the status quo of an organization

resistance forces

Feldman Films is a company associated with photography, and has been in business for the last 30 years. The invention and development of the digital camera forced Feldman Films to start thinking fresh. Feldman Films applied design thinking to strategy and innovation in response to the competitive threat from the digital camera. In this scenario, the development of the digital camera was a _____.

technological discontinuity

When Red Arc Enterprises, a shipping company, was merged with a larger shipping company, there was a strong resistance to change among the employees of Red Arc. When the CEO of Red Arc got to know of this, he met everyone and explained why the change was necessary and how it could serve to benefit everyone. According to Kurt Lewin, Red Arc is in the _____ stage of managing organizational change.

unfreezing

The three steps in the basic process of managing organizational change outlined by Kurt Lewin are:

unfreezing, change intervention, and refreezing

Which of the following is an aspect of the compression approach to innovation?

Planning

Which of the following factors causes resistance to change?

Self-interest

Damien Richard is the CEO of QuickShop, a chain of supermarkets. QuickShop is soon going to employ the latest technology, which will help customers reduce their shopping time by an ask-and-get approach. In this approach, a customer has to just name the product, and the robots will bring it to them. QuickShop's employees are worried about losing their jobs if this technology is employed. On speaking to several of the employees, Damien finds that many of them have misguided opinions about the implementation of the technology, causing them to have insecurities. What should Damien do to help them adapt to the change more easily?

He must educate his employees about the need for the change and explain its benefits to them before employing it

In an organization, which of the following acts as a hindrance to a creative work environment?

Presence of internal conflict

If a technological innovation follows the typical S-curve pattern of innovation, which of the following will indicate that small amounts of effort, in terms of money or research and development, will lead to significant increase in technological performance?

A steeper slope at the midpoint of the curve

When Fletcher Motors, an automobile manufacturer, learned that it took longer than any other manufacturer to assemble a vehicle, it purchased existing flexible manufacturing systems to replace its older ones. Which stage of the technology cycle is illustrated in the scenario?

Discontinuous change

In terms of change tools and techniques, which of the following is true of organizational development?

It emphasizes employee participation in diagnosing, solving, and evaluating problems.

____ is the successful implementation of creative ideas in organizations.

Organizational innovation

Which of the following occurs in the adoption stage of organizational development interventions?

Organizational members accept ownership and responsibility for the change, which is then carried out through the entire organization.

There are eight general steps for organizational development interventions. The third step is _____.

assessment and feedback

An individual who is formally in charge of guiding a change effort in an organization is referred to as a _____.

change agent

Mark was the person who was in charge of the plan to reinvent Supernova Automobiles. He played a major role in the company making a shift to building solar-powered automobiles from making regular fuel-powered cars. After the change intervention gave satisfactory results, Mark left the project and started working on another project. In the context of organizational development, Mark is a(n) _____.

change agent

The _____ assumes that innovation is occurring within a highly uncertain environment.

experiential approach to innovation

Garrison Motors Inc. developed a creative manufacturing technique that helps improve the efficiency of their production. It allows the company to produce more than one type of car from the same assembly line. In this scenario, the development of a new technique by Garrison Motors to improve its workflow efficiency is an example of _____.

organizational innovation

Dynamics Inc. is a company that specializes in household appliances. It is currently working on creating a new geyser that can heat water in less than five minutes. The company has developed a working model that is being tested for design, function, and reliability. In terms of the experiential approach to innovation, this working model is called a _____.

product prototype

In terms of change tools and techniques, the General Electric workout is a special kind of _____.

results-driven change

During the last decade, as people sought to replace their obsolete floppy discs, there was an increase in sales in CDs, DVDs, pen drives, and portable hard discs. The replacement of floppy discs by other advanced storage devices is an example of _____.

technological substitution

Studies of hundreds of technological innovations have shown that nearly all technology cycles follow _____.

the S-curve pattern of innovation