OB 6301 CHAPTER 15

Ted has been vocal in his objections to the current organizational change, and management has offered him an opportunity to transfer to another division where he will not be affected by the change. Which strategy for minimizing resistance to change does this describe?

Negotiation

According to Lewin, informing employees about innovation by competitors, changing consumer trends, and new regulations are all factors of the external environment that ______.

create an urgency to change

Employee involvement in the decision to change reduces resistance by ______.

creating a sense of ownership for the decisions

The step in the action research process that gathers and analyzes data about the situation and identifies a direction for change is ______.

diagnosing the need for change

Which of the following may be the most important factor in the success of public-sector organizational change programs?

having a guiding coalition

The strategy for minimizing resistance to change that teaches employees the skills they will need is ______.

learning

Highly participative arrangements composed of people across organizational levels who apply the action research model are part of the ______ learning structures approach.

parallel

Appreciative inquiry is often a(n) ________, which adopts a whole systems perspective.

large group intervention

Which of the five principles of appreciative inquiry holds that organizations have choices in how they are perceived, framed, and described?

poetic

List the steps of the Four-D model of appreciative inquiry in order, with the first step at the top and the last step at the bottom.

1. discovering 2. dreaming 3. designing 4. delivering

Put the steps in the action research approach to organizational change in order. Place the first step at the top and the last step at the bottom.

1. form client-consultant relationship 2. diagnose the need for change 3. introduce the intervention 4. evaluate and stabilize the change 5. disengage consultant's services

Andrea likes the old way of doing things and doesn't want to change. "We've been doing it this way since I started with the company, and you just can't teach an old dog new tricks" she asserts. Which of the following best describes Andrea's resistance to change?

Breaking routines

What does positive organizational behavior focus on?

Building character in individuals and institutions

In which step of the action research process is data gathered and analyzed about an ongoing system?

Diagnose need for change

Which stage in the action research process measures the effectiveness of the intervention against the standards established in the diagnostic stage?

Evaluate and stabilize

Which of the following are problems associated with a future-oriented positive focus to organizational change?

Generating high expectations that can not be met Domination by a few members of the group

Which of the following best characterizes large group interventions?

Highly participative events

Sally thinks the new software package the company wants to use will be very difficult to learn because she has limited experience with computers. Which of the reasons for resisting change applies to this situation?

Inadequate skills and knowledge

Which of these are ways that leaders develop an urgency for change under Lewin's force field analysis model?

Informing employees about pending government regulations Reminding employees about changing consumer trends Keeping employees up-to-date about competitors

Simultaneity

Inquiry and change are simultaneous, not sequential.

ABA Change management a fresh new idea: Based on these results, what is next?

Introducing tablets and software that can keep track of inventory, store everything in the "cloud", and eliminate the need for paper as inventory.

The model of organizational change that helps change agents diagnose the forces that drive and restrain proposed change is ______.

Lewin's force field analysis model

Poetic principle

Organizations are open books so we have choices in how they are perceived, framed, and described.

Constructionist principle

Our understanding of the change process depends on the questions we ask and language we use during the process.

What is a highly participative arrangement made up of people across all levels of an organization who apply the action research model to produce meaningful change?

Parallel learning structure

Anticipatory principle

People are motivated by the vision they believe in for the future.

ABA Change management a fresh new idea: What stage in the change process does this support and reinforcement of the new system represent?

Refreezing

When employees believe that change will reduce their status and pay or create poorer working conditions, which of the following likely will occur?

Resistance to change will be stronger.

What happens during the evaluate and stabilize change stage of action research?

Standards are used to determine the effectiveness of the intervention.

Which of the following minimizes resistance by removing some of the negative valence and fear of the unknown about the change process?

Stress management

A perspective of organizational behavior that focuses on building positive qualities and traits within individuals or institutions as opposed to focusing on what is wrong with them is known as positive organizational

behavior

True or false: Dissatisfied customers create a powerful driving force for change because the organization can't survive without satisfied customers.

True

Which of the following do social networks rely on to create viral change?

Trusted sources Word-of-mouth Viral marketing

ABA Change management a fresh new idea: Based on the model, what should be your first step?

Unfreezing

How do organizational managers view negotiation as a tactic for reducing resistance to change?

Useful but not necessarily effective for the long term

ABA Change management a fresh new idea: This may be a good plan but how do we make the new technology stick in the minds of retail associates at each location?

We can show some early wins, such as an improvement in inventory tracking and reordering, so employees would be motivated.

According to Lewin, when is an organization stable?

When the driving and restraining forces for change are roughly in equilibrium.

The organizational change process that combines changing attitudes and behavior with testing theory is the ______.

action research approach

Refreezing refers to

aligning the organization's systems with the desired behaviors to support and reinforce the new role patterns.

A company has changed to a team-based structure and is now changing the reward system to one that rewards team members equally for reaching productivity goals. This is an example of ______.

aligning the system to support desired behaviors

A cross-cultural perspective of organizational change would recognize that

change is seen as cyclical in many cultures.

One important driver for organizational change is ________, meaning that leaders continually urge employees to strive for higher standards or better practices.

divine discontent

Customers provide a human element that can create ______ for change.

driving forces

In the dreaming stage of appreciative inquiry, participants

envision what might be.

Advantages of using a pilot project include ______.

facilitating the selection of organizational groups that are most ready for change reduced risk of failure when the strategy is adopted by the entire organization

Alistair isn't sure how the announced changes will affect him. He is uncertain whether his work group will change, whether he will have to move, and or if his pay will be reduced. The most likely reason Alistair is resisting the change is ______.

fear of the unknown

The status quo bias is a form of which type of resistance to change?

fear of the unknown

Employees who participate in the decisions about a change ______.

feel a sense of ownership will have reduced fear of the unknown

TSKCO has hired a consultant to select new software for the accounting department. The accounting department employees believe they had the information needed and should have chosen it themselves. They are resisting the change because they ______.

feel that their self-worth is threatened

According to Lewin's force field analysis model, ______ forces attempt to maintain the status quo and block the change process.

restraining

According to Lewin's model, ______ forces must be reduced in order for change to occur.

restraining

Resistance to change

should be viewed as task conflict.

A viral change process relies on ________ to improve the change process.

social networks

Positive principle

Focusing on positive potential produces more effective and enduring change.

When an organization chooses to fine-tune its systems and take small steps toward change, it is introducing ______ change.

incremental

Communication can reduce the restraining forces against change by ______.

informing employees of specific external threats explaining the future and the need for change

The reason employees resist change when it diminishes their self-worth is referred to as the ______ syndrome.

not-invented-here

The employees in the new manufacturing teams all received productivity bonuses that showed they were adjusting to the new systems very well. This is an example of:

refreezing an organizational change.

Employees fear the unknown and resist change because all change includes some degree of ______ that creates risk.

uncertainty

Reasons why employees are willing to adopt changes more easily after observing a pilot project include that they ______.

understand that they can learn the skills needed to make the change recognize that change brought recognition and rewards to those in the pilot project see how the proposed changes could apply to them

The viral change process uses word-of-mouth and ______ to build support and opportunities for observing those adopting new behaviors.

social networks

Pilot programs are useful for introducing change because they ______.

test the effectiveness of the change

An employee's readiness for change depends on which model of individual behavior?

the MARS model

Guiding coalitions for organizational change ______.

involve people with the same level of commitment to enacting change involve employees from a wide array of levels might be the greatest factor in the achievement of organizational change programs

BusCorp wants to introduce a new procedure for processing customer requests. This will require employees to break their old routines and adopt new role patterns. BusCorp should use the ________ strategy to produce change self-efficacy.

learning

The form client-consultant relationship stage of the action research approach to organizational change involves ______.

learning if people are motivated to participate in the change

Transformational leadership ______.

links an individual's values and the change presents a clear vision of the future

Which of the following can encourage refreezing new behaviors among employees?

Changing physical structures to support the employees Changing reward systems to support the employees

ABA Change management a fresh new idea: which step in the change process does the introduction of the tablets and software represent?

changing or moving

Pilot projects require ________ in order for employees to understand how the practices in a pilot project apply to them even though they are in a completely different functional area.

clear role perceptions

According to the action research model, the ________ before diagnosing the need for change.

client-consultant relationship needs to be formed

"Go along or get out" would best describe which strategy for minimizing resistance to change?

coercion

The least desirable way to get employees to accept change is ______.

coercion

The action research approach to organizational change ______.

combines changing attitudes and behavior with testing theory

The greatest priority and primary strategy for any organizational change is to ______.

communicate the reasons for change

For any organizational change, ________ should be the highest priority and the first strategy utilized.

communication

When an organization is successful in its markets and is performing well, which of the following is an effective way to create an urgency for change?

Create a future vision of a better organization.

What are cross-cultural limitations to organizational change theories?

Direct confrontation with change is unacceptable in some areas. Many theories are built around Western cultural assumptions. Change is cyclical, not linear, in some places.

Match the stage in the Four-D model of appreciative inquiry on the left with the correct description on the right.

Discovery = Identifying the best of "what is" Dreaming = Envisioning "what might be" Designing = Engaging in dialogue about "what should be" Delivering = Developing objectives about "what will be"

ABA Change management a fresh new idea: So what can you ask the VP and Analyst in the unfreezing stage in order to influence change?

Should we survey a sample set of employees at each of our locations to ask what they dislike about the current system?

The action research model is built on the idea of collecting information from organizational members, which raises the ethical issue of

individual rights to privacy.

Cross-cultural differences suggest that organizations adopt a(n) ________ to effectively manage change.

contingency perspective

The step in the action research approach to organizational change during which an outside change agent assesses the client's readiness, ability, and motivation to change is ______.

forming a client-consultant relationship

XTen Enterprises has been holding system-wide group sessions lasting a few days during which participants identify trends and establish ways to adapt to those changes. X Ten is using ______.

future search conferences

The step in the action research process of diagnosing the need for change involves ______.

gathering and analyzing data

Reasons that employees resist change include ______.

misperceptions of their roles and the needed change lack of motivation to change inability to change due to lack of skills and knowledge

To support the desired changes, an organization's systems and structures ______.

must support the desired behaviors

When an organization chooses to overhaul its systems quickly and decisively, it is introducing ______ change.

rapid

To succeed in implementing change successfully, change agents must ______.

reduce the restraining forces

Creating a vision, communicating the vision, and building commitment to that vision are behaviors that create and implement change initiatives through ______leadership.

transformational

A formal group of several people who are influence leaders with a similar level of commitment to an organization's transformation is an example of ______.

a guiding coalition

Employees determine whether a proposed change will make them personally better or worse off by ______.

applying a cost-benefit analysis

The organizational change approach that directs the group's attention away from its own problems to focus participants on the group's potential and positive elements is the ______ approach.

appreciative inquiry

Successful organizations monitor their environments because they ______.

are open systems that adapt to survive

A cultural limitation of the theories used in Western cultures is that they ______.

assume change is linear

The appreciative inquiry approach emphasizes ______.

building on strengths to increase organizational success and individual well-being

Pilot projects make it easier to diffuse changes through the larger organization by ______.

having participants teach workers in other parts of the organization the needed skills and knowledge to change

Teaching employees new knowledge and skills needed for the organization's proposed change ______.

helps employees perform better after the change increases readiness and commitment to change

A large group intervention to introduce change can be described as ______.

highly participative events generating a collective vision for the future future-oriented and positive

Employees may resist change by engaging in behaviors that include ______.

performing tasks the old way when unnoticed work stoppages griping to customers about the changes

The problem with weakening or removing the forces restraining change is it ______.

provides no motivation to adopt the change

According to the force field analysis model, the best strategy to effectively create change is to ______.

reduce the restraining forces and increase the driving forces

A reason that workers may resist change is that they prefer ______.

remaining in their comfort zones

A primary barrier to productivity in many cultures surveyed is ______.

resistance to change

Tanya believes she will lose a lot of the overtime she has been earning on the assembly line if the new cellular work groups are introduced. The most likely reason she is resisting the change is ______.

there will be a direct loss to her

True or false: Organizations must adapt to environmental changes in order to survive.

true