Chapter 10

Which of the following characteristics relates to organizational change?

Any modification in the behaviors or ideas of an organization or its units

When management has resistant individuals join a change team, specifically to reduce their ability to resist change, it is using what technique?

Co-optation

What name is given to a system-wide application of behavioral science knowledge to the planned development and reinforcement of organizational strategies, structures, and processes for improving an organization's effectiveness?

Organizational development (OD)

When the United Steelworkers Union went on strike at Globe Metallurgical, within a few weeks of the strike, a skeleton crew of workers

actually increased production by 20 percent.

Which of the following is NOT a strategy that managers often apply in attempting to overcome resistance to change?

political pressure

Which of the following characteristics relates to quantum change?

A large-scale planned change in how the firm operates

Choosing organizational change will not guarantee success, but ignoring it will almost surely guarantee failure.

True

In managing organizational transition, commitment planning is a process of identifying key political powers in the organization and gaining their support.

True

Organizational change varies along a continuum with regard to the extent to which it is planned.

True

Organizational development is by its nature a flexible, adaptive, ongoing process of diagnosing and solving people-related problems.

True

Organizational development is often carried out with the aid of

a consultant

Since all organizational systems tend to seek equilibrium, many attempts at change may be resisted or even nullified by

a lack of change in the rest of the system.

Perhaps the key aspect of or element in the congruence model of organizational change is that changes in one part of the system

can cause radical changes in another part.

The extensive use of robotics, which is helping large manufacturers throughout the world to improve efficiency, is a good example of

changing technology.

A good example of a change process that has produced resistance in the form of uncertainty and insecurity is

company downsizing

At least one study of several hundred change agents has shown that the single most positive facilitator of a change program is

creating a shared vision with employees of the change.

When a company makes relatively small changes, involving fine-tuning processes and behaviors in a few systems in the organization, it is making

incremental changes.

When an organization deliberately structures operations and behaviors in anticipation of environmental forces, it is engaging in

planned change.

Your industrial supply company project teams are so successful in improving customer service that you make them a permanent part of your organization chart. You are:

refreezing

In the academic world, deans will often appoint troublesome faculty members to advisory committees. This practice usually makes use of what two techniques to reduce resistance to change?

Co-optation and participation

Which of the following is NOT an internal feedback mechanism that can signal that the organization needs to change in response to environmental forces?

Customer surveys

Which of the following is NOT an example of an internal force that may affect an organization?

Customers

Henri Fayol's model of organizational change grew out of a technique called force field analysis that depicts the driving and restraining forces on an organization.

False

In overcoming resistance to change, co-optation involves having resistant individuals join the change team so that they can truly participate in the change process.

False

In overcoming resistance to change, it is not important to understand why resistance occurs; it is only important to deal with it.

False

In the long run, getting employee participation in change decisions and increased involvement in all aspects of the change is not particularly helpful in overcoming resistance.

False

Specific aspects of Lewin's model of organizational change include survey feedback, process consultation, team and intergroup development, role negotiation, life and career planning, third-party peacemaking, techno-structural redesign, job design, and grid OD.

False

The key aspect of Lewin's model of change is that system elements, both inputs and processes, interact with one another such that changes in one part of the system can cause radical changes in another part of the system.

False

Which of the following refers to the act of introducing a new product, method, process, or approach?

Innovation

What is designed to facilitate functioning between two or more groups by helping the groups understand and deal with areas of conflict; debilitating interaction patterns; perceptual discrepancies; norm, goal, and value differences; and lack of coordination?

Intergroup team building

What focuses on changing the nature of how tasks are performed and often entails job rotation, job enrichment, and/or job enlargement?

Job redesign

The behavioral scientist who viewed the change process as a modification of the forces that keep a system's behaviors stable was

Kurt Lewin.

The comprehensive model of planned change idea that it is necessary to prepare people for change is very similar to

Lewin's unfreezing step.

The idea that corporate revolutions are started from the top, often by a small and tight group of people, was advanced by management professor

Noel Tichy

Which of the following refers to the difference between an organization's desired and actual performance levels?

Performance gap

What name is given to the deliberate structuring of operations and behaviors, often in anticipation of environmental forces?

Planned change

Which of the following refers to focusing on the dynamic task-related processes—how a client or group sets goals, gathers information, solves problems, and allocates work—and assists the client organization in diagnosing how to enhance these kinds of processes?

Process consultation

What stabilizes the organization at a new state of behavioral equilibrium?

Refreezing

A change program that involves improving basic customer service techniques, for lower-level employees only, is an example of which dimension of organizational change?

Target of change

What term involves using structured group experiences to help ongoing work teams function more effectively through better decision making, goal setting, and intragroup communications?

Team building

What term describes a large-scale intervention that involves redesigning the organizational structure to better address environmental contingencies and better utilize information and process technologies?

Techno-structural redesign

The key aspect of model is that system elements, both inputs and processes, interact with one another such that changes in one part of the system can cause radical changes in another part of the system.

the congruence

A basic idea in the comprehensive model is that the change process begins with

the recognition of a need for change.

Two of your employees, Joe and Sally, are always fighting. It drives you crazy. Your consultant, Dr. John Jones, rewrites their job descriptions and holds a meeting with them in which they agree there will be less conflict between them because their jobs are clearer. In terms of OD interventions, his primary role has been

third-party peacemaking.