Deck 15: Organizational Change

Question 1

Employee resistance to change most often take the form of overt work behaviours.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

In Lewin's force field analysis model,refreezing occurs when the organization's systems and structures are aligned with the desired behaviors.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

People sometimes resist change to prove that the change agent is incompetent.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Organizational systems such as,rewards,patterns of authority,career paths,and selection criteria are not reasons why employees resist change,because the choice to resist is internal rather than externally-based.

Question 5

Resistance to change is a form of dysfunctional conflict that must be addressed.

Question 6

If change agents adopted the view that resistance is a resource and harnessed its motivational force,they could strengthen commitment to change initiatives.

Question 7

Unfreezing occurs by making the driving forces stronger,weakening the restraining forces,or a combination of both.

Question 8

According to some experts,the subtle forms of resistance create the greatest obstacles to change because they are not as visible.

Question 9

To minimize resistance to change,change agents need to reduce the restraining forces rather than pushing harder on the driving forces.

Question 10

Direct costs,fear of the unknown,and incongruent organizational systems are all sources of resistance to change.

Question 11

When encountering resistance,change agents should view it as a resource,rather than an impediment to their change effort.

Question 12

Employee resistance to change is a dysfunctional and irrational response to a desirable initiative which should be eliminated in modern organizations.

Question 13

In some situations,resistance to change occurs when employees are worried about the consequences of change.

Question 14

The force field analysis model states that stability is achieved only when the driving forces for change subside and are replaced by restraining forces acting in the same direction.

Question 15

In Lewin's force field analysis model,refreezing involves producing a disequilibrium between the current and future state.

Question 16

Fear of the unknown usually motivates employees to support organizational change.

Question 17

Resistance to change potentially engages people to think about the change strategy and process.

Question 18

The preferred strategy for unfreezing the current situation is to increase the restraining forces and reduce or remove the driving forces.

Question 19

One reason why employees resist change is that they dislike predictable role patterns.

Question 20

In force field analysis,stability occurs when the driving forces and restraining forces are roughly of equal strength in opposite directions.

Question 21

Future search conferences are meetings among a small task force of senior executives who have been given the mandate to look for a change agent on a particular corporate strategy.

Question 22

One drawback with increased communication during the change process is that it also increases the level and sources of resistance.

Question 23

Successful change requires a well-articulated and appealing vision of the desired future state.

Question 24

Communication should be applied to reduce resistance to change where the change must occur quickly with little financial cost.

Question 25

Coaching and other forms of learning reduce resistance to change mainly by helping employees break previous routines and develop new role patterns.

Question 26

Negotiation is the highest priority and first strategy required for any organizational change.

Question 27

Future search conferences are large group sessions,usually lasting a few days,in which participants identify the environmental trends and establish strategic solutions for those conditions.

Question 28

Future search events minimize resistance to change with little or no involvement from employees.

Question 29

Customer feedback provides a human element that energizes employees to change their current behavior patterns.

Question 30

Information systems and reward systems help to refreeze the desired conditions in organizational change.

Question 31

A minimalist communication strategy should always be used to facilitate organizational change.

Question 32

The urgency for change must always be initiated from a problem-oriented perspective in order to be effective.

Question 33

One problem with negotiation is that it tends to produce compliance rather than commitment to the change process.

Question 34

Future search events minimize resistance to change mainly as a form of employee involvement.

Question 35

To bring about effective change,leaders must create an urgency to change internally rather than rely on forces outside the organization to create that urgency

Question 36

Most change agents are external consultants rather than corporate executives.

Question 37

Coercion should never be used to manage change in organizations.

Question 38

The best way to manage resistance to change among those who will clearly lose out from the change is to introduce coercion practices.

Question 39

By creating a sense of urgency for change,change agents are motivating employees to change towards the new conditions.

Question 40

Refreezing requires the establishment of organizational systems that are compatible with the desired change.

Question 41

Discovery,dreaming,and delivering are the first three stages of appreciative inquiry.

Question 42

Change agents should apply the action research model if they want to help people to break out of a problem-solving mentality and,instead,reframe relationships around the positive and possible.

Question 43

Transformational leaders are effective change agents.

Question 44

Change experts recommend introducing quantum change when the organization wants to overhaul the system quickly and decisively.

Question 45

Action research adopts the emerging philosophy of positive organizational behaviour.

Question 46

Organizational change is more successful if the change agent prevents its diffusion from one part of the organization to other parts.

Question 47

Consultants involved in organizational change should first determine the client's readiness for change.

Question 48

The first step in appreciative inquiry is dreaming,in which participants envision what might be possible in an ideal organization.

Question 49

Pilot projects are usually more flexible and less risky than centralized,organization-wide programs.

Question 50

Organizational diagnosis involves collecting and interpreting data about an ongoing system and feeding this data back to the client.

Question 51

Compared with quantum change,incremental change interventions involve less risk to the organization and tend to produce less resistance among affected employees.

Question 52

Appreciative inquiry tries to break away from the approach to change advocated by action research.

Question 53

Diffusion of change is more likely to succeed if some people who have worked under the new system are moved to other areas of the organization.

Question 54

Action research is the process of determining whether the change process is ethical or not.

Question 55

Action research is a problem-focused process of organizational change.

Question 56

One of the main advantages of quantum change is that it is less risky than incremental change.

Question 57

A parallel learning structure is an organizational change intervention in which a social structure is constructed alongside the formal hierarchy to increase the organization's learning.

Question 58

A unique feature of appreciative inquiry is that it breaks away from the problem-solving mentality by reframing relationships around what is positive and possible.

Question 59

Action research takes the view that organizational change is all about bringing about real change,not testing theory.

Question 60

Quantum change is most commonly applied in conjunction with employee involvement.

Question 61

Parallel learning structures are structures that primarily help employees learn on the job rather than in the classroom.

Question 62

An important feature of parallel learning structures is that they operate within the existing organizational hierarchy.

Question 63

The main objective of force field analysis is to help change agents to:

A) identify ways to force employees to change their behavior.
B) find ways to increase the driving forces for change.
C) diagnose the situation better by understanding the driving and constraining forces for change.
D) determine whether change is necessary at all.
E) do none of these things.

Question 64

According to a recent study of employees at two Canadian banks ______ resistance is much more common than ______ resistance.

A) explicit, implied
B) subtle, overt
C) systemic, localized
D) overt, subtle
E) individual, organizational

Question 65

Employees tend to resist change when:

A) they work in a place where rewards and other control systems are incongruent with the new state of affairs.
B) they perceive that the new state of affairs will have higher direct costs or lower benefits than the existing situation.
C) they perceive that they lack the necessary skills required in the new state of affairs.
D) All of these may cause resistance to change.
E) None of these causes resistance to change.

Question 66

The parallel learning approach model,built on the idea of collecting information from organizational members,raises concerns about the risk of violating individual privacy rights.

Question 67

The chief executive of a large telecommunications company wanted to restructure the organization so product leaders would have more power than the executives in charge of each region.The regional executives tried to prevent this restructuring because it would weaken their power and possibly reduce their salaries in the long term.This action by the regional executives is mainly an example of resistance due to:

A) direct costs.
B) saving face.
C) fear of the unknown.
D) breaking routines.
E) incongruent organizational systems.

Question 68

Unfreezing refers to:

A) getting one's own way in organizational politics.
B) a management practice used to discourage newcomers from staying with the organization.
C) ensuring that the change effort is diffused to others within the organization.
D) improving organizational communication.
E) producing a disequilibrium between the driving and restraining forces of change.

Question 69

Refreezing refers to:

A) getting one's own way in organizational politics.
B) a management practice used to discourage newcomers from staying with the organization.
C) aligning the organization's systems with the desired behaviours to support and reinforce the new role patterns.
D) repeating the change process a second time, because the first attempt to freeze the changes were unsuccessful.
E) producing a disequilibrium between the driving and restraining forces of change.

Question 70

The textbook suggests that resistance to change represents:

A) a resource rather than an impediment to change.
B) incidents in which employees are happy with the status quo and do not want any change in their organization.
C) the change agent's distorted perceptions of employee behavior based on their own doubts about the success of the change process.
D) indications that change is not required in the organization.
E) Resistance to change represents all of these statements.

Question 71

Resistance to organizational change may be caused by:

A) employee perceptions that the new conditions have higher costs and fewer benefits for them.
B) the psychological cost of uncertainty about the personal risks involved in the change.
C) employees wanting to prove that change effort won't work because they dislike the change agent or the action is contrary to their recommendations.
D) All of these may cause resistance to change.
E) None of these causes resistance to change.

Question 72

An ethical problem with many organizational change programs is that management tends to lose power in the process.

Question 73

Which model of organizational change explicitly refers to unfreezing the current situation and refreezing the desired state?

A) Parallel learning structures
B) Future search analysis
C) Appreciative inquiry
D) Quantum change
E) Force field analysis

Question 74

One ethical concern with some organizational change programs is that they may threaten the employee's self-esteem.

Question 75

In organizational change,unfreezing may occur by:

A) increasing the restraining forces.
B) increasing the driving forces.
C) reducing the urgency to change.
D) reducing the restraining forces.
E) both increasing the driving forces AND reducing the restraining forces.

Question 76

The concepts of unfreezing and refreezing the system are mainly represented in:

A) Lewis's reaction research model.
B) Lewin's force field model.
C) appreciative inquiry.
D) customer-driven change.
E) the diffusion of change process.

Question 77

The force field analysis model includes all of the following EXCEPT:

A) process forces.
B) driving forces.
C) unfreezing.
D) refreezing.
E) restraining forces.

Question 78

One of the main problems with employee resistance is that:

A) change agents view it as an unreasonable, dysfunctional, and irrational response.
B) it undermines the authority of management.
C) it wastes valuable time and other precious organizational resources.
D) it decreases environmental stability.
E) All of these apply.

Question 79

Which of the following types of resistance to change is often a deliberate strategy to 'prove' that the decision is wrong or that the change agent is incompetent?

A) Direct costs
B) Saving face
C) Fear of the unknown
D) Breaking routines
E) Incongruent organizational systems

Question 80

Increasing the driving forces and reducing the restraining forces tends to:

A) reduce the need for change.
B) unfreeze the status quo.
C) refreeze the status quo.
D) increase environmental stability.
E) cause none of these outcomes.