Deck 17: Managing Organizational Change

Question 1

Gen X'ers have unrealistic expectations about their careers.Many are unwilling to work hard and make personal sacrifices to get ahead.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

In Learning from Experience: José Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo of Petrobras,Petrobras had not installed sensors to detect a spill into the Guanabara Bay,and as result it was fined more than $25 million by the Brazilian government.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Going global does not mean that the firm provides exactly the same goods or services in all countries.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Staples,an office supply chain,uses robots to fill orders in its 500,000-square-foot warehouse in Chambersburg,Pennsylvania.

Question 5

In Learning from Experience: José Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo of Petrobras,when José Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo later took over the reins as CEO in 2005,his goal was to have the company earn a profit.

Question 6

Many multinational corporations rely on computer generated teams to accomplish their work through the use of a combination of telecommunications and information technologies.

Question 7

According to the Diversity competency: Managing across Generations,one of the positive traits of Generation Y'ers is that they are tech-savvy.

Question 8

An almost infinite variety of pressures for change impinge on organizations.

Question 9

In order to compete effectively in global markets,domestic corporations often must transform their cultures,structures,and operations.

Question 10

The main players in the world's economy are almost exclusively U.S.companies despite globalization.

Question 11

There is considerable evidence that adaptive,flexible organizations have a competitive advantage over rigid,static organizations.

Question 12

With more career options,Gen Y employees are nudging some organizations to think more creatively about the work/life balance.

Question 13

Social networking creates problems because employees try to ignore the rules and can skip ahead in the organization's chain of command.

Question 14

In effective organizations,managing change is not particularly important since those organizations already have effective systems in place.

Question 15

Because organizations exist in a changing environment and are themselves constantly changing,bureaucratic or mechanistic organizations are increasingly ineffective.

Question 16

The potential effects of IT are uniformly positive.

Question 17

Experts who have studied information technology's impact on organizations have observed that IT changes almost everything about an organization-its structure,its products,its markets,and its manufacturing processes.

Question 18

In his book,The World Is Flat,Thomas Friedman,outlined the most important global forces that managers faced in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Question 19

Four of the most significant pressures for change are (1)globalization of markets, (2)technology, (3)social networks,and (4)generational differences.

Question 20

Social networking is changing the way people communicate,search for jobs,and form groups.

Question 21

One condition necessary for successfully carrying out effective change programs is that the organization's members must be the key source of energy for change,not some party external to the team or organization.

Question 22

According to the Diversity competency: Managing across Generations,one of the negative traits of Generation Y'ers is that they have a relaxed work ethic.

Question 23

Confronting the unknown does not bother most people.

Question 24

Wegmans,a grocery store chain headquartered in Rochester,New York,has created a work environment where employees' contributions count and there are few rules.

Question 25

The economic approach refers to initiating change for the purpose of creating shareholder
value.

Question 26

Although personality may play a role in resistance to change,it seldom is the only important factor in a situation involving change.

Question 27

A habit can be a source of comfort,security,and satisfaction for individuals because it allows
them to adjust to the world and cope with it.

Question 28

People in the organization must be aware of the need for change,believe in the potential value of the changes proposed,and be willing to change their behaviors in order for change to be effective.

Question 29

It is likely that a good outside consultant could provide the crucial source of energy for effective organizational change even if organization members lack personal commitment to the effort.

Question 30

Resistance to change in organizations typically takes a single form: overt resistance,which is obvious,easy to observe,and easy to identify as resistance to change.

Question 31

Change involves moving from the known to the unknown.

Question 32

The two kinds of change that occur in organizations is change that inevitably happens over time and change that is planned by members of an organization.

Question 33

Four important sources of individual resistance to change are organization design,organizational culture,resource limitations,and interorganizational agreements.

Question 34

The organizational development approach refers to developing employees' competencies
to solve problems by enabling them to identify and become emotionally committed to improving the performance of the firm.

Question 35

Two radically different approaches to achieve organizational change include the economic approach which has a participative leadership style and an organizational development approach which has a top-down leadership style.

Question 36

Effective change programs do not typically involve developing political support for the needed changes.

Question 37

Six important sources of individual resistance to change are perceptions,personality,habit,threats to power and influence,fear of the unknown,and economic reasons.

Question 38

Robert Nardelli used the organizational development approach to organizational change to overhaul the operations at Chrysler.

Question 39

Active resistance by employees is one of the most damaging forms of resistance to change.

Question 40

Five initiatives may contribute to effective change management: (1)motivating change, (2)creating a vision, (3)developing political support, (4)managing the transition,and (5)sustaining momentum.

Question 41

When employees are satisfied with the status quo and perceive high personal risk in change,their readiness for change probably would be low.

Question 42

One of the most basic characteristics of organizations in general is an inherent resistance to change.

Question 43

According to the Self Competency: Are You Ready to Change?,a person who agrees with the statement "People who fit their lives to a schedule probably miss most of the joy of living",has a preference for more predictable and structured situations and indicate that you may not respond as well to change.

Question 44

Information needed to diagnose organizational problems may be gathered only from the organization's records.

Question 45

Organizational diagnosis is the process of assessing the functioning of the organization,
department,team,or job to discover the sources of problems and areas for improvement.

Question 46

The three steps in Lewin's approach to managing and guiding change are diagnosing,developing,and deploying.

Question 47

One aspect of an effective organizational culture is whether it has the flexibility to take advantage of opportunities to change.

Question 48

The three steps in Lewin's approach to managing and guiding change are unfreezing,moving,and refreezing.

Question 49

To be successful,change programs must have an impact on employee roles,responsibilities,and working relationships.

Question 50

All organizations want to maintain the status quo even if they have the resources to change.

Question 51

Lewin's approach to changing behaviors consists of guiding change through a two-step process that includes thawing and refreezing.

Question 52

According to the Change competency: Target,in order to understand the consumer,Target created a "creative cabinet," a secret team of 12 diverse customers.

Question 53

According to the Change competency: Target,Target wants to be known as the king of logistics with enough muscle to force vendors to deliver on price.

Question 54

According to the Self Competency: Are You Ready to Change?,a person who agrees with the statement "I believe that an expert who doesn't come up with a definitive answer probably doesn't know too much",has a preference for more predictable and structured situations and indicate that you may not respond as well to change.

Question 55

Four important sources of organizational resistance to change are organization design,organizational culture,resource limitations,and interorganizational agreements.

Question 56

Employees are invested in the status quo in their jobs.

Question 57

A letter of understanding between a manufacturer and a supplier is an example of an interorganizational agreement

Question 58

Force field analysis suggests that any stable situation can be considered to be in a state of equilibrium resulting from a balance of driving and following forces that are constantly supporting each other.

Question 59

One reason that a mechanistic organization design is more likely to be resistant to change than an organic design is that the multiple levels through which new ideas must be screened in the mechanistic organization increase the probability that the idea will be screened out because it threatens the status quo.

Question 60

According to force field analysis,any situation can be considered to be in a state of change resulting from an imbalance of forces constantly pushing against each other.

Question 61

Firms that successfully change the culture of the organization do so when they learn to take advantage of dramatic opportunities such as Sergio Marchionne did when he took over the leadership of Chrysler.

Question 62

A large percentage of failed change programs fail because of ideas rather than fail because of implementation.

Question 63

A survey indicated that more than 90 percent of planned changes in strategy and culture were never fully implemented.

Question 64

Cultural change must begin with the employees and staff of the organization.

Question 65

Managers and employees need to be optimistic with regard to the advantage of cultural change;otherwise they will be unwilling to make the attempt.

Question 66

Team building is a process by which members of a work group or team are picked because they all have a similar personality.

Question 67

Because of its value in organizational diagnosis,survey feedback often is utilized as part of large-scale,long-term change programs in combination with other approaches and techniques.

Question 68

According to the Communication Competency: United Technologies' Diversity Programs,since the 1990s,the percentage of women in executive positions at United Technologies has not increased.

Question 69

Organization-wide norms of power,habit,culture,and vested interests are easy to change.

Question 70

In Learning from Experience: José Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo of Petrobras,there was so much outrage over the oil spill of January 2000 that ______.

A) environmental groups and local fisherman protested outside of Petrobras's headquarters
B) some protesters chained themselves to the entrance of the building
C) there were attacks on Petrobras executives
D) both environmental groups and local fisherman protested outside of Petrobras's headquarters and some protesters chained themselves to the entrance of the building

Question 71

Three interpersonal methods that have proven important in overcoming resistance to change are: empathy and support,communication,and participation and involvement.

Question 72

According to the Communication Competency: United Technologies' Diversity Programs,in order to achieve their diversity goals,United Technologies provides all leaders with performance appraisal training to help them make judgments that accurately reflect each associate's performance and contributions.

Question 73

Team building begins when members recognize a problem.

Question 74

Three methods for promoting change are interpersonal,team,and organizational methods.

Question 75

In organizations undergoing organization-wide changes,senior leaders need to play three roles: envisioning,energizing,and enabling.

Question 76

Understanding resistance to cultural change is needed in order for the change to be effective.

Question 77

Cultural change must begin at the top of the organization.

Question 78

Changing socialization processes can be an effective approach to cultural change.

Question 79

Introducing a specific change,such as a new software system,is the primary objective of survey feedback.

Question 80

Changing socialization tactics usually will not be an effective approach to cultural change.