Deck 15: Organizational Change Additional Cases

Question 1

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) equilibrium.

Answer 1

B

Question 2

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.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Decreasing the driving forces and increasing the restraining forces:

A) are the main recommendations of appreciative inquiry.
B) makes the change process easier to implement.
C) represents the first step in the change process.
D) give the change agent more power in the change process.
E) are related to none of these statements.

Answer 3

E

Question 4

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 5

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 6

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 7

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 8

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

Question 9

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 restrain proposed organizational change.
D) determine whether change is necessary at all.
E) do none of these things.

Question 10

One of the main problems with employee resistance is that:

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

Question 11

According to force field analysis,the preferred strategy for unfreezing the status quo is to:

A) remove the driving forces for change.
B) introduce parallel learning structures.
C) increase the driving forces and reduce or remove the restraining forces.
D) increase the driving and restraining forces.
E) strengthen existing systems and team dynamics.

Question 12

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

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

Question 13

Increasing the restraining forces and reducing or removing the driving forces would:

A) remove any resistance to change.
B) make the change process more difficult to implement.
C) have no effect on the change process.
D) give the change agent more power in the change process.
E) make the change process easier to implement.

Question 14

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 15

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

A) reduce the likelihood of change.
B) unfreeze the status quo.
C) create an urgency to change.
D) decrease environmental stability.
E) have none of these effects.

Question 16

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) Thermal dynamics model
E) Force field analysis

Question 17

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 18

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 19

According to force field analysis,organizational change is more likely to occur by:

A) increasing the driving forces and decreasing the restraining forces
B) decreasing the process forces and increasing the driving forces.
C) increasing the driving forces and increasing the restraining forces.
D) increasing both the driving forces and the restraining forces.
E) Force field analysis says that none of these will assist organizational change.

Question 20

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 21

Senior executives at a large retail organization want employees to become more customer-friendly.Employees think they are serving customers well enough and the company is the dominant player in the market.What should the executives do in this situation?

A) Stop trying to convince employees that they should change.
B) Keep pushing employees to change even though they don't see the need to change.
C) Threaten to fire employees who do not become more customer-friendly.
D) Find information in the external environment indicating that the company's dominant position will be threatened unless they become more customer-friendly.
E) Do none of these things.

Question 22

Creating an urgency to change is most closely associated with:

A) the delivering stage of appreciative inquiry.
B) the final stage of a search conference.
C) the process of reducing the restraining forces.
D) the process of increasing the driving forces.
E) refreezing the desired conditions.

Question 23

The textbook describes several strategies to initiate change.Which two of these strategies should be applied when every other strategy has failed?

A) Communication and negotiation
B) Coercion and negotiation
C) Stress management and employee involvement
D) Coercion and stress management
E) Learning and communication

Question 24

BusCorp wants to introduce a new procedure for processing customer requests.If this change will require employees to break old routines and adopt new role patterns,the preferred strategy for dealing with resistance to this change is:

A) communication.
B) learning.
C) stress management.
D) negotiation.
E) coercion.

Question 25

The highest priority and first strategy required for any organizational change is to:

A) fire several senior executives in the organization.
B) introduce stress management counseling.
C) train employees who do not possess the skills required under the new conditions.
D) communicate the need for change and keep employees informed about what they can expect from the change effort.
E) negotiate a new set of relations among those who will clearly lose out from the change.

Question 26

Which of these statements about managing change is FALSE?

A) Employees are less likely to resist change when change agents mainly increase the driving forces for change.
B) Employees who develop an urgency for change tend to increase their motivation to change.
C) Change is more successful when the restraining forces are reduced.
D) Unfreezing the status quo occurs when change agents create a disequilibrium between the driving and restraining forces.
E) Force field analysis includes the ideas of unfreezing the status quo and refreezing the desired conditions.

Question 27

Suppose that a coalition of employees will clearly lose out from the change and they have enough power to scuttle the change effort.Assuming that the change effort can proceed slowly,the preferred strategy for dealing with this type of resistance to change is:

A) communication
B) employee involvement
C) stress management
D) negotiation
E) coercion

Question 28

Which of the following is NOT an effective strategy to unfreeze the status quo?

A) Educating employees about the change effort.
B) Strengthening existing team norms and organizational systems.
C) Encouraging employees to participate in the change process.
D) Providing formal stress management programs to help employees to cope with the change.
E) Negotiating alternative benefits for employees who will clearly lose out by the change.

Question 29

Which of the following organizational change strategies should be applied only when time is limited and other options are unlikely to succeed?

A) Employee involvement
B) Stress management
C) Negotiation
D) Coercion
E) Communication

Question 30

Change agents are:

A) management consultants.
B) transformational leaders.
C) employees who are committed to change.
D) anyone who posses enough knowledge and power to guide and facilitate the change effort.
E) Anyone who is not opposed to change.

Question 31

In the organizational change process,a strategic vision:

A) tends to confuse employees and increase resistance to change.
B) should be applied only when all other change management approaches have failed.
C) minimizes fear of the unknown and clarifies which behaviours are required.
D) represents the second stage of action research.
E) Strategic vision is not relevant to the change process.

Question 32

Change agents can be:

A) someone who is a transformational leader.
B) someone who possesses enough knowledge about the change activity.
C) employees.
D) consultants.
E) All of these may be change agents.

Question 33

One problem that communication,learning,and employee involvement have in minimizing resistance to change is that:

A) they tend to change people too quickly.
B) they are rarely effective at minimizing resistance to change.
C) they create compliance but not commitment to the change process.
D) they are time-consuming.
E) they change people too quickly.

Question 34

In organizational change,employee involvement should be used:

A) when other strategies are ineffective and the company needs to change quickly.
B) when employees need to break old routines and learn new role patterns.
C) every time the organization needs to change.
D) when employees will clearly lose something of value and the company must change quickly.
E) when the company needs more employee commitment to the change and has sufficient time.

Question 35

Which of the following helps to refreeze the desired change?

A) Altering reward systems to reinforce the new behaviors and attitudes rather than previous practices.
B) Recalibrating feedback systems so that they focus on the new priorities and performance goals.
C) Providing information and support to reaffirm the new practices.
D) Establishing team norms that are compatible with the change.
E) All of these can refreeze the desired change.

Question 36

Which of these statements about driving forces is FALSE?

A) Many driving forces are unknown to employees beyond the top ranks of the organization.
B) Some driving forces, such as the existence of a competitor, are well known to employees.
C) Driving forces should be created by leaders if there are no reasons for change.
D) Customer expectations represent a powerful driver for change.
E) Organizational change is more likely to occur if employees experience reasonably strong driving forces.

Question 37

To reduce the restraining forces,which of the following should be applied in the most logical order presented?

A) Negotiate, involve, communicate,
B) Coerce, negotiate, and manage stress
C) Learning, involve, communicate
D) Communicate, learning, involve
E) Coerce, involve, negotiate,

Question 38

When managing change,learning interventions should be used:

A) to break routines that cause resistance to change.
B) when incongruent organizational systems reinforce past behaviors and cause resistance to new behaviors.
C) when employees resist change due to direct costs.
D) in all change management activities.
E) only when all other strategies have failed.

Question 39

Which of the following strategies for minimizing resistance to change should be used when all other strategies are ineffective?

A) Coercion
B) Negotiation
C) Stress management
D) Abandonment of change
E) Indoctrination

Question 40

What change management strategy should be a priority when employees need to break old routines and adopt new role patterns?

A) Coercion
B) Employee involvement
C) Learning
D) Stress management
E) Negotiation

Question 41

Which change management practice encourages employee involvement?

A) Appreciative inquiry
B) Action research
C) Parallel learning structures
D) All of these encourage employee involvement.
E) Future search and action research encourage employee involvement, whereas parallel learning structures do not rely on employee involvement.

Question 42

The action research approach to organizational change states:

A) that change interventions should be well-established rather than experimental.
B) that change is a combination of luck and past experience.
C) that the change process should focus on the positive by ignoring the problems.
D) that change is most effective when controlled and decided exclusively by top management.
E) The action research approach states none of these.

Question 43

In the context of organizational change,transformational leaders:

A) prefer using coercion to reduce resistance to change.
B) rely on appreciative inquiry rather than action research as the blueprint for change.
C) are usually ineffective change agents.
D) are all of these.
E) are none of these.

Question 44

Which of the following is NOT a feature of action research?

A) The goal is to bring about change.
B) The change process tests theory.
C) The change process should involve employees.
D) The change process is most successful when people reveal their inner secrets.
E) The approach recognizes that organizations are open systems.

Question 45

Which of these conditions LIMITS the diffusion of change to other parts of the organization?

A) The pilot project is successful within the first couple of years.
B) Top management is committed to the change.
C) Every employee involved in the pilot project stays with the pilot project rather than being moved to other areas of the organization.
D) The union leadership supports the change effort.
E) All of these limit the diffusion of change.

Question 46

The four stages of appreciative inquiry,in order,are:

A) problem identification, envisioning, choosing the best solution, appreciating.
B) dialoguing, innovating, creating, appreciating.
C) problem identification, causal analysis, recommended solutions, choosing the best solution.
D) discovery, dreaming, designing, delivering.
E) None of these states the four stages in order.

Question 47

Which approach to organizational change explicitly embraces the dual philosophy that change is both applied change and theory testing?

A) Appreciative inquiry
B) Search conferences
C) Parallel learning structures
D) All of these embrace this dual philosophy.
E) None of these embraces this dual philosophy.

Question 48

What do parallel learning structure and future search events have in common?

A) Both focus on opportunities, not problems.
B) Both are unethical practices.
C) Both encourage employee involvement in the change process.
D) Both rely on technology to facilitate change through an external consultant.
E) Action research and search conferences have nothing in common because they are opposite practices.

Question 49

Which of these conditions tends to aid the diffusion of change to other parts of the organization?

A) The pilot project has received favourable media attention.
B) Top management is committed to the change.
C) Participants in the pilot project are able to explain the process easily enough to people in other parts of the organization.
D) Union leaders have been involved in the change effort.
E) All of these tend to aid the diffusion of change.

Question 50

Which organizational change intervention is best known for its problem-solving approach to change?

A) Paralegal learning structures
B) Process consultation
C) Force field analysis
D) Action research
E) Appreciative inquiry

Question 51

Action research is:

A) the theoretical foundation for appreciative inquiry.
B) a form of team building.
C) a highly participative process of planned change.
D) a social structure created alongside the formal organization for the purpose of refreezing the desired conditions.
E) None of these describes action research.

Question 52

What key principle of appreciative inquiry states that organizations are open books,so we have choices in how they may be perceived,framed and described?

A) Literal principle
B) Figurative principle
C) Poetic principle
D) Book principle
E) Open page principle

Question 53

Action research is a highly ___________ process.

A) dangerous
B) appreciative
C) participative
D) coercive
E) reflective

Question 54

Which of the following is NOT a key principle of appreciative inquiry?

A) Constructionist
B) Anticipatory
C) Poetic
D) Asynchronous
E) Positive

Question 55

Action research is a __________ change process.

A) a coercive
B) a problem-focused.
C) an autocratic
D) a parallel organization
E) a consultant-free

Question 56

The diffusion of change using a pilot project is more likely to succeed when:

A) the pilot study was successful.
B) employees have the ability-required skills and knowledge to adopt the practices introduced in the pilot project.
C) pilot study managers are transferred to other areas of the organization.
D) all of these exist.
E) none of these exist.

Question 57

The philosophy of positive organizational behaviour provided a deep grounding for:

A) parallel learning structures.
B) action research.
C) appreciative inquiry.
D) force field analysis.
E) Positive organizational behaviour is deeply grounded in none of these practices.

Question 58

Appreciative inquiry begins by:

A) determining the cause of the problem.
B) determining whether there is a problem that needs to be fixed.
C) involving employees in the process of refreezing.
D) identifying the positive elements of an organization or work unit that is performing well.
E) creating a common image among participants of what should be in their own organization.

Question 59

Which of the following practices tend to make it more difficult to bring about organizational change?

A) Appreciative inquiry
B) Large group interventions
C) Action research
D) All of these make organizational change more difficult.
E) None of these makes organizational change more difficult.

Question 60

According to the action research model,what occurs before diagnosing the need for change?

A) Agree on a fee for the consultant's services.
B) Evaluate the effectiveness of the change effort.
C) Establish the client-consultant relationship.
D) Stabilize the change effort so that employees do not revert to their old ways of working.
E) Apply the intervention.

Question 61

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

Question 62

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

Question 63

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

Question 64

Which of the following statements about the force field model is TRUE?

A) It is equally applicable in any cultural setting.
B) It views change as linear.
C) It views change as continuous and cyclical by nature.
D) The model has no inherent cultural dimensions.
E) Both "A" and "D" are true.

Question 65

Which of the following statements about organizational change interventions is FALSE?

A) Ethical issues are rarely a concern with organizational change interventions.
B) Organizational change activities that work well in North America may not work as well in Asia.
C) Organizational change techniques in North America view change as linear, punctuated by tension and conflict.
D) Organizational change interventions that encourage open dialogue and conflict tend to work better in cultures with low power distance and low collectivism.
E) Organizational change interventions that encourage open dialogue and conflict may threaten individual privacy rights.

Question 66

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

Question 67

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

Question 68

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 69

A parallel learning structure:

A) is a feature of all organizational change interventions.
B) includes highly participative teams constructed alongside the formal organizational hierarchy.
C) exists in organizations where employees work in two or more buildings.
D) is mostly comprised of senior management and some professional staff members.
E) All of these statements describe a parallel learning structure.

Question 70

In organizational change,future search events mainly:

A) coerce employees to accept the change.
B) involve employees and build commitment to the change process.
C) give executives the opportunity to negotiate with employees to accept the changes.
D) train employees in the skills required for the change process.
E) refreeze the desired conditions.

Question 71

A major consumer-products company wanted to create a more entrepreneurial and marketing-oriented culture.After failing to bring about the change through middle management,senior executives worked directly with selected teams of front-line employees.These teams,which represented each area of the organization,worked on special projects outside the normal organizational structure.This intervention is closest to which organizational change strategy?

A) Appreciative inquiry
B) Process consultation
C) Parallel learning structures
D) Action research
E) Search conferences

Question 72

What are some of the ethical issues associated with organizational change practices that are discussed in your text?

A) They run the risk of violating individual privacy rights.
B) They could potentially increase management's power.
C) They could be discriminatory.
D) All of the above are ethical issues associated with organizational change practices.
E) Only "A" and "B" apply.

Question 73

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

Question 74

Which of the following organizational change activities is identified with "bringing the entire system into the room"?

A) Future search conferences
B) Action research
C) Appreciative inquiry
D) Force field analysis
E) Parallel learning structures

Question 75

Discovery,dreaming,designing and delivering are the four stages of:

A) parallel learning structures.
B) force field analysis.
C) action research.
D) future search events.
E) None of these activities.

Question 76

Of what value are future search events in organizational change?

A) They are an effective form of coercion so that employees agree to abide by the change process.
B) They mainly select the best person to serve as the change agent for the process.
C) They build commitment to the change process by involving as many employees as possible.
D) They interfere with the change process and therefore should be avoided whenever possible.
E) They are mainly a forum whereby senior executives can tell employees about their future corporate plans.

Question 77

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

Question 78

ABC Corp.selected employees from across the organization to find new ways to serve customers.The team operated independently of the main organization and experimented with new service delivery approaches.This team is most similar to:

A) the action research approach to organizational change.
B) a parallel learning structure.
C) the appreciative inquiry approach to organizational change.
D) the process of diffusing organizational change.
E) the process of creating an urgency to change.

Question 79

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

Question 80

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