Culture and Change

Question 1

Explain (organizational) change management - definition different types of change and levels of change

Answer 1

First of: change is a natural process

• distinction between emergent (already happening) and planned change (intervention)
• organizational change management entails activities/ interventions intended to influence the behavior and associated results of an individual, group, organization
• > activities that move an org. from its present state to a desired future state

Question 2

Name and explain the two dimensions of organizational change

Answer 2

Two dimensions of organizational change:

1. ) HOW: the process in which an org. changes its structure, strategies, operational methods, technologies, or org. culture to affect change within the org.
2. ) the effects of these changes on the org.

Question 3

Explain organizational culture and name its four important characteristics

Answer 3

• organizational culture is defined as “the set of shared, taken-for-granted implicit assumptions that a group holds and that determines how it perceives, thinks about, and reacts to its various environments”
• shared concept
• learned over time
• influences behavior at work
• affects outcomes at multiple levels

Question 4

Name and explain the three levels of organizational culture

Answer 4

1. Observable artifacts -> artifacts are the physical manifestation of an organization’s culture
2. Espoused values = values are the explicitly stated qualities and norms preferred by an organization
   vs. enacted values = values that are the qualities and norms that are exhibited or converted into employee behavior
3. Basic underlying assumptions: are organizational values so taken for granted over time that they become assumptions guiding organizational behavior

Question 5

Name and explain the four functions of organizational culture

Answer 5

1. Establish organizational identity
2. Encourage collective commitment
3. Ensure social system stability
4. Act as sense-making device

Question 6

Explain organizational change (two steps)

Answer 6

Organizational change is both
1. the process in which an organization changes its structure, strategies, operational methods, technologies, or organizational culture to affect change within the organization
and
2. the effects of these changes on the organization

Question 7

Name the four culture types

Answer 7

• clan culture: has an internal focus and values flexibility rather than stability and control
• adhocracy culture: companies with an adhocracy culture have an external focus and value flexibility
• market culture: companies with a market culture have a strong external focus and value stability and control
• hierarchy culture: control is the strategy within a hierarchy culture; it has an internal focus, which produces a more formalized and structured work environment, and values stability and control over flexibility

Question 8

Name the strength of relationships among nine organizational outcomes and the four culture types (clan, adhocracy, market, hierarchy)

Answer 8

1. Organizational culture is related to organizational effectiveness
2. Employees have more positive work attitudes when working in organizations with clan cultures
3. Clan and market cultures are more likely to deliver higher customer satisfaction and market share
4. Operational outcomes, quality, and innovation are more strongly related to clan, adhocracy, and market cultures than to hierarchical ones
5. An organization’s financial performance (profit and revenue growth) is not strongly related to organizational culture
6. Companies with market cultures tend to have more positive organizational outcomes

Question 9

Name the nine organizational outcomes of the four culture types (clan, adhocracy, market, hierarchy)

Answer 9

1. positive work attitudes
2. positive employee behavior
3. customer satisfaction
4. market share
5. operational efficiency
6. product/ service quality
7. innovation
8. financial performance
9. financial growth

Question 10

Explain internal vs. external forces

Answer 10

• internal (forces for change come from inside the organization):
• • human resource problems or prospects
• • managerial behaviors and decisions
• external (forces for change originate outside the organization):
  four key external forces for change:
  1. Demographic characteristics
  2. Technological advancements
  3. Shareholder, customer, and market changes
  4. Social, political, and regulatory

Question 11

Name the three general types of change

Answer 11

1. Adaptive change reintroduces a familiar practice either in a different unit or in the same unit at a different point in time
2. Innovative change introduces a practice that is new to the organization and is midway on the continuum of complexity, cost, and uncertainty
3. Radically innovative change introduces a practice new to the industry and is at the high end of the continuum of complexity, cost, and uncertainty

Question 12

Explain Lewin’s three phase change model

Answer 12

1. Unfreezing: create the motivation to change
2. Changing: introduce new information, models, & procedures
3. Refreezing: support & reinforce the change

Question 13

Explain readiness for change and name its four components

Answer 13

• readiness for change is the strength of our beliefs and attitudes about the extent to which changes are needed and our capacity to successfully implement them

Readiness has four components:

1. Necessity for change
2. Top-management support for change efforts
3. Personal ability to cope with changes
4. Perceived personal consequences of change

Question 14

Explain Kotter’s eight-step organizational change process

Answer 14

According to John Kotter, a world-renowned expert in leadership and change management, says that organizational change most often fails not because of inadequate planning but because of ineffective implementation

To help overcome this challenge, he proposed an eight-step process for leading change:

1. Establish a sense of urgency
2. Create the guiding coalition
3. Develop a vision and strategy
4. Communicate the change vision
5. Empower broad-based action
6. Generate short-term wins
7. Consolidate gains and produce more change
8. Anchor new approaches in the culture

Question 15

Explain organizational development processes

Answer 15

1. Diagnosis: What is the problem and its causes?
2. Intervention: What can be done to solve the problem?
3. Evaluation: Is the intervention working?
4. Feedback: What does the evaluation suggest about the diagnosis and the effectiveness of the intervention?

Question 16

Situation: employees are more likely to resist change when they perceive its personal costs outweighs the benefits. If this is the case, managers are advised to:

Answer 16

1. Provide employees with as much information as possible about the change
2. Inform employees about the reasons for the change
3. Conduct meetings to address employees’ questions about the change
4. Provide employees the opportunity to discuss how the proposed change might affect them

Question 17

Explain recipient characteristics and name six of the most common recipient characteristics

Answer 17

• recipient characteristics include perceptions and a variety of individual differences that help explain actions (engaging in new behaviors) and inactions (failing to engage in new behaviors)

1. Dispositional resistance to change -> individuals with high dispositional resistance to change, a stable personality trait, are “less likely to voluntarily initiate changes and more likely to form negative attitudes toward the changes [they] encounter.”
2. Surprise and fear of the unknown
3. Fear of failure
4. Loss of status and/or job security
5. Peer pressure
6. Past success

Question 18

Explain the four-step approach of a practicing change consultant

Answer 18

1. Context: external and internal forces
2. Change mission: purpose and desired effects
3. Change capacity: readiness for change
4. Change plan: planned process with interventions