Exam prep questions 2023

Question 1

In the book of Alvesson and Sveningsson (2016) they state that Technocom has an
‘anti-culture’. What do they mean with ‘anti-culture’?

Answer 1

refers to an organizational culture that is
- resistant or negative towards discussions and initiatives regarding culture, values and organizational change.
- The employees do not see the value in such efforts and are not engaged in actively shaping the culture.

Question 2

Adopting the theory of Schön on reflective practice, Yanow and Tsoukas (2009) describe in
their paper two modes of reflective practice. Name both of them, and explain how they are
different by providing an example for each.

Answer 2

Reflection-in-action: reflecting in the moment of practice; spontaneous, thinking on your feet
EXAMPLE:when a teacher is in the middle of a classroom lesson and notices that the students seem confused by a concept she is explaining. In that moment, while the lesson is occurring, she reflects on how to re-explain the concept in a different way to increase understanding

Reflection-on action: reflecting back on something that has transpired; discursive, analytical
reasoning. Thinking about what happened and why etc.

EXAMPLE:
teacher finishes her lesson for the day and then thinks back on how it went. She reflects on what parts of the lesson seemed to be most effective or confusing based on the students’ reactions.

Question 3

Argue why more positive than negative cases on cultural change are found in literature.

Answer 3

• Access to positive cases are more easy
• Academics want to show how cultural change can be accomplished
• Post hoc rationalization accounts constructed to convey a preferred message to an
  intended audience.
• Business press focuses on new initiatives and has little patience
• Who claims the success of a change program?

Question 4

Central in the theoretical frame of Alvesson and Sveningsson (2008) are three analytical
concepts of culture related to cultural change in organizations. Which are these three
concepts of culture? Explain each of them.

Answer 4

• Hyper culture: A carved-out set of positive-sounding statements about values, often
  highly aesthetic and decoupled from everyday-life thinking and practices
• Experienced corporate culture: Organizational members’ ideas, values and
  sentiments about organizational cultural reality
• Anthropological organizational culture: aims to develop a deeper, more holistic understanding of culture beyond just targeted change elements. based on ethonographic and cultural analysis.

Question 5

Explain with the help of these three concepts of culture how the change program in
Technocom reproduced and reinforced the existing organization culture.

Answer 5

The managers and consultants constructed a set of values and a change plan to make
Technocom a more open (not engineer/technology driven), commercial and social company.
The constructed values in the plan did not align with the everyday practices within the
company, which caused the participation of all the actors to be limited. This inhibited the
continuation of the change program. While the hyperculture was developed, the experienced
corporate culture was significantly different, which limited participation and ultimately
reinforced existing culture (low trust etc.). The bureaucracy in the organization with the
hierarchies and bad perception of change was deeply rooted in the anthropological
organizational culture. This led to a failed change program and reinforced the existing
culture that they wanted to change.

Question 6

During the course we discussed the process approach, which is an alternative to the large
technocratic change approach. The process approach is based upon the book of Alvesson
and Sveningsson and on the papers discussed. What are the main characteristics of this
alternative approach to organisational cultural change? (10 pts) Give at least five of these
main characteristics

Answer 6

• Change is not a n-step trajectory but an ongoing process
• Focus on the change work itself, close to those who are involved.
• A change process is a multi-level process; top, middle management and work floor.
• Avoid dichotomy of change vs resistance: All actors can be both change agents and
  resistors
• Choose interventions a-typical to the organization culture
• Use symbols and rituals to support the change process, change of meaning of symbols
• Socio-spatial interventions can support change

Question 7

Describe how Tsoukas & Chia (on organizational becoming) relate to the alternative
approach.

Answer 7

• Tsoukas and Chia focus upon cultural change from a micro perspective (It wants to understand the “micro-processes of change at work” by exploring questions like how new “archetypes” or templates for organizing are uncovered and legitimated on a day-to-day level.)
  understand culture not to be stable but as becoming. (2 pts)
• See change as a process, which is the basis of the alternative approach. (2 pts)
• The alternative approach focuses on daily practices and sensemaking on the workfloor/micro level which Tsoukas and Chia describe as central to change (2 pts)
• Tsoukas and Chia say change is inherent in human action/practice and that
  organizations are sites of continuously evolving actions/practices (2 pts)

Question 8

How is the paper of Thomas et al (2011) related to Tsoukas & Chia, in how they perceive the
micro perspectives on organizational change?

Answer 8

• Organizational becoming: change emerges and becomes.
• Thomas et al (2011) research: How do narratives emerge and become in/during
  meetings? It is about meaning-making during meetings.
• They are related because Tsoukas & Chia argue for more attention to
  micro-processes of change: How do people change their own work-processes?

Thomas et al (2011) argue that people change their processes through the negotiation of
meaning

Question 9

Explain at least 3 problems with the grand technocratical approach?

Answer 9

• Managerialism: There is a strong managerial focus and emphasis on managers
  being in charge, possessing a superior overview, knowledge, and authority. In our
  case, there was the cascading model (cascading the changes down the hierarchical
  level through progressively involving more middle managers and employees)
• Big bites: Vague terms with no meaning. Complex and messy phenomena like
  leadership or teamwork transformed into a few words under the hyper culture
  umbrella, losing their qualities and being seen as ideals or characteristics to deal with
• Quick fix: The assumption that difficult issues that call for long-term work, can be
  faced, bringing progress, through rapid and limited interventions
• Emphasis on planning and design work: Planning and design are seen as heavy and
  important parts and the implementation process as straightforward and easy
• Limited expressiveness: Use of abstract words not grounded in organizational history
  (stories) examples, contribute to a general lack of emotional and expressiveness
  appeal.

Question 10

What are the hyperculture characteristics?

Answer 10

• It is highly aesthetic
• It is not unreal, but it is detached from the real organizational culture.
• It is an easily identifiable narrative of corporate culture that portrays culture as homogeneous, clear, strong and convincing. Culture seen as unpackaged and as
  grandiose fantasies of the future.

Question 11

How did hyperculture play out in the Technocom case?

Answer 11

• The case design and implementation created hyperculture. It focused on 6
  (aesthetic) values.
• Targeted culture poorly defined and reflected upon.
• Manufactured by a third party that passed a toolbox to the HR for them to unpack (treated as post office workers to deliver a parcel)
• It basically focused on 4 events, as if the events were the way to create the culture instead of good implementation.
• It used very seductive words resembling fantasies that were far from employees’ day-to-day reality.
• It turned the whole project into just another project no one understood or trusted.

Question 12

Name 3 potential traps when creating culture.

Answer 12

• Hyperculture: Set of positive sounding statements about values, often highly aesthetic and
  decoupled from everyday-life thinking and practices. Lacking focus, direction and connection
  to meaning and experiences in everyday work.
• Symbolic anorexia: Generic stories are often used, but symbols make things specific,
  appealing and easy to remember
• Over-focus on values: Values are used without meaning. It is easy to agree with values.
  Meaning more important to positive outcomes than values.
• Denial of ignorance: Changing culture is changing ourselves. Self-confidence combined with
  ignorance

Question 13

Solutions to the potential traps when creating culture?

Answer 13

• Hyperculture Solution: Put words into more locally grounded and concretely experienced
  themes.
• Symbolic anorexia Solution: Use symbols that are locally relevant and with a clear
  connection to local practices.
• Over focus on values Solution: Work together in the interpretation of values
• Denial of ignorance Solution: Invoke modesty and curiosity, open up channels for feedback
  and critique.

Question 14

Explain ‘managerialism’

Answer 14

There is a strong managerial focus and emphasis on managers being in charge, possessing
a superior overview, knowledge, and authority. In our case, there was the cascading model
(cascading the changes down the hierarchical level through progressively involving more
middle managers and employees)

Question 15

Describe the grand technocratic change approach

Answer 15

Grand technocratic change approach is
- Top-down
- Stepwise
- Managerial
- Cascade vision of change program
- Assuming culture changes by going through different stages of stability

Question 16

Describe the discursive approach.

Answer 16

• organizations are perceived as bodies of texts
• Organizations can thus be changed through discourses (e.g. through narratives,
  stories, text)
• The approach is seen as a duality of communicative actions and deeper structures
• Discourses change the deeper structures in the organizations (assumptions, values,
  norms) and visa versa; deep structures change the discourses in the organization

Question 17

How was the culture of Technocom reinforced (reproduction) using a discursive approach?

Answer 17

• The change narrative was weak, both in content (passing on the message) as in
  presentation (video)
• Participants did not want to engage in conversations over the change program, thus
  not creating generative change, no dialogue, no discursive engagement
• Management took the initiative to engineering culture (with a toolbox), but not to shaping
  the interpretative/discursive frames of senior and junior managers
• One could say that the content of the toolboxes was interpreted using the discursive
  frame of the senior/junior managers, which are based on the culture that they tried to
  change.

Question 18

Use Marrewijk on the ethnoventionist approach to argue how cultural change can be better organized.

Answer 18

-The ethnoventionist approach indicates that scholars study cultural processes close to
the work floor and based upon this understanding design change process

• The approach focuses on the change work and tries to intervene in existing practices
  through reflection
• It is therefore needed that an expert takes this change work and the activities needed
  for change work serious

Question 19

Explain feedback and backtalk in terms of reflection. And explain the difference between
them by using an example for each

Answer 19

Feedback is planned and rational action (more discursive)
- Reflection-on-action: Reflecting back on something. Can change practice later.
- Example: Verbal or written feedback after a practice; e.g. given after a lecture
Like after a lecture you might provide me with feedback and then we as lecturers can
improve our practice based on that.

Backtalk is unplanned and non-rational (conversations with material)
- Reflection-in-action: Immediate; Leads to break in routine practice.
- Example: The eyes, attention and energy of students during a lecture
Taking the lecture as an example, you could get backtalk during a lecture, maybe a lot of
questions are asked, there is confusion in facial expressions, or maybe the energy is low.
This would require the teacher to break with routine of the lecture as he/she planned to give
it and attend to the backtalk in the room.

Question 20

Give a brief synopsis of the articles of Tsoukas and chia (2002) on ‘organizational becoming’

Answer 20

Tsoukas and Chia (2002):
- Cultural change as the normal condition of organizational life from a micro perspective

• Understand culture not to be a stable and fixed entity but as becoming, involving the
  reweaving of webs of beliefs and habits of action to accommodate new experiences
  obtained through interaction.
• They explain change is inherent in human action and organizations are sites of continuously evolving practices. This is a processual understanding or perspective of
  change.

Question 21

What is a multi-level perspective of change?

Answer 21

A multi-level perspective to change is a perspective to study and consider all the different
levels of the organization
macro, meso, micro levels (2 pts)
national, organizational, individual levels (2 pts)
top management, middle management, employees (2 pts)
top-down managerial implementation vs bottom-up micro level change (2 pts)

Question 22

Apply a multi-level perspective of change to describe how regionalization transpired in the
case of the firefighters

Answer 22

Macro: National level (1 pt)
- Fire disasters (Enschede and Volendam) led to a need to professionalize the fire
service on a national level
- Signing of the Security Regions Act for increasing national security, crisis
management and coordination
- Need to improve the efficiency, professionalism of and cooperation between
emergency services (fire brigade, ambulance, police)
- Top-down implementation of public reform with placement of New Public

Management.
Meso: Regional level
- Reorganizing the fire brigade and the stations via the new safety regions
- Positioning of regional new public managers who are too distant from the work
floor/practice of firefighting
- Bureaucratization, professionalization and cutbacks (1 pt)
- Mergers, closing of stations, redistribution or removal of coverage areas, specialisms
and materials

Micro: Local level (1 pt)
- In the sense-making we see the high impact of regionalization on volunteer
firefighters and their culture, which is strongly locally embedded (for example, it is
experienced as painful that coverage areas or materials such as vehicles are
removed). (1 pt)
- The volunteers find the reorganization difficult and give some resistance but still have
enough passion for their work to stay because the culture is so close
- There is a lot of respect for the commander as a mediator, leader and supporter.
- The station commander is a major mediator of change between different levels; he
stands between public managers and volunteers to implement change and reduce
resistance. (1pt)

Question 23

Explain the relationship between spatial settings and social behaviour in organizations.

Answer 23

• This is a recursive process; Spatial settings change behaviours, but behaviours can
  also, change spatial settings.
• Spatial settings influence behavior of employees, but employees also give meaning
  to these spatial settings.
• The relation is a dynamic process in which a spatial intervention alone will not
  change behaviour or organizational culture.

Question 24

How were spatial interventions assumed to change behaviour in Irving et al. (2020) and how did the interventions actually change behaviour?

Answer 24

assumed:
- Irving et al. studied a new collaborative building where research partners were
located, to enhance proximity and collaboration

• The interventions share the assumption that an open workspace and physical
  proximity between employees can facilitate collaboration

reality:
In Irving et al employees displayed strategies to avoid collaborative relationships
(focusing on existing collaborations, reinforcing boundaries between groups, enacting
legacy policies, minimizing social interactions)

Question 25

Can you explain why the articles of Tsoukas and Chia (2002) on ‘organizational becoming’
and Yanow and Tsoukas (2009) on ‘reflection-in-action’ are important for the alternative
approach?

Answer 25

Tsoukas and Chia:
- Focus upon cultural change in organizations from a micro perspective and
understand culture not to be stable but as becoming.
- This is a processual understanding of change and the basis of the alternative
approach of change.

Yanow and Tsoukas:
- Focus on reflection-in-action when backtalk and unexpected things occur, meaning
practitioners must break with routines and improvise.

• This relates to the alternative approach because it relates to micro level change and
  in the moment improvisation which defines organizational change too.

Both:
- The two articles relate, as Tsoukas and Chia also claim one must acknowledge the
emergence of surprise, meaning organizational change will have unplanned and
unintended consequences;
- Where everyone can be a change agent and change resistor as the multi-layered
and multi-actor understanding of the alternative approach adheres.

Question 26

Why should we be cautious with the concepts of ‘change agent’ and ‘change recipient’
according to Thomas, Sargent and Hardy (2011)?

Answer 26

Thomas, Sargent, and Hardy encourage caution with these terms because they present change as a one-directional process rather than an interactive negotiation, and position some actors as passive recipients rather than recognizing everyone’s agency in co-constructing change through ongoing meaning-making conversations.

Question 27

Can you argue why the Technocom case is not an example of resistance according to
Alvesson and Sveningsson (2016)?

Answer 27

Although A&S write that the change program might be viewed as an example of
management control and resistance of senior managers (for example Wolfe), and lack of
engagement might be seen as resistance. A&S see uncertainty and confusion as more
significant than resistance.

Question 28

Irving, Ayoka and Ashkanasy (2019) found that employees avoided collaboration in
collaborative buildings. Which strategies have they found for avoiding collaboration?

Answer 28

• Focusing upon existing collaborations
• Reinforcing boundaries between groups
• Enacting legacy policies
• Minimizing social interactions

Question 29

The paper on iPioneer (Van Marrewijk 2016) focused upon the post-acquisition cultural
integration process. Argue why a merger or acquisition is an important cultural intervention?

Answer 29

• Two organizations with different cultures are engaging in these merger processes of
  the organizational cultures, creating the process of acculturation.
• In the post-acquisition process subcultures struggle for dominance. These
  sub-cultures highlight the importance of cultural intervention as alignment with a
  novel organizational culture is experienced by many to be difficult and perceived as a
  threat (losing soul of firm).
• Therefore: merger/acquisition is an important and impactful cultural intervention on
  an organizational level (changes in practice) as well as in sub-cultures in the organizations

Question 30

Please explain how Tsoukas and Chia understand change

Answer 30

• They go against traditional approaches that see it through the lens of stability, routine
  and order. It is often treated as exceptional instead of natural.
• Tsoukas and Chia, in their paper, treats change as the normal condition of
  organizational life. They talk about organizational becoming.
• Their definition of change is the reweaving of actor’s webs of beliefs and habits of
  action to accommodate new experiences obtained through interactions.
• Change is inherent in human action and organizations are sites of constant evolving
  human action. Organization aims at stemming change, but in the process of doing so
  is also generated by it.

Question 31

Use the work of Tsoukas and Chia (2002) to criticize n-step stage models of change.

Answer 31

• Top-down cascading of change is expected
• Managerialism
• Resistance is seen as negative
• Integrative perspective on culture
• Change is a more complex and multifaceted process

Change is seen in the n-step model as stages. These are static positions. The processes
between these stages are not included. It makes sense of change by denying change, one
could say. Tsoukas and Chia argue that it is mainly about what happens between the stages,
the actual changing processes.

Question 32

Use the works Yanow and Tsoukas
(2009) to explain why reflection is important for changing organizational culture.

Answer 32

• Changing of
  organizational culture through new practices requires the reflection of existing practices and
  requires novel structures that continuously change.
• Reflection on new and existing practices
  is important.

-Also, to change culture, actors must be able to break with routine and old
practices if necessary, connected to reflection-in-action.

Question 33

Van Marrewijk 2016: Explain how sub-cultures played a role in the iPioneer/Telcom
post-merger integration process.

Answer 33

Sub-cultures arised post-merger. These were the Real iPioneers, Dogmatic iPioneers and
the ex-Telcoms.
Values Real-Dogmatic iPioneers:
- Small is beautiful
- Structure kills creativity
- Freedom is necessary for development

Values ex-Telcoms:
- Growth is necessary to survive
- Structure in needed to be efficient
- Freedom leads to inefficiency
This clashed a lot.

Cultural domination of Telcom triggered resistance from both the Real and Dogmatic
iPioneers.
Combine growth with a revitalization of iPioneer values, but this ended up not being
successful.

Question 34

What is cultural revitalization?

Answer 34

Revive or bring back (old) culture. Process through which (parts of) old cultures regain a
sense of identity.
Often:
- More and more pressure, that you either no longer will survive
- You take elements of the cultures that could benefit the new culture, and get rid of the cultural set of values that no longer serve a purpose.
- Adaptation of the cultures so both fundamentals of the cultures are conceived

examples
Middle managers in Technocom case:
Some did not want to implement toolkit
More than resistance alone, even more cases of confusion and ambiguity.