Module 1.1C: Change Management

Question 1

What are the different factors that will require organizational change?

Answer 1

1. Size and maturity of the organization
2. Employee participation in strategic planning process
3. Impact of the change on employee’s daily work

The most significant factor is the organization’s overall change readiness.

Question 2

What are Change Agents?

Answer 2

Any person or department within an organization that intentionally initiates change.

Question 3

What was Kurt Lewin famous for?

Answer 3

Social psychologist who formulated a three-step model for implementing change.

His goal was to identify the process by which entities change.

Question 4

What are the 3 stages of Lewin’s change model?

Answer 4

1. Unfreezing
2. Changing
3. Refreezing

Question 5

What is Lewin’s three-stage model?

Answer 5

A model for implementing change and explaining what compels an entity to change: 3 stages - unfreezing, changing, and refreezing.

Question 6

What is Unfreezing?

Answer 6

The 1st stage of Lewin’s model. It involves preparing for change and influencing conditions to favor change.

Intentional disruption of status quo. Identifying shortcoming of current condition establishes need for change and encourages people to be open to new ways of doing things and create incentive for change.

Question 7

What is Changing?

Answer 7

The 2nd stage of Lewin’s model. When changes are made.

Ex) New programs may be adopted and employees receive necessary training on new processes. Resistance to change may occur during this stage, making clear and effective communication critical.

Question 8

What is Refreezing?

Answer 8

The last stage of Lewin’s model. Consists of establishing a new status quo. There is a risk of employees going back to doing things how they did them before in response to any difficulty.

Question 9

What is a systems?

Answer 9

Refer to the people, procedures, and ideas that co-exist within the organization and are responsible for its functioning.

A systems approach to change management is a holistic approach that recognizes the interconnected nature of various systems within an organization.

Any changes that occur anywhere within the system will cause a shift in other areas of the system.

The approach is an attempt to predict and manage the inevitable changes that ripple through the organization during the change process.

Utilizing systems approach can help reduce the number of unintended consequences of new processes or procedures.

Question 10

Who is Peter Senge?

Answer 10

A scientist and an esteemed thought leader in the field of systems thinking.

He believed that organizations are best understood as a single entity with numerous interconnected components.

The most successful organizations are those who welcome and actively pursue change.

Question 11

What are Learning Organizations?

Answer 11

Continually gathering new knowledge and gaining new insights which drive and inform changes.

They adapt and evolve in response to successes as well as failures.

Question 12

Describe actions that occur during the change process. Arrange Kurt Lewin’s change model.

Answer 12

1. Employee buy-in
2. New process trainings
3. Positive reinforcement

Question 13

What is McKinsey’s 7-S Model?

Answer 13

A model that demonstrates the interconnectedness of key organizational elements: structure, strategy, systems, skills, staff, style, and shared values.

Question 14

What are the Hard S elements?

Answer 14

1. Structure
2. Strategy
3. Systems

Tangible or organizational in nature.

Question 15

What are the Soft S elements?

Answer 15

1. Skills
2. Staff
3. Style
4. Shared Values

All HR or derived from people within the organization.

Question 16

What is Strategy?

Answer 16

Refers to organization’s the long-term plan to achieve strategic goals in alignment with its stated mission, vision and values.

The strategy should be evaluated considering all seven elements.

Question 17

What are Systems?

Answer 17

They are the daily and decision-making functions within an organization.

Element that defines how an organization functions.

Question 18

What are Skills?

Answer 18

Encompasses the skills, competencies, abilities, and capabilities of the employees within the organization.

When implementing change, current employee skills need to be evaluated against the skills necessary for any new processes.

Question 19

What are Skills?

Answer 19

Encompasses the skills, competencies, abilities, and capabilities of the employees within the organization.

When implementing change, current employee skills need to be evaluated against the skills necessary for any new processes.

Question 20

What is Staff?

Answer 20

Refers to labor needs such as the number and type of employees needed by the organization.

Staff recruitment, training, motivation, and rewards are all components of the staff element.

Question 21

What is Style?

Answer 21

Specifically about the leadership style of managers and other leaders within the organization.

Encompasses how organizational leaders interact with one another as well as the tone they set for the organization through their actions and behaviors.

Question 22

What are Shared Values?

Answer 22

Also referred to as core values, they are the standards and expectations of behavior as well as organizational actions.

Question 23

What was John Kotter known for?

Answer 23

Knotter’s 8 steps - expanded change model

Question 24

What are Kotter’s 8 steps?

Answer 24

1. Establish urgency: Identify and articulate the need for change within an organization to establish buy-in from the employees.
2. Create the guiding team: Determine which organizational leaders and key stakeholders possess the authority and influence to spearhead the change effort. An ideal coalition will include diverse members from a variety of organizational departments and levels.
3. Create a vision and develop a strategy: The vision articulates the reason behind the change. The strategy delineates how the change will be implemented.
4. Share the change vision:
   A communication strategy is created to ensure employees understand and become familiar with the vision.
5. Empower employees to act: All too often creative employees within an organization face obstacles preventing them from acting. In this step, challenges are removed and rewards may be introduced to motivate innovation.
6. Make short-term wins possible: It’s hard to stay motivated to achieve a long-term goal. Identifying milestones that can be used as targets or goals is a great motivation tool.
7. Build on change momentum: Leverage the short-term wins to rejuvenate aspects of the change process than may have stalled. Short-term wins may also encourage engagement from previously resistant employees.
8. Anchor the change: The purpose of this step is to establish the new processes or behaviors continue. It can be helpful to make clear connections between the change and recent successes.

Kotter’s model is one of the most popular change management theories.

Question 25

What are the 5 change strategy?

Answer 25

1. Directive
2. Expert
3. Negotiating
4. Educating
5. Participative

Question 26

What is Directive Change Strategy?

Answer 26

Similar to directive leadership style. The power resides with the manager. Insights gained from diversity of perspectives are lost. Employees may become resentful their voices are not being heard.

Question 27

What is an Expert?

Answer 27

They will bring a new perspective to the change management process. An organization may choose to hire an outside consultant with expertise in change strategy and management.

Expert may miss or misunderstand organizational distinctions and nuances.

Question 28

What is Negotiating?

Answer 28

This change strategy involves individuals within the organization.

Negotiating change strategy is an option to consider when the new changes results in resistance.

Offering incentives to accept and embrace change. Strategy may cause change implementation to take longer than other strategies.

Question 29

What is Educating?

Answer 29

A change strategy based on education will likely take longer to gain buy-in than some of the other strategies.

As employees are educated on the purpose for the change they can become more committed than they would have been with a different strategy.

Question 30

What is Participative?

Answer 30

This change strategy involves all individuals who will be affected by the change. There are many diverse views and perspectives are considered before making a final decision.

This approach tends to be the most effective change strategy.

Question 31

The most successful change management strategy is one that emphasizes:

Answer 31

Shared authority

Question 32

All the following are items in the McKinsey 7-S model except:

Answer 32

Services

Question 33

In transforming the focus of an organization from product to customer, the HR Director’s primary role is to ensure that:

Answer 33

employee communications, training, performance reviews, and rewards are properly aligned.