Unit 10- managing strategic change

Question 1

What are incremental/disruptive change?

Answer 1

Incremental - step by step and slowly

Disruptive - dramatic sudden change

Question 2

Why is disruptive change worse for businesses?

Answer 2

They can’t plan for it and therefore aren’t prepared

Question 3

Why is change good?

Answer 3

It can bring opportunities, encourages managers to think

Question 4

What is lewins force field analysis?

Answer 4

A tool to help managers look at the forces for and against making a change

Question 5

What is the biggest possible barrier to change?

Answer 5

Staff resistance

Question 6

Why does staff resistance occur?

Answer 6

Fear of change
Don’t want to do more work for same pay
Worry about loss of jobs

Question 7

What was Kotter and Schleshinger’s ‘theory’ about?

Answer 7

Identified 4 main reasons for staff resistance

Question 8

What were the 4 reasons for staff resistance according to Kotter and Schleshinger?

Answer 8

1- parochial self interest (people only concerned with impact on themselves)
2- misunderstanding
3- low tolerance to change
4- disagreement over need for change

Question 9

What were Kotter and Schleshingers 6 ways to overcome staff resistance?

Answer 9

1- better comm. About reasons for change and impacts
2- allow those affected to be involved in change process
3- help employees through the change, e.g. Training
4- negotiation and bargaining about the changes
5- manipulation , e.g. Buy people off
6- coercion e.g. Use threats to get people to accept the change, e.g. Job losses

Question 10

What is a flexible organisation?

Answer 10

One which can change rapidly

Question 11

Name some examples of flexible types of organisations

Answer 11

High quality knowledge and info management
Flexible workforces
Able to restructure quickly
Organic structures (highly fluid)

Question 12

What is organisational culture?

Answer 12

The values and beliefs held within an organisation

Question 13

What things in a business does organisational culture affect?

Answer 13

The physical environment
Strategic decisions
Leadership style
Objectives
Reaction to change
Attitude to risk
Who wants to work there

Question 14

What is Charles Handy’s theory related to?

Answer 14

Different types of organisational culture

Question 15

What are the 4 different types of culture Handy identified?

Answer 15

Power - everything is focused on senior leaders
Role - everything is about the position people have in the firm and there are strict rules and procedures
Task - everything focused on completing task
Person - everything focused on development of each individual

Question 16

What is Hofstede’s ‘theory’ about?

Answer 16

Used to identify differences between cultures in different countries

Question 17

What are the 5 criteria that Hofstede uses to judge a countries style of culture?

Answer 17

1-Power distance - shows how well a nation accepts a hierarchical society
2-Individualism v collectivism - shows how much nation is focused on performance of individuals compared to groups
3-Uncertainty avoidance - shows how well a society tolerates an unspecified future
4- Masc v Fem - shows how much a society values assertiveness, ambition and power as opposed to relationships, harmony and work life balance
5- short termism v long termism

Question 18

Reasons for changing organisational culture

Answer 18

New leader has different ways of doing things
Society's values may change
Performance may have suffered
Takeover, merger
Changing customer needs

Question 19

Problems changing organisational culture

Answer 19

May challenge employees assumptions of how things are done
Involves changing people’s deeply held beliefs
May involve extensive training
May be lots of people involved

Question 20

What is strategic implementation?

Answer 20

The process of putting plans into action

Question 21

Different methods of organisational structure are…

Answer 21

Functional - grouped into depths. Where all do similar job
Product based - grouped into depts. that focus on one product only
Regional - grouped into depts. that focus on one area that the firm operates in
Matrix - grouped together at different times, for different projects

Question 22

What is network analysis?

Answer 22

A technique that can be used to find the quickest way to complete a project

Question 23

What are some pros of network analysis?

Answer 23

Get things done quicker
Means everything is carefully thought out
Shows the critical activites to focus on
Resources can be allocated more efficiently

Question 24

What are some cons of network analysis?

Answer 24

External influences can make it worthless
All bases on estimates
Only gives theoretical time to complete

Question 25

What’s the difference between the planed and emergent strategy?

Answer 25

Planned is the one the firm intends to implement

Emergent is the one the firm actually implements

Question 26

What is divorce of ownership and control?

Answer 26

When communication is poor between owners and managers and what happens is perhaps is oerhaps not in the best interests of the owners

Question 27

What is corporate governance?

Answer 27

The systems by which companies are directed and controlled

Question 28

What is contingency planning?

Answer 28

When a business prepares its response to possible but unlikely events