W11.1: Organizational Change

Question 1

What are the forces of change?

Answer 1

1. Nature of workforce
2. Technology
3. Economic Shocks
4. Competition
5. Social Trends
6. World Politics

Question 2

What is planned change and who is responsible for it?

Answer 2

Planned change is change activities that are intentional and goal-oriented.

Change agents act as catalysts and assume the responsibility for managing change activities.

Question 3

What are the goals of planned change?

Answer 3

1. Improve the ability of the organization to adapt to changes in its environment.
2. Change employee behavior.

Question 4

What are individual sources of resistance to change?

Answer 4

1. Habit: To cope with life’s complexities, we rely on habits or programmed responses. But when confronted with change, this tendency to respond in our accustomed ways becomes a source of resistance.
2. Security: People with a high need for security are likely to resist change because it threatens their feelings of safety.
3. Economic: Changes in job tasks or established work routines can arouse economic fears if people are concerned that they won’t be able to perform the new tasks or routines to their previous standards, especially when pay is closely tied to productivity.
4. Selective Information Processing: Individuals are guilty of selectively processing information in order to keep their perceptions intact. They hear what they want to hear, and they ignore information that challenges the world they’ve created.

Question 5

What are organizational sources of resistance to change?

Answer 5

1. Structural Inertia:
   Organizations have built-in mechanisms—such as their selection processes and formalized regulations—to produce stability. When an organization is confronted with change, this structural inertia acts as a counterbalance to sustain stability.
2. Limited focus of change:
   Organizations consist of a number of interdependent subsystems. One can’t be changed without affecting the others. So limited changes in subsystems tend to be nullified by the larger system
3. Group Intertia: Even if individuals want to change their behavior, group norms may act as a constraint.
4. Threats to expertise: Changes in organizational patterns may threaten the expertise of specialized groups.
5. Threat to established power relationships:
   Any redistribution of decision-making authority can threaten long-established power relationships within the organization

Question 6

How do organizations overcome resistance to change?

Answer 6

1. Education and Communication
2. Participation
3. Building support and commitment
4. Develop positive relationships
5. Implementing changes fairly
6. Manipulation and cooptation
7. Selecting people who accept change
8. Coercion

EPBDIMSC
every person baking doughnuts is making some cash

Question 7

How does politics affect change?

Answer 7

Change threatens the status quo, making it an inherently political activity.

1. Outside change agents.
2. Employees new to the organization who have less invested in the status quo.
3. Managers slightly removed from the main power structure

Question 8

How do you manage organizational resistance? (theories)

Answer 8

1. Lewin’s Three-Step Model (unfreezing, movement, refreezing)
2. Kotter’s Eight-Step Plan for Implementing Change
3. Action Research: diagnosis, analysis, feedback, action, and evaluation.
4. Organizational Development: A collection of planned change interventions, built on humanistic– democratic values, that seeks to improve organizational effectiveness and employee well-being.

Question 9

What is Kotter’s 8-step plan for implementing change?

Answer 9

1. Establish a sense of urgency by creating a compelling reason for why change is needed.
2. Form a coalition with enough power to lead the change.
3. Create a new vision to direct the change and strategies for achieving the vision.
4. Communicate the vision throughout the organization.
5. Empower others to act on the vision by removing barriers to change and encouraging risk taking and creative problem solving.
6. Plan for, create, and reward short-term “wins” that move the organization toward the new vision.
7. Consolidate improvements, reassess changes, and make necessary adjustments in the new programs.
8. Reinforce the changes by demonstrating the relationship between new behaviors and organizational success.

Question 10

What is OD based on and what are the six interventions?

Answer 10

1. respect for people
2. trust and support
3. power equalization
4. confrontation
5. participation

(SSPITA) 
Sensitivity training
Survey feedback
Process consultation (PC)
Team building
Intergroup development
Appreciative inquiry (AI)