Exam 8: Managing Change and Innovation

According to Lewin, which of the following is a force that might overcome inertia and unfreeze the status quo?

A light-hitting baseball player who is suddenly asked to be a power hitter and hit home runs would be likely to experience ________ stress.

Change can't be eliminated, so managers must learn to ________ successfully.

Which of the following is a term borrowed from the physical sciences that accurately describes people's resistance to change?

A manager who mentions that supervisors might lose their jobs if they don't go along with a change is using the technique of coercion.

When managers threaten to fire workers unless they agree to go along with new company policies, they are using which of the following?

Organizational change can be any alteration in an organization's people, structure, or technology.

Managers should aspire to eliminate all stress from the work environment.

________ variables are thought to promote innovation.

According to Lewin, which of the following is the best way to unfreeze the status quo?

A constraint causes stress because it ________.

Which of the following might reduce a sense of task demand stress for a worker?

Employees at a company protest a change that allows an automatic answering system to answer phone inquiries, claiming that the company is becoming "depersonalized." They are most likely resisting change due to ________.

Stress isn't always bad for an individual.

An aggressive new competitor in the marketplace is an external force that creates a need for organizational change that companies frequently face today.

The decision of an organization to bring in new equipment from the outside is an example of an external force that creates a need for organizational change.

If several efforts between a manager and an employee for reducing resistance to change fail to allay employee fears, a manager might take him- or herself out of the process and try this.

In a short essay, discuss ways that managers can help to reduce stress for their employees that originates outside of the workplace.

An example of changes in people would involve a manager widening her span of control.

In a short essay, describe the "white-water rapids" view of organizational change.