Exam 7: Managing Change and Innovation

In promoting organisational change, outside consultants are usually more ________, whereas internal managers may be more ________.

In terms of organisational factors, any attempt to lower stress levels has to begin with ________.

Never negotiate with employees as a means of overcoming resistance to change.

Creative destruction is the process of transformation that accompanies radical innovation.

Which of the following is the objective of refreezing, according to Lewin?

Probably the most visible technology changes in recent years have come through managers' efforts to expand corporate financing.

According to a study by KMPG Global Sustainability Services, which of the following is NOT one of the five key elements in integrating sustainability into the innovation process?

Change threatens the investment you have already made in the status quo.

When grocery stores installed scanners to read the product price, this was an example of managing what change category?

What is a strategy for managing cultural change?

In a short essay, define 'creativity' and 'innovation'.Next, discuss the three sets of variables that have been found to stimulate innovation.

Fred's Stress Fred was not handling the change in his department well.The company had recently changed hands and, even though no-one had lost their job, people had been changing jobs and were being asked to move to different locations.The new leadership had a completely different outlook than those people he had worked under for the past 21 years.Fred found that he was unable to concentrate at work and generally felt like he did not like his job anymore.At home, he was getting headaches and having trouble sleeping, which only enhanced his feeling that things were not going to work out well for him.When he thought about it, he had always hated change.He worked in the job he did partially because it was considered stable (boring to some)and predictable.Fred's new boss kept trying to convince him that he was a valuable employee and that new opportunities, along with salary increases, were in his future.Unfortunately, what Fred wanted was to have things the way they used to be. -Refer to Fred's Stress (Scenario).Which of the following would be a behavioural symptom of Fred's stress?

'Co-optation' is a form of both manipulation and participation.

A manager who threatens to ruin an employee's name in the company if he/she does not cooperate with an impending organisational change is using what kind of tactic for reducing change resistance?

Changing Culture Mandy recently returned from her two-day managerial seminar, 'How to Totally Change Your Management and Leadership Style in Two Days'.Even though she felt the seminar was worthless (as she had predicted), it did give her a chance to think about how to change the culture of her organisation.She had been brought in by the new CEO as a change agent, and her position had the authority to have impact.She felt that the recent hostile takeover by their parent company had shocked everyone, especially given that the entire organisation consisted of only 150 people and had been in business for only five years.She felt this might be the time to attempt the cultural change while everyone was still thinking in terms of change.As she tossed her leadership seminar manual into the bin, she considered what might be her first step and how well the cultural change would work. -Refer to Changing Culture (Scenario).Which of the following statements is true concerning the leadership of Mandy's company and its effect on cultural change?

If an organisation increases the span of control, what factor is being focused on in an organisational change?

In an organisation, who is usually the change agent?

In the 'white-water rapids' metaphor of change, managers should expect change at any time and it may last for unspecified lengths of time.

Lightspeed.com.au Edwin Edwards is a team leader for Lightspeed.com.au, an e-business that has employees in every global time zone.Some of the factors that the team has to contend with are deadlines, strong work ethic, creativity-innovation chain, high-speed turnaround and professionalism.As team leader, Edwin sees team members via videoconference only a few times per year or via compressed video via internet a few times more per year.A frustration that he is encountering himself is that he works with all of these people and does not have control over their 'actual' work or the few organisational rules, regulations and policies.Yet, due to the position he is in, he feels he gets all of their complaints.The team does not deal well when a member offers an innovative, 'off-the-wall' solution to a team problem; team members seem to have more trouble with this than any other team-conflict issue.What he likes most about leading the team is that they seem to prefer getting their objective accomplished instead of wasting time trying to decide who should be doing what tasks. -Refer to Lightspeed.com.au (Scenario).When a member offers an innovative, 'off-the-wall' solution to a team problem, it appears that Edwin has to contend with what cultural variable?

Fred's Stress Fred was not handling the change in his department well.The company had recently changed hands and, even though no-one had lost their job, people had been changing jobs and were being asked to move to different locations.The new leadership had a completely different outlook than those people he had worked under for the past 21 years.Fred found that he was unable to concentrate at work and generally felt like he did not like his job anymore.At home, he was getting headaches and having trouble sleeping, which only enhanced his feeling that things were not going to work out well for him.When he thought about it, he had always hated change.He worked in the job he did partially because it was considered stable (boring to some)and predictable.Fred's new boss kept trying to convince him that he was a valuable employee and that new opportunities, along with salary increases, were in his future.Unfortunately, what Fred wanted was to have things the way they used to be. -Refer to Fred's Stress (Scenario).Which of the following statements is NOT true concerning the stress which Fred may be feeling?