Deck 9: Organization Development and Sense-Making Approaches

Question 1

Which of the following is NOT a part of Kurt Lewin's three-stage model of change?

A) Pouring
B) Unfreezing
C) Changing
D) Refreezing

Answer 1

A

Question 2

The primary background of Likert's organization development (OD) model is:

A) Productivity and quality of work-life
B) National Training Laboratories (NTL) and T-groups
C) Strategic change
D) Participative management

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Of the six images of managing change, the _____ and _____ images have their foundations in the field of organization theory.

A) director; coach
B) navigator; interpreter
C) caretaker; nurturer
D) interpreter; caretaker

Answer 3

C

Question 4

The introduction of and transition to new techniques and behaviors occur during the _________ phase of action research.

A) problem identification
B) joint problem diagnosis
C) joint action planning
D) change actions

Question 5

Underpinned by the _____ image, the sense-making approach maintains that change emerges over time and consists of a series of interpretive activities that help to create in people new meanings about their organizations and about the ways in which they can operate differently in the future.

A) director
B) navigator
C) nurturer
D) interpreter

Question 6

Underpinned by the _____ image, the organizational development (OD) approach is one where its adherents present their developmental prescriptions for achieving change as being based, at least traditionally, upon a core set of values, values that emphasize that change should benefit not just organizations but the people who staff them.

A) director
B) navigator
C) caretaker
D) coach

Question 7

According to Lewinian/OD views of organizational change, organization development (OD) is linear in that it:

A) has a constant ebb and flow.
B) has movement from past to present to future.
C) is heavily reliant on mathematics.
D) is based on symmetrical change and equilibrium.

Question 8

Which of the following is NOT a criticism of organization development (OD)?

A) Internal validity problems
B) External validity problems
C) Problems arising due to too much theory
D) Problems with measuring attitude changes

Question 9

According to Cummings and Worley, which of the following is NOT a skill needed by an organization development (OD) practitioner?

A) Intrapersonal skills
B) Interpersonal skills
C) Technical skills
D) General consultation skills

Question 10

According to Cummings and Worley, organization development (OD) practitioners need _____ skills, which include having a well-developed set of values and personal integrity and the ability to retain their own health in high-stress organizational situations.

A) intrapersonal
B) interpersonal
C) consultation
D) physical

Question 11

Which of the following is NOT a characteristic of Richard Beckhard's classic organization development (OD) approach?

A) It is spontaneous and requires compartmental diagnosis.
B) The top of the organization is committed to the change process.
C) Changing attitudes and behavior is a focus of the change effort.
D) It is action-oriented.

Question 12

In the context of the core set of values of the organization development (OD) field, _____ values relate to social justice, freedom of choice, and involvement.

A) humanistic
B) democratic
C) economic
D) developmental

Question 13

The approach and the values underpinning organization development (OD) were predominantly developed in:

A) the United States.
B) the European Union.
C) South America.
D) Japan.

Question 14

Which of the following is a difference between dialogic organizational development (OD) and diagnostic organizational development (OD)?

A) Dialogic OD uses the processes of unfreeze, change, and freeze to manage change, whereas diagnostic OD uses no systematic steps to manage change.
B) The practitioners of dialogic OD carry out diagnosis of the organizational situation before intervening, whereas the practitioners of diagnostic OD work with people in a way that creates new knowledge and awareness.
C) A consultant is an involved facilitator in dialogic OD, whereas he or she is a neutral facilitator in diagnostic OD.
D) Central to the diagnostic approach is the view that "real change" only occurs when mindsets are altered, whereas the dialogic approach focuses on making changes at the management level.

Question 15

Which of the following is NOT a core set of values contained in the organization development (OD) field?

A) Humanistic values
B) Democratic values
C) Economic values
D) Developmental values

Question 16

In the context of the core set of values of the organization development (OD) field, _____ values relate to authenticity, growth, and self-realization.

A) humanistic
B) democratic
C) economic
D) developmental

Question 17

Which of the following is NOT a technique designed to work with large groups of people at a time?

A) Whole-system design
B) Participative design
C) Fast-cycle full participation
D) Spatial participation design

Question 18

The first step in action research is:

A) data gathering.
B) problem diagnosis.
C) problem identification.
D) feedback.

Question 19

In the context of the core set of values of the organization development (OD) field, _____ values relate to openness, honesty, and integrity.

A) humanistic
B) democratic
C) economic
D) developmental

Question 20

The _____ image of managing change assumes that change managers receive rather than initiate change.

A) director
B) caretaker
C) navigator
D) interpreter

Question 21

There is no single, underlying theory that unifies the field of organization development (OD) as a whole.

Question 22

The three-stage model for change that includes the processes of unfreezing, changing, and refreezing was developed by Joseph Juran.

Question 23

According to Fuller et al., which of the following is True of appreciative inquiry?

A) It releases an outpouring of new constructive conversations.
B) It controls self-sustaining learning capacity outside of an organization.
C) It does not create the conditions necessary for self-organizing to flourish.
D) It provides a reservoir of strength for negative change.

Question 24

Which of the following is NOT a component of appreciative inquiry (AI)?

A) Discovering the best of what is currently practiced
B) Designing what should be
C) Sustaining an organization's future
D) Communicating to the world

Question 25

According to Bean and Hamilton, after the downsizing at Telenor, some staff accepted the corporate "alignment" frame, while others adopted an "alienated" frame and felt marginalized and feared for their job security.

Question 26

The ability of a powerful actor to project sense-making onto a situation, shaping the interpretations of others, is known as projective sense-making.

Question 27

The _____ is an assumption that planned, intended change is necessary in order to disrupt the forces that contribute to a lack of change in an organization so that there is a lag between environmental change and organizational adaptation.

A) assumption of inertia
B) assumption that a standard change program is needed
C) assumption of animation
D) assumption of unfreezing

Question 28

_____, an alternative to large-scale structural change, is a strategic process of small-scale changes that enable constant realignment of organizational processes to external changes.

A) Pouring
B) Patching
C) Segmenting
D) Drilling

Question 29

Animation is one of the four drivers of organizational change whereby people remain in motion and may experiment.

Question 30

According to the organization development (OD) approach, it is the bottom rung of an organization that is committed to the change process.

Question 31

According to the sense-making framework, _____ is the notion that people make sense of their actions retrospectively.

A) social sense-making
B) extracted cues of sense-making
C) retrospection
D) plausibility

Question 32

Under dialogic organization development (OD), the role of the OD consultant moved from being the provider of data for fact-driven decision making to being the facilitator of processes that encouraged "conversations" around change issues.

Question 33

One of the biggest strengths of the traditional organization development (OD) field was that it was well suited to handle large-scale organizational change.

Question 34

According to the text, which of the following is NOT a major organizational change experienced by Nova Scotia Power from 1982 to 2002?

A) Privatization
B) Downsizing
C) The introduction of a cultural change program
D) Expropriation

Question 35

Which of the following is NOT an issue that Fineman raises in question of whether positive organizational scholarship (POS) can really live up to its "positive" aims?

A) He questions whether we can really agree on which behaviors are positive.
B) He questions whether the positive can be separated from the negative.
C) He suggests that there is an unarticulated dark side to positiveness.
D) He suggests that negative aspects frequently outweigh the positive.

Question 36

The best change sequence in the event of ineffectiveness in the system is:

A) unfreeze, rebalance, and freeze.
B) freeze, rebalance, and unfreeze.
C) unfreeze, unbalance, and freeze.
D) freeze, unfreeze, and balance.

Question 37

Which of the following has been dubbed as a "new movement in organizational science" since its emergence in the early 2000s?

A) Appreciative inquiry
B) Organizational development
C) Positive organizational scholarship
D) Taoist strategies

Question 38

Central to the traditional organization development (OD) approach is the role of the OD practitioner, who may be either internal or external to an organization.

Question 39

The dialogic organization development (OD) approach holds that "real change" only occurs when mindsets are altered and that this is more likely to occur through "generative conversations" than persuasion by "facts."

Question 40

Which of the following approaches is NOT encompassed in positive organizational scholarship (POS)?

A) Appreciative inquiry
B) Positive psychology
C) Community psychology
D) Organizational sociology