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Models of Planned Change - Lewin's Force-Field Analysis
Organizations continually respond to forces that either promote or resist change. Forces that promote change are "driving forces" and include pressure for change from management and competition. Forces that resist change are "restraining forces" and include employee hostility and apathy and malfunctioning equipment. Balance between these two = status quo
- Involves 3 stages:
- unfreezing - the need for change is recognized and steps are taken to make people receptive to change
Change - moving the organization in the new direction and includes helping employees acquire new behaviors, values, and attitudes
Refreezing - supporting the changes that have been made to help stabilize the organization at a new state of equilibrium
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Models of Planned Change - Nadler's Systems Model
Proposes that effective organizational change requires address four factors:
1. informal organizational elements (communication patterns, leadership)
2. Formal organizational elements (formal structures and processes)
3. Individual characteristics of employees and managers
4. Characteristics of employee and managerial tasks.
Change in one factor will cause change in the others.
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Organizational Development Interventions - Quality-of-work-Life (QWL) Programs
designed to humanize work and the work environment. An important aspect is its emphasis on employee empowerment, or the process of enabling workers to set their own goals, make decisions, and solve problems within their sphere of responsibility and authority
Usually focused on lower-level employees, and they emphasize worker participation and involvement at all stages of decision-making
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Organizational Development Interventions - Quality Circles
Initially popular in Japan. Consists of a small voluntary group of employees who work together on a particular job and meet regularly to discuss job-related problems and solutions.
Representatives then present their solutions to management
Have a positive impact on employee attitudes but that their effects on job performances are equivocal (ambiguous)
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Organizational Development Interventions - Self-Managed Work Teams (SMWTs)
autonomous work groups whose members are trained in the skills needed to effectively perform the group task. Made up of employees who work together as a unit (like QCs). However, their function is not just to make suggestions to management but to actually make hiring, budget, and other decisions that were previously made by managers.
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Organizational Development Interventions - Process Consultation
refers to activities designed to assist members of an organization to help themselves by improving their ability to perceive, understand, and alter the processes that are undermining their interactions with one another.
The focus is on behavior rather than attitudes
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Organizational Development Interventions - Survey Feedback
focuses on employee attitudes, opinions, and perceptions and involves 3 steps:
data collection
data feedback
action planning
To maximize effectiveness responses must be confidential
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Organizational Development Interventions - Total Quality Management (TQM)
focuses on customer satisfaction, employee involvement and empowerment, continuous improvement in the quality of goods and services, and ongoing measurement of performance in order to identify problems.
Includes top-level commitment to quality, organizing around processes rather than tasks, and setting stringent work standards.
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Other Issues in Organizational Change and Development - Change Agents
a person who is responsible for guiding the change effort.
internal change agent - a member of the organization who is already familiar with the company's culture, norms, power structure, etc. - may be too subjective or lack skills
external change agent - consultant, more objective and more willing to take risks, lacks familiarity with company
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Other Issues in Organizational Change and Development - Identifying the Client
Very important to know who the client is - i.e., the entire organization, certain divisions, departments, or groups, or the person who contracted the consultant's services.
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Other Issues in Organizational Change and Development - Data Collection
includes:
Questionnaires
Interviews
Direct Observation
Secondary (Archival) sources
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Other Issues in Organizational Change and Development - Resistance to Change - Rational-Empirical Strategy
based on the assumption that people are basically rational and will act in accord with their self-interest once they have been provided with the necessary information, i.e., will not resist change once the realize the benefit. Effective when resistance is from lack of knowledge
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Other Issues in Organizational Change and Development - Resistance to Change - Normative-Re-Education Strategy
Based on the premise that peer pressure and sociocultural norms are potent forces for change.
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Other Issues in Organizational Change and Development - Resistance to Change - Power-Coercive Strategy
Using power and legitimate authority to coerce employees to comply with plans for change. Coercion can be rewards or punishment.
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Other Issues in Organizational Change and Development - Organizational Justice (fairness) - Procedural Justice
the fairness of the way in which a procedure or policy is implemented.
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Other Issues in Organizational Change and Development - Organizational Justice (fairness) - Distributive Justice
the fairness of the outcomes of an organizational procedure or policy
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Other Issues in Organizational Change and Development - Organizational Justice (fairness) - Interactional Justice
how people feel about the quality and content of person-to-person interactions.
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Methods for the Assessment of Organizations - Self-Assessments
appropriate wen the objective is organizational development. Implementation of findings is most successful when stakeholders of the organization are included in the discovery process
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Methods for the Assessment of Organizations - Personnel Assessments
collect individual data
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Methods for the Assessment of Organizations - Approaches to Program Evaluation - Goals-Based
measures the extent to which the program is achieving its objectives
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Methods for the Assessment of Organizations - Approaches to Program Evaluation - Process-Based
evaluates the effectiveness of systems and structures that guide a program's success
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Methods for the Assessment of Organizations - Approaches to Program Evaluation - Outcomes-Based
evaluates the benefits received by client participation in a program. Outcomes usually describe enhanced learning or conditions. This approach is typically used to evaluate non-profits.
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Although organizational developments (OD) vary, they share an emphasis on _________ change and reliance on behavioral science principles. The most common reason a company initiates an OD intervention is to ___________. Lewin's force field analysis of planned change describes change as involving 3 stages: unfreezing, changing, and _________
planned
improve productivity
refreezing
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Quality of work life (QWL) programs are designed to ________ work and may include quality circles (QCs), which are voluntary groups that meet regularly to discuss work-related problems. _______ work teams are autonomous groups that make decisions previously made my management.
humanize
self-managed
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Process consultation focuses on behaviors and is aimed at helping employees improve processes that are undermining their _________, while survey feedback focuses more on employee __________.
interactions
attitudes, opinions, and perceptions
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Total quality management (TQM) emphasizes customer service, employee involvement, and ________ in the quality of goods and services
continuous improvement
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An advantage to an _________ change agent is that he is more familiar with the company. In contrast, an ________ change agent is more likely to view the situation objectively.
internal
external (consultant)
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In terms of data collection, ______ are useful for obtaining information about the attitudes, values, and beliefs of a large number of employees, while __________ is helpful for collecting information on overt behavior and interactions.
questionnaires and surveys
direct observation
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The normative-re-educative strategy focuses on altering __________ to overcome resistance to change, while the rational-empirical approach emphasizes the individual's __________.
Sociocultural norms
self-interest
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The fairness of organizational procedures and policies can be judged in terms of three types of justice: ________ justice refers to the fairness of the way in which a policy is implemented, _________ justice refers to how employees feel about the quality and content of person to person interactions, and _______ justice refers to the fairness of outcomes
procedural
interactional
distributive
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National Culture - Power Distance
the extent to which people accept an unequal distribution of power
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National Culture - Uncertainty avoidance
the willingness or ability of people to tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty
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National Culture - Individualism
the extent to which individuals or closely-knit social structures (e.g., families) are the basis of the social system
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National Culture - Masculinity
the value placed on assertiveness, independence, and competitiveness
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National Culture - Long-Term Orientation
the extent to which people focus on the future versus the past and present
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Levels of Organizational Culture - Observable Artifacts
1st level - includes the company's dress code, stories, rituals, and annual reports
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Levels of Organizational Culture - Espoused Values and Beliefs
2nd level - includes the organization's norms, goals, and ideologies
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Levels of Organizational Culture - Basic Underlying Assumptions
3rd (deepest) level - unconscious, taken-for-granted- perceptions, beliefs, thoughts, and emotions
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Levels of Organizational Culture
To provide stability and meaning and thereby reduce anxiety among organizational members that would otherwise be caused by their uncertainty about current and future events.
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Person-Organized (P-O) Fit
the extent to which the values held by specific individuals match those of the organization's culture
A good fit has only a small impact on productivity, but is associated with greater job satisfaction, motivation, and organizational commitment and lower levels of stress and voluntary turnover.
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Organizational culture is embedded within the national culture. According to Hofstede, national culture can be described in terms of five dimensions: power ________, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity, and ________ orientation.
distance
long-term
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Schein distinguishes between three levels of organizational culture: observable _________, espoused values and beliefs, and basic _________. The latter can serve as ___________ mechanisms and impede organizational change.
artifacts
underlying assumptions
cognitive defense
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The __________ fit refers to the match between the values of the employee and the organization. It is achieved primarily through ________ and socialization processes.
person-organization
selection
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__________ assessments are used when organizational development is desired, and _________ assessments collect individual data.
A.Self; personnel
B.Personnel; self
C.Goal; self
D.Process; personnel
A
Self-assessments are utilized to direct organizational development, and are most effective when stakeholders are involved. Personnel assessments collect individual data, which may include records, biographical data, test results, and work samples.
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A process consultant is most likely to focus on which of the following?
A.Communication, decision-making, and conflict resolution
B.Technological change
C.Selection and other employment procedures
D.Worker motivation and satisfaction
A
Process consultation is a type of organizational development intervention that focuses on helping members of a work group understand the processes (behaviors) that are undermining their interactions with one another. Process consultants observe group members in action and help them identify and rectify problems related to communication patterns, decision-making, and conflict resolution.
Answer B: Technological change is a concern for organizational change and development, but is not a focus of process consultation.
Answer C: Predicting employee performance is a focus of selection and other employment decisions.
Answer D: Organizational psychologists are generally interested in worker motivation and satisfaction. Although these factors may impact worker performance, they are typically not a focus of process consultants.
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A process consultant initially:
A.observes workers as they interact.
B.meets with individual disputants.
C.develops an action plan.
D.administers an employee survey.
A
For the exam, you want to be familiar with the key characteristics of several approaches to organizational change, including process consultation. As its name implies, process consultation involves looking at "processes"—i.e., at interactions between workers.
Answer B: Meeting with disputants may happen during conflict resolution, not process consultation.
Answer C: Action planning is part of survey feedback, another type of organizational development interventions.
Answer D: Administering an employee survey is part of the data collection step in survey feedback.
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Having employees meet in groups to discuss alternative ways of accomplishing change is an example of which of the following strategies?
A.Power-coercive
B.Rational-empirical
C.Normative-reeducative
D.Team-thrashabout
C
Chin and Benne (1976) identified three strategies for overcoming resistance to change. As its name implies, the normative-reeducative strategy is based on the assumption that peer pressure and sociocultural norms are potent forces of change.
Answer A: The power-coercive strategy involves using power and legitimate authority to overcome resistance to change.
Answer B: The rational-empirical strategy relies on providing employees with necessary information.
Answer D: "Team-thrashabout" is not of the three strategies identified by Chin and Benne.
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According to Schein (1992), organizational culture can be described in terms of three levels. The deepest level consists of basic underlying assumptions that can serve as:
A.driving forces.
B.implicit organizational norms.
C.cognitive defense mechanisms.
D.cognitive archetypes.
C
Schein (1992) distinguished between three levels of organizational culture—observable artifacts, espoused values and beliefs, and basic underlying assumptions. According to Schein, underlying assumptions are taken-for-granted beliefs and emotions that can act as cognitive defense mechanisms.
Answer A: According to Lewin's (1951) force-field analysis of planned change, forces that promote change are "driving forces."
Answer B: Implicit organizational norms are informal or "unwritten" rules of conduct to which workers adhere.
Answer D: According to Jung, archetypes are primordial images that are part of the collective unconscious, are passed down from one generation to the next, and cause people to experience certain phenomena in a universal way.
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Which of the following will have the greatest impact on employees' perceptions of interactional justice at work?
A.Employees receive the organizational outcomes they believe they deserve.
B.Employees participate in decisions related to organizational outcomes.
C.Employees are treated with respect and consideration by supervisors.
D.Employees are allowed to evaluate each other's performance.
C
Three types of organizational justice are described in the literature—procedural, distributive, and interactional. Interactional justice refers to how people feel about the quality and content of person-to-person interactions, including interactions with supervisors.
Answer A: Receiving deserved organizational outcomes would contribute to a positive sense of distributive justice.
Answer B: Participating in decisions related to outcomes may contribute to a positive sense of procedural and distributive justice.
Answer D: Evaluating each other's performance may have an effect on perceptions of procedural justice.
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