Discuss the external and internal forces that create the need for organizational change. Organizations encounter both external and internal forces for change. There are five key external forces for change: demographic characteristics, technological advancements, customer and market changes, social and political pressures, and organizational crises. Internal forces for change come from both human resource problems and managerial behavior/decisions.
Describe Lewin's change model and the systems model of change. Lewin developed a three-stage model of planned change that explained how to initiate, manage, and stabilize the change process. The three stages were unfreezing, which entails creating the motivation to change, changing, and stabilizing change through refreezing. A systems model of change takes a big picture perspective of change. It focuses on the interaction among the key components of change. The three main components of change are inputs, target elements of change, and outputs. The target elements of change represent the components of an organization that may be changed. They include organizational arrangements, social factors, methods, and people.
Discuss Kotter's eight steps for leading organizational change. John Kotter believes that organizational change fails for one or more of eight common errors. He proposed eight steps that organizations should follow to overcome these errors. The eight steps are (1) establish a sense of urgency, (2) create the guiding coalition, (3) develop a vision and strategy, (4) communicate the change vision, (5) empower broad-based action, (6) generate short term wins, (7) consolidate gains and produce more change, and (8) anchor new approaches in the culture.
Define organization development (OD), and demonstrate your familiarity with its four identifying characteristics. Organization development is a set of tools or techniques that are used to implement planned organizational change. OD is broader in focus and has a diagnostic focus. The identifying characteristics of OD are that it involves profound change, is value loaded, is a diagnosis/prescription cycle, and is process oriented.
Summarize the 11 reasons employees resist change. Resistance to change is an emotional/behavioral response to real or imagined threats to an established work routine. Eleven reasons employees resist change are (1) an individual's predisposition toward change,(2) surprise and fear of the unknown, (3) climate of mistrust,(4) fear of failure, (5) loss of status or job security,(6) peer pressure, (7) disruption of cultural traditions or group relationships, (8) personality conflicts, (9) lack of tact or poor timing, (10) nonreinforcing reward systems, and (11) past success.
Discuss the five personal characteristics related to resistance to change. The first entails an employee's commitment to change, which reflects a mind-set of doing whatever it takes to effectively implement change. Resilience to change, a composite characteristic reflecting high self esteem, optimism, and an internal locus of control, is the second personal characteristic. People with a positive self-concept and a tolerance for risk also handle change better than those without these two dispositions. High levels of self-efficacy also are negatively associated with resistance to change.
Identify alternative strategies for overcoming resistance to change. Organizations must be ready for change. Assuming an organization is ready for change, the alternative strategies for overcoming resistance to change are education communication, participation involvement, facilitation support, negotiation agreement, manipulation co-optation, and explicit implicit coercion. Each has its situational appropriateness and advantages and drawbacks.
Define the term stress and describe the model of occupational stress. Stress is an adaptive reaction to environmental demands or stressors that triggers a fight-or-flight response. This response creates hormonal changes that mobilize the body for extraordinary demands. According to the occupational model of stress, the stress process begins when an individual cognitively appraises stressors. This appraisal then motivates an individual to choose a coping strategy aimed at reducing stressors, which, in turn, results in a variety of stress outcomes.
Discuss the stress moderators of social support, hardiness, and Type A behavior. People use each of these moderators to help reduce the impact of stressors that are appraised as harmful, threatening, or challenging. Social support represents the amount of perceived helpfulness derived from social relationships. People use four types of support (esteem, informational, social, and instrumental) to reduce the impact of stress. Hardiness is a collection of personality characteristics that neutralize stress. It includes the characteristics of commitment, locus of control, and challenge. The Type A behavior pattern is characterized by someone who is aggressively involved in a chronic, determined struggle to accomplish more and more in less and less time. Management can help Type A individuals by not overloading them with work despite their apparent eagerness to take on an ever-increasing workload.
Discuss employee assistance programs (EAPs) and a holistic approach toward stress reduction. Employee assistance programs help employees to resolve personal problems that affect their productivity. EAPs are typically funded by organizations or in combination with unions. A holistic approach toward wellness goes beyond stress-reduction techniques by advocating that people strive for a harmonious balance among physical, mental, and social well-being. This approach to stress management has five key components: self responsibility, nutritional awareness, stress reduction and relaxation, physical fitness, and environmental sensitivity.
