Deszca, Organizational Change 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
Test Bank
CHAPTER 4: BUILDING AND ENERGIZING THE NEED FOR CHANGE
Multiple Choice
1. According to the book, past experiences may cause employees to react to change in
what ways?
a. with blind acceptance
b. with urgency
c. with compliance
d. with cynicism
2. What is the main reason that change management programs often fail?
a. Despite a shared awareness of the change vision, no one wants to change their
routine.
b. There is confusion about why change is needed and what needs to change.
c. Employees hear too much information about the change and get bored.
d. The change program isn’t right for the organization.
3. What is responsibility diffusion?
a. when there is sufficient responsibility to go around
b. when responsibility is subdivided so granularly that it is difficult to return completed
tasks to one cohesive final product
c. when people feel stressed but no one is entirely sure what their responsibilities are
d. when no one does anything because everyone assumes someone else will act
4. At the beginning of a change project, at what point should leaders engage others in
discussing how to move forward?
Deszca, Organizational Change 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
a. Once the leaders have a town hall meeting arranged and a catchy vision that will
drive action.
b. Once everyone in the organization understands the problem and has given their input
on how to react.
c. Develop a shared understanding about the need and vision for the change.
d. Once the situation is so dire the organization has no other choices.
5. In order to foster an understanding of the need for change, change leaders should do
which of the following?
a. Analyze internal and external data and understand the perspectives of stakeholders.
b. Engage the marketing team to communicate the vision and plan clearly.
c. Persuade everyone to adopt their point of view so they have complete buy-in.
d. Work to understand how they compare against competitors so that they can put the
need for change in a larger context.
6. What situation makes it easiest to instigate change?
a. the stakes are low so the organization can change gradually
b. everything else is stable so people only have to accept one change instead of many
c. when everyone else’s organizations are changing so people don’t feel left out
d. when there is an external crisis
7. How should leaders decide which external data to track?
a. Identify the questions that need to be answered.
b. Mirror what data competitors track.
c. Collect as much data as possible.
d. Only pay attention to urgent reports.
Deszca, Organizational Change 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
8. Why should change leaders take time to understand the perspectives of stakeholders
throughout the change process?
a. to ostracize people who don’t agree with the change
b. to move effectively, enlist their support, and minimize resistance
c. to convince them that you care about their opinion
d. to track how many people have bought in and how many are resisting
9. What is the benefit of collecting soft data?
a. it provides more information than hard data
b. it helps change agents understand the culture and how people approach and feel
about their work
c. to identify where potential pockets of resistance may be
d. to have appropriately in-depth data for presentations to senior leadership
10. What is the biggest benefit of a change leader being self-aware?
a. They are freer to ask questions and seek help when they need it.
b. They can focus on what they’re good at.
c. It allows them to act quickly without excessive analysis.
d. It gives them confidence to lead others through the change.
11. What pitfalls below stem from a lack of self-awareness?
a. not listening to the perspectives of internal stakeholders
b. misconstruing cues and concerns as resistance rather than feedback
c. not communicating the change as much or as clearly as possible
d. running out of resources to adequately invest in the change project
Deszca, Organizational Change 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
12. What factors determine organizational readiness for change?
a. the number of organizational change projects done in the past
b. leadership commitment and member confidence in the leadership
c. the amount of money available to incentivize employees to buy in
d. the size of the organization
13. What kinds of organizations tend to be the most open to change?
a. organizations where senior leadership has a significant number of initiatives and
priorities
b. organizations with a strong culture where everyone tends to agree
c. organizations where employees are extremely loyal and focused on their particular
specialty
d. organizations that are flexible and have information readily accessible
14. Which of the following attributes are included in Judge and Douglas’s eight
dimensions related to readiness?
a. accountable culture and trusting followers
b. compliant middle management and ambitious leadership
c. stable culture and opinionated followers
d. excessive communications and knowledgeable champions
15. Which of the following accurately defines systems thinking?
a. Understanding the rigid processes that enable things to get done within an
organization.
b. Concentrating on root causes and interdependencies.
c. Isolating and solving problems in individual departments.
d. Making sure all the systems in the organizations are not silos.
Deszca, Organizational Change 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
16. What is the recommended balance between extrinsic and intrinsic rewards?
a. Organizations should stay away from extrinsic rewards entirely to avoid bribery and
unethical behavior.
b. Since intrinsic cannot really be controlled, organizations should focus on what
extrinsic rewards will drive behavior.
c. Some intrinsic rewards and reasonable, team-based, extrinsic rewards.
d. Organizations should aim for a 50/50 split to keep rewards in balance.
17. What is the challenge with using a transformational vision?
a. It may be seen as superficial or easily ignored.
b. It may be too hard to craft.
c. Change agents may take the vision too seriously.
d. It isn’t as effective as other approaches.
18. How can information and education be used to increase awareness for the need for
change?
a. Identifying common goals and using them to surmount resistance.
b. Helping the organization understand that it is near a crisis.
c. Building awareness and support through well-organized communication.
d. Use higher order values to motivate others.
19. How does existing culture impact organizational change efforts?
a. Culture is generally supportive of organizational change.
b. Since change often flies in the face of culture, it is one of the biggest stumbling blocks
of change.
c. Culture represents a more difficult barrier in poorly performing firms than successful
firms.
Deszca, Organizational Change 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
d. Culture is simple to alter to new change projects.
20. What are strategic frames?
a. Strategic plans that are developed as part of the change process.
b. Flexible frames that center around core values.
c. Assumptions about how the world works.
d. Framework to develop change plans and strategic direction.
21. Which of the following is a strategy for avoiding groupthink?
a. Trust and follow the guidance of the leader.
b. Solicit input from informed outsiders and experts.
c. Use the team’s collective instincts to make decisions.
d. Self-censoring and conflict avoidance.
22. What is the purpose of a vision?
a. A marketing tool used to complement the mission statement.
b. A detailed plan for how to move forward with a change project.
c. An idealized future that clarifies goals and motivates the organization.
d. A tool to communicate to competitors how you will claim more market share.
23. Visions should have which of the following characteristics?
a. grand and vague
b. specific and detailed
c. easily attainable
d. challenging and memorable
Deszca, Organizational Change 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
24. Despite change General Motors’ efforts, what happened before the auto worker
unions conceded to financial concessions in 2009?
a. Emissions tests were falsified.
b. A 20% increase in vehicle related deaths.
c. Bankruptcy.
d. Mass layoffs.
25. Why do different people have such different assessments of why their organization
isn’t operating optimally?
a. Not everyone is well-educated enough to understand all the factors at play.
b. People want their organization to mirror organizations they worked for in the past.
c. Surveys are difficult to compose and collect in an objective way.
d. Assessments are depending on one’s perspective given their position, training, and
incentives.
26. What is the correct order of how questions should be considered for organizational
change?
a. Why, What, How
b. What, Why, How
c. How, What, Why
d. What, How, Why
27. When an organization doesn’t act in time to protect itself from failure, the cause is
usually which of the following?
a. The business plan was subpar.
b. They did a poor job of scanning the environment and adapting accordingly.
Deszca, Organizational Change 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
c. Environmental hazards arose that could not have been predicted or mitigated.
d. Management tried new strategies instead of relying on ways that worked in the past.
28. Nehru, the founding father of India, demonstrated a transparent self-awareness by
writing anonymously about what dangers of leadership?
a. The litany of decisions that couldn’t be made by one person.
b. The political dynamics which cloud the mission and vision of a leader.
c. Hedging and hesitation with such enormous things at stake.
d. Hero worship and how that might eclipse objective and informed discourse.
29. What is closed-loop learning?
a. Learning that centers on current processes and perspectives.
b. Learning that comes full circle through a feedback loop.
c. Learning that focuses on external data.
d. Learning that accounts for the interactions and complexity in organizations.
30. According to the book, what prompted the focus on risk management and reporting?
a. The global context that organizations operate in with different cultures and thresholds
for unethical behavior.
b. The rise in virtual and digital interactions that create more risk.
c. Self-interest and blind spots prevent leaders from responding appropriately to
warning signs.
d. The increase in lawsuits that threatens organizations’ financial health.
True/False
Deszca, Organizational Change 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
1. The need for change is always clear and dramatic.
2. When considering a change project, there are only a few choices on how and what to
allocate resources to.
3. It is very unlikely that change leaders will ever overcommunicate during a change
project.
4. The vision for change must be created before the organization can focus on the need
for change.
5. Charisma is essential for change agents to have.
Short Answers
1. What kinds of data from the external environment should leaders monitor and why?
Deszca, Organizational Change 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2020
2. What are the risks and benefits of generating an organizational crisis when one
doesn’t already exist?
3. What are some factors that cloud managerial judgment?
4. What ultimately saved Hewlett-Packard from its death spiral?
5. Describe how a change leader needs to ready an organization for change.