57) According to the force field analysis, equilibrium occurs when ________ of change are
balanced with ________ of change resulting in a relatively steady state.
A) external forces; internal forces
B) driving forces; restraining forces
C) maintenance forces; corrective forces
D) demographic forces; societal forces
58) Which of the following is the most effective way to bring about a change?
A) increasing the driving forces
B) adding more force for change
C) reducing the resistance forces
D) providing more information
59) When a manager is planning for change, to which of the following questions would the
issues of participation and incentives pertain most closely?
A) How soon is change needed?
B) What support will be critical for success?
C) How should the change be communicated?
D) How can support for the change be developed?
60) Within the context of force field analysis, ________ is a driving force of change.
A) new technology
B) norms that punish risk taking
C) costs of updating old equipment
D) employee groups opposed to change
61) According to the matrix of agreeability and influence, the members of a leading coalition for
change will be a part of the ________ agreeable and ________ influence group.
A) high; low
B) low; high
C) high; high
D) low; low
62) Which of the following is a drawback of making very small changes in an organization?
A) They do not justify the costs.
B) They can be difficult to coordinate.
C) They can result in high resistance.
D) They can create major uncertainty.
63) A farming goods supply company observes that recent low rainfall over much of the area that
it services has resulted in a significant drop in sales. Management decides to change the thrust of
their strategy from sales of tractors, harvesters and other such equipment to piping, pumps,
sprinklers, and irrigation supplies. Which of the following statements would most accurately
direct the rate and need for this change?
A) Once the rate of change has been set, it cannot be altered.
B) Too rapid a rate of change does not give people time to adapt to the change.
C) Too slow a rate of change might cause the conditions that created the need for it to shift
significantly.
D) A slow rate of change can be frustrating for those people who want to see some concrete
results for their efforts.
64) The problem with instituting changes too frequently is that ________.
A) employees may not get time to completely adjust to any one of them
B) they can be difficult to coordinate across multiple levels in the organization
C) they are not always in sync with the real problems faced by the organization
D) benefits of the changes are not likely to outweigh the costs
65) Which of the following is a valid reason why a manager may deliberately introduce a fast
rate of change?
A) to outweigh the costs of the change by its benefits
B) to determine who can keep up and who cannot
C) to minimize the opposition against the change
D) to institute multiple changes one after another
66) Which of the following is not a part of the evaluation process of change outcomes?
A) data collection
B) comparison of collected data against goals
C) communicating results to those affected by it
D) altering the approaches to the change
67) Which of the following is true of the first step in evaluating change outcomes?
A) Every type of data that can be collected should be collected.
B) The benefits of the data should be weighed against the costs.
C) Analysis of change effects based on insignificant data is often informative.
D) Data should be collected at irregular intervals.
68) The essence of an organizational development (OD) approach to change is ________.
A) having information technology play a central role in the change effort
B) redesigning a firm’s processes to achieve dramatic improvements
C) its emphasis on planned efforts focusing on people and their interrelationships in
organizations
D) its skill at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and modifying its behavior to
accommodate changes.
69) The organizational development approach has its roots in ________.
A) behavioral science research
B) information technology
C) problem-solving methods
D) knowledge transfer methods
70) A T-group is related to which of the following approaches to planned change?
A) process redesign
B) organizational learning
C) reengineering
D) organizational development
71) Which of the following is an assumption of the organizational development approach to
planned change?
A) Many companies have structures involving more people than necessary.
B) People’s emotions are as important as their thoughts.
C) Systematically collected data is better than any assumption.
D) Many companies have business processes that are inefficient.
72) A(n) ________ is a set of structured activities or action steps designed to improve an
organization.
A) focus group
B) change agent
C) intervention
D) force field analysis
73) Which of the following is an example of a technostructural activity?
A) agenda setting
B) sensitivity training
C) questionnaire development
D) job enrichment
74) Which of the following is an example of a diagnostic activity?
A) agenda setting
B) sensitivity training
C) formulation of questionnaires
D) job enrichment
75) Which of the following is an example of a teambuilding activity?
A) agenda setting
B) diagnostic meetings
C) coaching and counseling
D) behavior modeling
76) Which of the following is an example of process consultation?
A) responsibility charting
B) diagnostic meetings
C) coaching and counseling
D) behavior modeling
77) When used as an OD intervention technique, ________ improve understanding of and
relationships with others in the organization.
A) structural activities
B) diagnostic activities
C) process consultation activities
D) individual enhancement activities
78) As a key distinguishing feature of the OD approach to organizational change, ________
focuses on new relationships.
A) benchmarking
B) organizational renewal
C) behavioral process orientation
D) individual enhancement activity
79) Since the time of the original formulation of the three-stage change process many years ago,
the goal of refreezing has been broadened into the objective of ________.
A) organizational renewal
B) organizational learning
C) reengineering
D) organizational development
80) Within the context of organizational change, ________ emphasizes the flexibility and
capability for continual change.
A) force field analysis
B) process consultation
C) organizational renewal
D) behavioral process orientation
81) Which of the following is the idea behind organizational renewal?
A) People’s emotions are as important as their thoughts.
B) Systematically collected data is better than any assumption.
C) Many companies have structures involving more people than necessary.
D) In a fast-changing world, new habits and patterns rapidly become outdated.
82) Which of the following is true of the organizational development (OD) approach to
organizational change?
A) It emphasizes HR personnel as potential change agents.
B) It was formerly a more general set of procedures.
C) Most organizations have currently discarded the OD approach.
D) Process design is one of its comprehensive approaches.
83) Which of the following is true of a successful process redesign effort?
A) It can shorten cycle times.
B) It has a low chaos factor.
C) It creates low resistance.
D) It gives good results with little effort.
84) Which of the following is true of a successful process redesign effort?
A) It has a low chaos factor.
B) It creates low resistance.
C) It results in cost reduction.
D) It gives good results with little effort.
85) Which of the following defines the breadth of reengineering?
A) It involves redesigning a set of processes rather than a single process.
B) It involves changing a host of core elements within an organization.
C) It tries to reduce costs, shorten cycle times, and improve quality.
D) It involves engaging in new and different ways of behaving and interacting.
86) Which of the following defines depth of reengineering?
A) It involves redesigning a set of processes rather than a single process.
B) It involves changing a host of core elements within an organization.
C) It tries to reduce costs, shorten cycle times, and improve quality.
D) It involves engaging in new and different ways of behaving and
interacting.
87) A firm that is good at organizational learning is said to be ________.
A) emphasizing planned efforts focusing on people and their interrelationships in organizations
B) using information technology to play a central role in the change effort
C) redesigning a firm’s processes to achieve dramatic improvements
D) skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behavior to
accommodate changes.
88) Which of the following features might impede learning by an organization?
A) the capability to implement necessary changes
B) employees with well-developed core competencies
C) high rate of dependence on group performance
D) an organizational culture supporting improvement
89) Which of the following is true of learning organizations?
A) They use the benchmarking technique to learn more.
B) They do not consider past failures as learning opportunities.
C) They rely on assumptions and intuitive guesswork to solve problems.
D) They use tried and tested methods to solve their problems.
90) A(n) ________ is a small group involved in intense discussions of the positive and negative
features of products or services.
A) pressure group
B) interest group
C) advocacy group
D) focus group
91) ________ involves the identification, analysis, and comparison of the best practices of
competitors against an organization’s own practices.
A) Proactive recognition
B) Corporate espionage
C) Benchmarking
D) Facilitation and support
92) Discuss proactive recognition, reactive recognition, and diagnosis within the context of
recognizing and assessing the need for change.
93) Explain with examples how a change in staff can be brought in effectively.
94) Why might people resist seeing the initial need for change?
95) What problems can occur if a change does not produce immediate result? Support your
answer with an example.
96) What are the important things to remember while seeking to build support for a change?
Write from the point of view of a manager.
“I’ve been here for seventeen years and this is a waste of time!” barked Dan Wilson, the
supervisor of the shipping department at A-1 Industries. “I’m just telling you what I was told,”
answered Ken Jordan, Dan Wilson’s manager.
Several key customers had complained that barcode labels were missing from boxes shipped
from A-1. In response to the complaints, company owners now required that all boxes must be
placed in a designated area of the warehouse and that all boxes must be audited for proper
barcode labels, prior to their shipment. The responsibility for this new quality control procedure
was passed down to Dan Wilson. “On top of learning this new computer system, how can they
think I have the extra time for this?” Dan groaned. “Now I have to revamp my department and
then hire and train a new shipment auditor on top of it all!” Ken Jordan shook his head and
walked away.
97) Organizational change efforts focus on six areas. Are any of them present in this scenario?
98) Does proactive recognition or reactive recognition occur in this scenario?
99) Why is Dan Wilson resisting this change?
100) In this scenario, what stage of the change process is Dan resisting? How might this
resistance be reduced?
101) Do you get the impression that A-1 is committed to organizational learning, based on this
scenario?