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Chapter 18 Organizational Change and Stress Management Page
1.
B. Simulating a Culture of Innovation
1. Definition of innovation
netbook computers, to radical breakthroughs, such as Nissan’s electric
Leaf car.
2. Sources of innovation
a. Structural variables are the most studied potential source of innovation.
i. First, organic structures positively influence innovation because they
facilitate flexibility, adaptation, and cross-fertilization.
ii. Second, innovative-contingent rewards positively influence innovation
and other mechanisms that facilitate interaction.
b. Context and Innovation. Innovative organizations tend to have similar
cultures.
i. Innovative organizations also tend to share a common vision as well as
underlying goals.
it.
iv. Within the human resources category, innovative organizations
actively promote the training and development of their members so
they keep current, offer high job security so employees don’t fear
getting fired for making mistakes, and encourage individuals to
become champions of change.
discretion; this autonomy helps them introduce and implement
innovations.
f. People in collectivist cultures prefer appeals for cross-functional support
for innovation efforts; people in high power distance cultures prefer
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rules and procedures to develop the innovation.
g. These findings suggest that effective managers will alter their
C. Creating a Learning Organization
1. What is a learning organization? (Exhibit 18-6)
a. A learning organization is an organization that has developed the
continuous capacity to adapt and change.
fundamental requirement for their sustained existence.
c. Exhibit 18-6 summarizes the five basic characteristics of a learning
organization.
fundamental problems of traditional organizations: fragmentation,
competition, and reactiveness.
i. First, fragmentation based on specialization creates “walls” and
often warring fiefdoms.
ii. Second, an overemphasis on competition often undermines
collaboration.
solving rather than creation.
2. Managing learning
i. Establish a strategy.
ii. Redesign the organization’s structure.
iii. Reshape the organization’s culture.
D. Organizational Change and Stress
1. Researchers are increasingly studying the effects of organizational change on
employees.
effectively.
2. The overall findings are that organizational changes incorporating OB
goal-setting.
3. Not surprisingly, the role of leadership is critical.
perceive it as stressful.
b. Another study indicated that a positive orientation toward change before
initiatives.
4. Often, organizational changes are stressful because employees perceive
aspects of the changes as threatening.
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stress.
5. To reduce the perception of threat, employees need to see the organizational
changes as fair.
a. Research indicates that those who have a positive change orientation
before changes are planned are less likely to perceive changes as unfair or
threatening.
II. Stress at Work
A. Introduction
stress in life.
B. What Is Stress?
1. Stress is a dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted with an
opportunity, constraint, or demand related to what he/she desires and for
which the outcome is perceived to be both uncertain and important.
job responsibilities).
a. eEvidence suggests that both challenge and hindrance stressors lead to
strain, although hindrance stressors lead to more.
b. Challenge stressors lead to less strain more motivation, engagement, and
performance than hindrance stressors.
satisfaction, organizational commitment, performance, and withdrawal
than do challenge stressors.
4. Typically, stress is associated with resources and demands.
a. Demands are responsibilities, pressures, obligations, and uncertainties
individuals face in the workplace.
By allostasis, we work to find stability by changing our behaviors and
attitudes.
b. It all depends on the allostatic load, or the cumulative effect of stressors
on us given the resources we draw upon.
6. So, much like organizations are in a constant state of change and flux, we
respond to stress processes by continually adapting to both internal and
external sources, and our stability is constantly redefined.
C. Potential Sources of Stress
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1. As the model in Exhibit 18-8 shows, there are three categories of potential
stressors: environmental, organizational, and personal.
2. Environmental factors
a. Environmental uncertainty influences stress levels among employees in an
organization.
b. Changes in the business cycle create economic uncertainties.
c. Political uncertainties in some countries can be stress inducing.
d. Technological uncertainty can cause stress because new innovations can
make an employee’s skills and experience obsolete in a very short period
of time.
3. Organizational factors
a. Pressures to avoid errors or complete tasks in a limited time period, work
overload, a demanding and insensitive boss, and unpleasant coworkers are
a few examples.
b. Task demands are factors related to a person’s job.
i. They include the design of the individual’s job (autonomy, task variety,
degree of automation), working conditions, and the physical work
layout.
c. Role demands relate to pressures that are a function of the role an
individual plays in an organization.
d. Interpersonal demands are pressures created by other employees.
4. Personal factors
a. These are factors in the employee’s personal life.
b. National surveys consistently show that people hold family and personal
relationships dear.
c. Economic problems can be created by individuals overextending their
financial resources.
d. Studies in three diverse organizations found that participants who reported
stress symptoms before beginning a job accounted for most of the variance
in stress symptoms reported 9 months later.
5. Stressors are additive
a. When we review stressors individually, it’s easy to overlook that stress is
an additive phenomenon—it builds up.
b. A single stressor may be relatively unimportant in and of itself, but if it’s
added to an already high level of stress, it can be the straw that breaks the
camel’s back.
c. To appraise the total amount of stress an individual is under, we have to
sum up his or her opportunity stresses, constraint stresses, and demand
stresses.
D. Individual Differences
support, and personality.
a. Perception: Moderates the relationship between a potential stress
condition and an employee’s reaction to it.
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be negatively related to work stress.
c. Social support: Relationships with coworkers or supervisors can buffer the
impact of stress.
d. Personality trait: Perhaps the most widely studied personality trait in
stress is neuroticism, discussed in Chapter 5.
compulsion to work more.
E. Cultural Differences
1. Research suggests the job conditions that cause stress show some differences
across cultures.
2. One study revealed that whereas U.S. employees were stressed by a lack of
training.
3. One study of employees in Hungary, Italy, the United Kingdom, Israel, and
the United States found Type A personality traits (see Chapter 5) predicted
stress equally well across countries.
4. A study of 5,270 managers from 20 countries found individuals from
America.
F. Consequences of Stress at Work
1. Physiological symptoms
a. Most early concern with stress was directed at physiological symptoms
because most researchers were specialists in the health and medical
sciences.
problems.
2. Psychological symptoms
a. Job dissatisfaction is an obvious cause of stress.
b. Multiple and conflicting demands—lack of clarity as to the incumbent’s
duties, authority, and responsibilities—increase stress and dissatisfaction.
stress and dissatisfaction.
3. Behavioral symptoms
a. Research on behavior and stress has been conducted across several
countries and over time, and the relationships appear relatively consistent.
b. Behavior-related stress symptoms include reductions in productivity,
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smoking or consumption of alcohol, rapid speech, fidgeting, and sleep
disorders.
relationship.
d. The most widely studied pattern of this relationship is the inverted U.
(Exhibit 18-9)
i. The logic underlying the figure is that low to moderate levels of stress
stimulate the body and increase its ability to react.
more rapidly.
iii. But too much stress places unattainable demands on a person, which
result in lower performance.
e. In spite of the popularity and intuitive appeal of the inverted U model, it
doesn’t get a lot of empirical support.
stress–performance relationship.
III. Managing Stress
A. Introduction
1. Because low to moderate levels of stress can be functional and lead to higher
performance, management may not be concerned when employees experience
them.
undesirable.
3. What management may consider “a positive stimulus that keeps the adrenaline
running” is very likely to be seen as “excessive pressure” by the employee.
B. Individual approaches
1. An employee can take personal responsibility for reducing stress levels.
social support networks.
3. Many people manage their time poorly.
a. A few of the best-known time-management principles are:
i. Making daily lists of activities to be accomplished.
ii. Prioritizing activities by importance and urgency.
can limit attention and reduce efficiency.
4. Physicians have recommended noncompetitive physical exercise, such as
aerobics, walking, jogging, swimming, and riding a bicycle, as a way to deal
with excessive stress levels.
5. Individuals can also teach themselves to reduce tension through relaxation
employee stress relief and energy.
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b. You might be tempted to think that complete detachment from work, or
experience as substantial decrease in stress.
c. Expanding your social support network provides someone to hear your
problems and offer a more objective perspective on a stressful situation
than your own.
i. However, sometimes these “misery breeds company,” and if you do
C. Organizational Approaches
1. Several organizational factors that cause stress—particularly task and role
demands—are controlled by management.
2. Strategies to consider include improved employee selection and job
placement, training, realistic goal-setting, redesign of jobs, increased
employee involvement, improved organizational communication, employee
sabbaticals, and corporate wellness programs.
individuals with an internal locus, but such individuals may adapt better to
high-stress jobs and perform those jobs more effectively.
b. Unfortunately, temporary employees who have the possibility of being
hired are often at risk for experiencing heightened levels of stress
lessen job strain.
5. We discussed goal-setting in Chapter 7.
a. Individuals perform better when they have specific and challenging goals
and receive feedback on their progress toward these goals.
i. Goals can reduce stress as well as provide motivation.
stressors as challenges rather than hindrances.
c. Furthermore, the type of goal matters: when given a developmental,
learning goal after negative feedback, employees tend to experience less
tension and better performance than when they are given a performance
target goal.
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stability.
6. Redesigning jobs to give employees more responsibility, more meaningful
work, more autonomy, and increased feedback can reduce stress because these
factors give employees greater control over work activities and lessen
dependence on others.
recovery experiences and increase stress.
8. Increasing formal organizational communication with employees reduces
uncertainty by lessening role ambiguity and role conflict.
9. Some employees need an occasional escape from the frenetic pace of their
work. Companies including Genentech, the Container Store, Recreational
Equipment Inc. (REI), PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Goldman Sachs, The
Cheesecake Factory Inc., VMwarenimation, and Adobe Systems have begun
to provide extended voluntary leaves.
10. Our final suggestion is organizationally supported wellness programs.
IV. Summary and Implications for Managers
A. The need for change has been implied throughout this text.
B. For instance, think about attitudes, motivation, work teams, communication,
leadership, organizational structures, human resource practices, and
organizational cultures.
C. Change was an integral part in our discussion of each.
1. If environments were perfectly static, if employees’ skills and abilities were
always up to date and incapable of deteriorating, and if tomorrow were always
exactly the same as today, organizational change would have little or no
relevance to managers.
D. But the real world is turbulent, requiring organizations and their members to
undergo dynamic change if they are to perform at competitive levels.
E. Coping with all these changes can be a source of stress, but with effective
management, challenge can enhance engagement and fulfillment, leading to the
high performance that, as you’ve discovered in this text, is one major goal of the
study of organizational behavior (OB). Specific implications for managers are
below:
1. Consider that, as a manager, you are a change agent in your organization.
a. The decisions you make and your role-modeling behaviors will help shape
the organization’s change culture.
2. Your management policies and practices will determine the degree to which
the organization learns and adapts to changing environmental factors.
3. Some stress is good.
a. Low to moderate amounts of stress enable many people to perform their
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jobs better by increasing their work intensity, alertness, and ability to
react. This is especially true if stress arises due to challenges on the job
rather than hindrances that prevent employees from doing their jobs
effectively.
engagement declines.
a. However, by the time these symptoms are visible, it may be too late to be
helpful, so stay alert for early indicators and be proactive.
EXPANDED CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Change
A. Forces for Change
stimulants for change.
2. Nature of The Workforce
a. Almost every organization must adjust to a multicultural environment,
demographic changes, immigration, and outsourcing.
3. Technology is changing jobs and organizations.
concept in the near future.
4. Economic Shocks
a. Led to the elimination, bankruptcy, or acquisition of some of the
best-known U.S. companies, including Merrill Lynch, Countrywide
Financial, and Ameriquest.
b. Millions of jobs were lost worldwide.
5. Competition is Changing
town.
b. Successful organizations will be fast on their feet, capable of developing
new products rapidly and getting them to market quickly.
6. Social trends don’t remain static either.
a. Organizations must therefore continually adjust product and marketing
Stories.”
b. Consumers, employees, and organizational leaders are more sensitive to
environmental concerns. “Green” practices are quickly becoming expected
rather than optional.
7. World Politics
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c. Throughout the industrialized world, businesses—particularly in the
banking and financial sectors—have come under new scrutiny.
B. Planned Change
1. Some organizations treat all change as an accidental occurrence; however,
environment.
b. Change employee behavior.
3. Who in organizations are responsible for managing change activities?
a. Change agents can be managers, employees of the organization, or
outside consultants.
II. Resistance to Change
A. Introduction
1. Our egos are fragile, and we often see change as threatening.
a. Employees who feel negatively toward a change cope by not thinking
about it, increasing their use of sick time, and quitting.
needed.
3. Resistance to change can be positive if it leads to open discussion and debate.
a. These responses are usually preferable to apathy or silence and can
indicate that members of the organization are engaged in the process,
providing change agents an opportunity to explain the change effort.
the preferences of other members.
4. Resistance to change does not necessarily surface in standardized ways.
5. Resistance can be overt, implicit, immediate, or deferred.
a. It is easiest for management to deal with resistance when it is overt and
immediate.
recognize.
c. Similarly, deferred actions cloud the link between the source of the
resistance and the reaction to it.
d. A single change of little inherent impact may be the straw that broke the
camel’s back because resistance to earlier change was deferred and
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6. Exhibit 18-2 summarizes the major forces for resistance to change categorized
by their sources.
that changes will lower one’s income.
iv. Fear of the unknown. Changes substitute ambiguity and uncertainty for
the known.
v. Selective information processing. Individuals shape their world
change.
b. There are six major sources of organizational resistance: (Exhibit 18-2)
i. Structural inertia. Organizations have built-in mechanisms to produce
stability; this structural inertia acts as a counterbalance to
sustainability.
the expertise of specialized groups.
v. Threat to established power relationships. Redistribution of
decision-making authority can threaten long-established power
relationships.
vi. Threat to established resource allocations. Groups in the organization
collapsed for this reason.
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