Chapter 18 Organizational Change and Stress Management Page
Questions for Review
18-1. What is the difference between the forces for change and planned change?
Answer: Planned changes are the activities that are proactive and purposeful: an
is accidental in nature.
Learning Objective: Contrast the forces for change and planned change
management
AACSB: Reflective thinking
18-2. How can resistance to change be overcome?
Answer: Resistance to change can take the form of overt and immediate response
and commitment; developing positive relationships; implementing changes fairly;
manipulation and cooptation; selecting people who accept change; coercion.
management
AACSB: Reflective thinking
18-3. What are the four main approaches to managing organizational change?
Answer:
2. Kotter’s eight step plan for implementing change:
a. Establish a sense of urgency
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management
AACSB: Reflective thinking
18-4. How can managers create a culture for change?
to adapt and change.
Learning Objective: Demonstrate three ways of creating a culture for change
management
AACSB: Reflective thinking
18-5. What are the potential environmental, organizational, and personal sources of
stress at work and the role of individual and cultural differences?
conditions.
Experience on the job tends to be negatively related to work stress.
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can buffer the impact of stress.
Personality traits—stress symptoms expressed on the job may originate in
Research suggests that the job conditions that cause stress show some differences
management
AACSB: Reflective thinking
18-6. What are the physiological, psychological, and behavioral symptoms of stress at
work?
conflicting demands; and behavioral, such as changes in job behaviors, increased
smoking or drinking, different eating habits, rapid speech, fidgeting, and sleep
disorders.
at work
Learning Outcome: Discuss the effects of stress in the workplace and methods of stress
management
AACSB: Reflective thinking
18-7. What are the individual and organizational approaches to managing stress?
Answer:
Learning Objective: Describe individual and organizational approaches to managing stress at
work
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management
AACSB: Reflective thinking
Experiential Exercise
Learning from Work
This exercise contributes to:
AACSB: Reflective thinking
As mentioned in the opening vignette, Ben Carpenter had a long, twisting road to success
in which many unforeseen events required action and coping skills to deal with the strain
from change. But from these events, Ben learned a lot, and with this experience he has
become more effective and resilient in his work. For example, one of the bullet points
negatively about someone he worked with.
No doubt, to this point you have had “turning point” events in your work and interactions
with organizations that have impacted the way you perceive work and the way you do
things in organizations. Think now about a time where you (or someone close to you)
had a major change event at work happen in your life (their lives). Answer the following
questions below:
• What was the major change that occurred?
• What caused the major change event?
“bad” stress?
• From this event, can you think of one piece of advice for employees in similar
situations in the future? What would that be?
After answering these questions, re-convene in groups of 3-4. Each group member takes
turns reading their change event stories and the lessons learned from each story. After
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have altered how the change was perceived. For example, what if fewer people were
affected by the change event? After the group has shared, each member should answer
18-9. For your situation, is there anything you (or your family member) should have
done differently? What would that be? Why?
18-10. In what ways do you think organizations can train their employees to be more
adaptive and resilient? Do you think this is possible? Why or why not?
Sources: B. Carpenter, The Bigs: The Secrets Nobody Tells Students and Young Professionals About How to: Choose a Career, Find a
Great Job, Do a Great Job, Be a Leader, Start a Business, Manage Your Money, Stay out of Trouble, and Live a Happy Life (Hoboken,
NJ: Wiley, 2014).
Teaching Notes
(http://docplayer.net/19442732-Effective-use-of-collaboration-tools-for-online-learning-jennifer-pontano-k
e-anna-skipwith-drexel-university-e-learning-2-0-conference-march-2011.html) for more information.
Ethical Dilemma
All Present and Accounted For
This exercise contributes to:
without a break are expected, but Diya knew that her friend Jose was pushing himself
past the point of exhaustion. He had been suffering for weeks from an unidentified upper
respiratory ailment, and she worried that without rest, he’d never get better. But pressure
for rapid progress from their supervisor left Jose feeling like he had little choice but to
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opposite with its own negative consequences—presenteeism. Presenteeism occurs when
an employee continues to go to work despite illness. Unlike absenteeism, presenteeism
Some companies have started to buck the trend. Microsoft, for example, has pushed its
contractors to provide employees with greater access to sick-leave benefits. Pressure to
come to work when sick is obviously a significant source of stress. And stress weakens
the immune response. This means a culture of presenteeism will eventually lead to
can be very tempting to push employees to come into work no matter what. A few days
off the job could mean the loss of a significant business opportunity. And so employees
give in to pressure and struggle through their work days, as long as they can.
Sources: D. Engber, “Quit Whining about Your Sick Colleague,” New York Times, December 29, 2014,
Psychology, June 2014, 352–69.
Questions
18-11. How might presenteeism be an adaptive response to perceived performance
even when ill. In this type of organization, employees may worry that they will
18-12. Do employers have an ethical responsibility to discourage presenteeism? Why or
why not?
student’s personal ethics and views.
18-13. How might a company work to change employee attitudes and behaviors about
presenteeism? In other words, what would an effective presenteeism prevention
program look like?
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Case Incident 1
Sprucing up Walmart
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objective: Compare the four main approaches to managing organizational change
Learning Outcome: Discuss the effects of stress in the workplace and methods of stress management
AACSB: Reflective thinking
prices, and know immediately what is available.
Contrast this with the experience many Walmart shoppers previously had when they
entered a store—low inventory, disorganized aisles, unhelpful staff, and an overall
depressing atmosphere. The company’s online presence was about the same. The site was
often fruitless.
Named Walmart’s CEO in 2014, Doug McMillon set out to change this. “What people
think about the company is important,” he noted. And at the moment, people weren’t
thinking about value and low prices when they thought about Walmart. McMillon
enacted a number of changes. First, since the company had earned a reputation of
for customers, thereby changing some of the negative images.
Walmart’s Web presence was another target for big changes. With Amazon as the store’s
biggest competitor, McMillon wanted to offer customers more items, pick-up options,
and ways to meet their needs and demands—like an online grocery ordering service. This
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see Walmart?
Sources: S. Halzack, “Why Walmart is Ditching Its Celine Dion Soundtrack and Getting a DJ,” Washington
Post, June 3, 2015,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2015/06/03/why-Walmart-is-ditching-its-celine-dion-sou
ndtrack-and-getting-a-deejay/; B. Ritholtz, “Walmart Learns to Live without Everyday Poverty Wages,”
Bloomberg View, June 11, 2015,
http://fortune.com/2015/06/04/walmartceo-doug-mcmillon/.
Questions
18-14. What key factors do you think prompted Walmart to change? Do they exemplify
the change pressures discussed in the chapter? Why or why not?
Management. Student responses will vary.
18-15. What effects from Walmart’s changes do you predict?
Management. Student responses will vary.
18-16. Describe how McMillon acted as a change agent in this situation.
Case Incident 2
Lonely Employees
This exercise contributes to:
AACSB: Reflective thinking
“Teachers don’t have a chance to talk to each other very much…it is an amazingly lonely
profession,” John Ewing, president of Math for America notes. Math for America is a
nonprofit that aims to improve Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM)
teaching excellence by rewarding those who excel at it already. In addition, another
turnover, but also motivation and OCB. “I would bet my bottom dollar that people who
are lonely and disengaged at work deliver far less discretionary effort than people who
have a support system or a go-to person.”
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epidemic.
Loneliness can be cumbersome for leadership as well. As Jim Hertlein, managing
director of Boyden (an executive search firm) says, “A CEO’s role is probably the
loneliest in the business…they’re expected to be always on their game. They’re not
and thus feel less lonely.
Overall, combatting loneliness in the workplace can begin with you: by reaching out to
colleagues and building bridges, you can create friendships and help alleviate the strain of
being lonely. Managers and supervisors may also be able to help by structuring work and
cultivating an atmosphere where co-workers are able to become interpersonally engaged
and connected to one another.
Questions
18-17. What made the Japanese electronics industry initially successful? How might a
often affect loneliness?
Answer: This item can be assigned as a Discussion Question in MyLab
Management. Student responses will vary.
18-18. Who do you think loneliness tends to be more of a problem for, employees or
ManagementLab. Student responses will vary.
18-19. What role does society play in crafting a global, corporate culture of loneliness?
Why?
Management. Student responses will vary.
MyLab Management
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18-21. In regard to Case Incident 2, only 13 of the top 21 U.S. electronics manufacturers
firms to bring about the changes they need to be competitive?
18-22. MyLab Management Only—comprehensive writing assignment for this chapter.
Instructor’s Choice
Applying the Concepts
This exercise contributes to:
AACSB: Reflective thinking
At present, the number two carmaker in the world is Toyota. Of all the carmakers that
could challenge Toyota and its position, few would have predicted that a very serious
challenge may come from Korea’s Hyundai. At one time, Hyundai was the joke of the
auto world. Today, Hyundai excels at quality (it now matches Toyota and Honda), R&D
new car (the new Sonata) will be a serious Camry fighter and real winner internationally,
where quality and styling are very important. If Hyundai can prove itself in industry sales
tests, it will mark the first time that a serious threat to Japan’s dominance in the mid-car
family car line will be challenged.
change processes that you see at work, and make a prediction as to the company’s
success in the future.
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Instructor’s Discussion
reviewing industry websites.
Exploring OB Topics on the Web
This exercise contributes to:
Learning Objective: Compare the four main approaches to managing organizational change
AACSB: Reflective thinking
1. What would be your strategy if you were called upon to be a “change agent” for
your organization? How would you begin, gather information, and create buy-in
(https://www.fastcompany.com/3033179/10-tips-for-leading-your-dream-team-thr
ough-change)Even more interesting, read several of the reader responses linked at
the bottom of the webpage. Write a short reaction paper on why you think there is
readers’ concerns?
2. Resistance to change is a concern when making organizational changes. But as we
to Change to Improve Improvements,”
3. Write a two-page paper on Knowledge Management. It can be a general paper, or
you can choose to focus on different aspects of KM, such as the challenges of
Knowledge Management Explained,”
http://www.kmworld.com/Articles/Editorial/What-Is/What-is-KM-Knowledge-M
anagement-Explained-122649.aspx . Don’t hesitate to do your own search—there
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