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Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
End-of-Chapter Exercises
TOOLKIT EXERCISE 5.1
Critical Thinking Questions
Food Banks Canada is a very interesting turnaround story about a not-for-profit national
organization that was created by its affiliated members, so they could better address
hunger issues and get needed food to the poor. In response to declining relevance and
poor performance, it altered its governance process, opted for a federated structure,
renewed its leadership and staff, and put a renewed vision and strategy to work. Five
years have passed and the CEO is considering what they should do next. Please read the
Food Banks Canada case at the end of the book and consider the following:
a. Katharine Schmidt is reflecting on Food Bank Canada’s accomplishments and
challenges of the last five years and considering what they should strategically
target now. Should they stay with their current strategy or alter course?
b. As you analyze the Food Bank Canada case to better understand their current
situation, consider carefully the nature of their formal structure and decision
making process, its strengths and weaknesses, and why they selected it as their
governance approach.
Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
c. What do you think Schmidt should recommend they do? To accomplish this, will
there need to be changes to their structure or governance approach?
d. What should Schmidt go about generating needed support and approvals from the
National Board, her Staff, the Member Council and affiliated food banks?
e. How should she turn those approvals into successful actions and outcomes?
Consider this video in conjunction with the Food Banks Canada Case at the
end of the book.
• Comment on how the video inspires a vision for change in Canada.
• How did the video use data to engage listeners?
Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
In this video, Kotter provides a prescription for how organizations need to
structure themselves to be able to evolve successfully today.
• What do you think of his prescription?
• Think of an organization you are familiar with (it could be public,
private, a not-for-profit or a branch of government)? What are the
change implications for it, if it were to adopt this approach?
• What do you think this organization should do to enhance its
flexibility and readiness for change?
Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
TOOLKIT EXERCISE 5.2
Impact of Existing Structures and Systems on Change
Think of a change you are familiar with.
1. How did the organization use structures and systems to deal with the uncertainty
and complexity in the environment?
Was this an appropriate response?
How could the existing structures and systems have been approached and used
differently to advance the desired change?
2. How did existing structures and systems affect the ability of the change leader to
bring about the desired change?
a. What systems/structures were involved?
b. How did these systems/structures influence what happened?
Was this related to how they were formally designed or was this related to
how they actually came to be used in practice?
c. Who influenced how the systems/structures were used and how did this
Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
affect the outcomes that ensued?
3. What role could incremental strategies that were nested with existing systems and
structures have played? Would they have really moved the process forward or
simply avoided the real changes that needed to be addressed?
4. What role could more revolutionary strategies have played? Would they produce
issues related to their alignment with existing systems and structures?
How would you manage the challenges created by this?
Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
TOOLKIT EXERCISE 5.3
Gaining Approval for the Change Project
Consider a change project in an organization with which you are familiar.
1. What is the approval process for more minor change initiatives?
For more major change initiatives?
Can you describe the processes involved?
a) If a project requires capital approval, are there existing capital budgeting
processes?
b) If the project needs dedicated staff allocated to it or if it will lead to
additions to staff, what are the processes for adding people permanently
and selecting and developing staff?
c) Does the project alter the way work is organized and performed?
What are the systems and processes used for defining jobs and assessing
performance?
d) Can the project be approved by an individual? Who is that person? What
Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
approval power do they have?
2. Are there ways that the perceived risks of the change could have been reduced by
the way the change leader staged the project and managed the approval process?
