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Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
End-of-Chapter Exercises
TOOLKIT EXERCISE 6.1
Critical Thinking Questions
Consider the questions that follow.
See “Terranova Consulting: Building Community” at the end of the book. Consider the
following questions:
• What is the need for change at Terra Nova?
Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
• What are the cultural barriers to change?
• What are the political barriers to change?
• What alternatives does O’Reilly face?
• How should O’Reilly go about making desired changes?
• According to Schein, how should leaders deal with organizational culture?
• How has Schein’s thinking on culture evolved over time?
• What do you think of Schein’s advice on how to better prepare yourself for dealing
with culture?
• According to Sinek, how is trust built?
Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
• How does understanding people help us better understand business?
• What is Sinek’s case for authenticity?
Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
TOOLKIT EXERCISE 6.2
Assessing Power
Personal:
1. What sources of power do you have access to?
Your personal style and comfort zone will affect your choice of tactics. What tactics have you used
in the past?
2. Consider a particular context in which you regularly find yourself (e.g., work, school, church,
community group). What could you do to increase the power you have available to you in that
context?
What types of power are involved?
3. As it is important to know exactly the sources and limits to your power, it is also very important to
understand the key players, structures, and systems in your situation. How do these influence the
types and amount of power available to you?
What could you do to change this?
Organizational:
Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
1. Pick an organization you are quite familiar with. What were the perceptions around power in the
organization?
In particular, what factors led to the assumption of power?
Which departments carried more weight and influence? What behaviors were associated with
having power?
2. Think of a change situation in the organization. What types of power were at play?
Who had position, knowledge, and personality power? What individuals and departments handled
uncertainty, were central, and were not very substitutable?
3. In Hardy’s terms, who controlled resources?
Who had process power—that is, set the agendas, managed the nomination or appointment process
to key committees, etc.? (Define what things meant and how important they were.)
4. Who had yea-saying power? On what issues?
Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
5. Who had nay-saying power?
Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
TOOLKIT EXERCISE 6.3
Perceived Impact of Change
1. Consider the impact of a change on an organization you are familiar with and then consider the
impact on the individuals concerned. What were the impacts on the organization? What were the
impacts on the individuals?
Were these impacts both positive? Are you certain they were perceived that way?
2. What were the perceived costs of change? Who perceived these?
Were the perceptions accurate? How could they be influenced?
3. What were the perceived benefits of change?
Were the perceptions accurate?
What was the probability of achieving these benefits?
Were the employees and managers dissatisfied with the present state? Why? What were the costs
of not changing?
Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
4. Did the organization incur the costs of change prior to the benefits? If so, why did the organization
agree to this risk? (i.e., incurring rather definite costs but indefinite benefits?)
Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
TOOLKIT EXERCISE 6.4
Understanding the Forces for and Against Change: The Force Field Analysis
Consider an organizational change situation you are familiar with. Use the following questions to guide
you through the process of drawing a force field analysis.
1. What are the forces for change? Include external forces as well as a consideration of key
individuals or groups. How strong and committed are these forces? (Who will let it happen; who
will help it happen; who will make it happen?
2. How could these forces be augmented or increased? What forces could be added to those that
exist?
3. What are the forces that oppose change? Include structural forces such as reward systems or formal
processes in the organization. Consider as well the effect of informal processes and groups or the
culture of the organization.
4. How could these forces be weakened or removed? What things might create major resentment in
these forces?
Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 3e
5. Can you identify any points of leverage that you could employ to advance the change? For
example, deploying key well-respected individuals who support the change or providing low-cost
guarantees related to serious concerns.
