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?
• What alternatives does O’Reilly face?
• How should O’Reilly go about making desired changes?
• 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?
Cawsey, Deszca, and Ingols: Organizational Change, 4e
• How does understanding people help us better understand business?
TOOLKIT EXERCISE 6.2
Assessing Power
Personal:
1. What sources of power do you have access to?
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
What could you do to change this?
Organizational:
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?
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
3. In Hardy’s terms, who controlled resources?
Who had process power—that is, set the agendas, managed the nomination or appointment process
4. Who had yea-saying power? On what issues?
5. Who had nay-saying power?
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?
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?
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?)
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?
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.
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