Chapter Review

Key Terms

Below is a list of some of the key terms you have learned about in this chapter. 

Summary

Change is a constant in the contemporary environment. Forces for change include the changing nature of the workforce, technology, economic shocks, competition, social trends, and world politics. While change involves making things different, planned change is both proactive and purposeful. The goals of planned change are improving the ability of the organization to adapt to changes in its environment and changing employee behaviour. Change agents are responsible for initiating and managing change within an organization. These individuals can be managers or non-managers, either insiders or third parties. 

Change agents may try to minimize resistance to change by education and communication, participation, building support and commitment, implementing changes fairly, manipulation and cooptation, selecting people who accept change, and coercion. Coercion is the least effective strategy. Examples include threats of transfer, loss of promotions, negative performance evaluations, and a poor letter of recommendation. 

Lewin’s three-step model of change consists of three steps: unfreezing the status quo, movement to a new state, and refreezing the new change to make it permanent. It attempts to increase driving forces, which direct behaviour away from the status quo, and decrease restraining forces, which hinder movement from the existing equilibrium. 

John Kotter, who developed an 8-step plan for implementing change, begins by listing common failures that managers make when trying to initiate change. Kotter builds upon Lewin’s model by providing managers with a more detailed guide for successfully implementing change. 

Action research is a change process based on the systematic collection of data and selection of a change action based on what the analyzed data indicate. The process of action research consists of five steps: diagnosis, analysis, feedback, action, and evaluation. During the diagnosis step, the change agent asks questions, interviews employees, reviews records, and listens to the concerns of employees. During the analysis step, the change agent synthesizes the information into primary concerns, problem areas, and possible actions. In the feedback stage, information from the first two stages is shared with employees and goals and action plans are developed. The action step involves carrying out the specific actions to correct the problems that have been identified. Finally, the change agent evaluates the effectiveness of the action plan. 

Organizational development, or OD, is a paradigm that values human and organizational growth, collaborative processes, and a spirit of inquiry. Its values include respect for people, trust and support, power equalization, confrontation, and participation. Under the umbrella of organizational development, six interventions that facilitate change include sensitivity training, survey feedback, process consultation, team building, intergroup development, and appreciative inquiry. Sensitivity training attempts to enhance group functioning by increased participants’ understanding of group processes. The goal of survey feedback is to collect data on employee attitudes on a broad range of topics, including decision-making practices; communication effectiveness; coordination between units; and satisfaction with the organization, job, peers, and their immediate supervisor. Process consultation is similar to sensitivity training, but is task oriented - a consultant works in jointly diagnosing a problem with a client. Group OD tactics include team building and inter-group development. Team building uses high-interaction group activities to increase trust and openness among team members, while intergroup development seeks to change the attitudes, stereotypes, and perceptions that groups have of each other. Finally, appreciative inquiry seeks to identify the unique qualities and special strengths of an organization and build on these to improve performance. 

Innovation is a form of change where a new idea is applied to initiating or improving a product, process, or service. Innovation may result from structural variables, from organizational culture, or human resources. Organic structures positively influence motivation, as does managerial tenure. Innovation is nurtured when there is an abundance of resources and when inter-unit communication is high. Innovative organizations tend to have cultures that encourage experimentation and reward both successes and failures. Within the human resources category, innovative organizations actively promote the training and development of their members so that they keep current, offer high job security, and encourage individuals to be champions of change. 

These characteristics are broader characteristics of what is known as a learning organization, or one which has developed the capacity to adapt and change. Learning organizations engage in double loop learning, in which modifications are made to the systems (objectives, policies, and standard routines) which caused the mistake. It provides opportunities for radically different solutions to problems and drastic jumps in improvement. The text provides a number of suggestions from transforming an organization into a learning organization. First, management must make an explicit commitment to change, innovation, and continuous improvement. Second, the organization’s structure must be flattened and the use of cross-functional teams increased. Finally, the organizational culture must be reshaped to include risk taking, openness, and growth. 

Stress is a dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted with an opportunity, constraint, or demand related to what he or she desires and for which the outcome is perceived to be both uncertain and important. Stress can be caused by environmental, organizational, and personal factors. Environmental factors include economic uncertainties, political uncertainties, technological change or terrorism. Organizational factors include task, role, and interpersonal demands. Finally, factors specific to the individual, including their economic status, can contribute to stress. In addition, there are individual differences in people’s ability to deal with stress – a situation that is highly stressful for one individual may be comfortable for another. Individual differences of perception, job experience, social support, belief in locus of control, self-efficacy, and hostility have also been found to be relevant stress moderators. 

Stress can result in physiological, psychological, and behavioural symptoms. At the individual level, employees may manage stress through improving time management skills, engaging in physical exercise, and learning relaxation techniques. Companies may attempt to reduce the negative consequences of stress by providing wellness programs, goal setting increased communication, and employee involvement.