What is a purpose of the first step in Lewin’s change model?
- Understanding the change obstacles
- Creating a change history of small wins
- Rewarding people who embrace change
- Demonstrating the urgency for change
- Demonstrating the urgency for change
The first step in Lewin’s change model is unfreezing. Demonstrating the urgency for change is one of the purposes of this step.
Which external force motivates a fast food restaurant chain to initiate a change project?
- State worker compensation rates decline due to fewer accidents.
- The board of directors conducts a nationwide search for a new president.
- A competitor adds healthy menu items that will attract customers.
- Food service employees reach out to the local union for organizing information.
- A competitor adds healthy menu items that will attract customers.
When a competitor adds a new product that could take customers away from the fast food restaurant, this outside force would initiate a change project.
According to Lewin, what are the 3 phases of change.
Unfreezing - making sure that organizational members are ready for and receptive to change.
Begin change process - After verifying that people are receptive, start putting the changes in place.
Refreezing - ensuring that change becomes permanent: The new habits, rules, or procedures become the norm.
An organization has developed plans to expand its reach by taking advantage of opportunities in foreign countries. The plan includes manufacturing its primary product in a specific country.
Which operational strategy must be completed as part of this project?
- Revising the organization’s mission and vision
- Determining if the country chosen recognizes the dollar
- Working with attorneys to secure intellectual property rights
- Finding a location for the production facility
- Finding a location for the production facility
Operational strategy decisions are related to the day-to-day operations of an organization and are focused on meeting customer demand. Examples of operational strategy decisions include finding a location, using production technology, hiring labor, and purchasing equipment. In this scenario, the organization needs to secure a production facility to expand into foreign markets.
An organization is in the process of implementing a strategic management process to accomplish long-term goals and sustain competitive advantage.
What is the first step this organization should take in this process?
- Strategic formulation
- Strategic objectives and analysis
- Strategic evaluation and control
- Strategic implementation
- Strategic objectives and analysis
Objectives and analysis is the first step in the entire strategic management process. This step includes the SWOT analysis, which is used to determine objectives and goals.
A manager discusses with employees the company’s long-term strategic-planning goal of reducing employee injuries by 50% over the next five years.
Which operational strategy will management use to start monitoring goal achievement?
- Surveying employees to ascertain safety priorities
- Identifying trends in the industry related to the goal
- Establishing baseline performance measures
- Analyzing competitor safety management strategies
- Establishing baseline performance measures
To be actionable, goals must be measurable. Baseline performance data are critical when monitoring goal achievement.
The chief information officer (CIO) for a credit union is planning to make sweeping changes to the network infrastructure and the software used to manage banking. The CIO wants the new technology to be accepted as widely as possible throughout the organization by reducing employee resistance to change.
Which result is this CIO attempting to achieve?
- Buy-in
- Feedback
- Consensus
- Input
- Buy-in
The CIO wants to get employee buy-in for the new technology, reduce resistance to change, and get leaders in the organization to act as agents of change.
An incoming chief executive officer (CEO) has a plan to move the company toward products that are certified as manufactured from 100% sustainable sources and suggests an employee training program to educate the workforce on environmental sustainability.
Which aspect of change does this plan impact?
- Culture
- Mission
- Technology
- Policy
- Culture
A training program for employees to learn environmental sustainability will mean a change to the organization’s culture.
A company has hired an organization development (OD) consultant to work with the internal managers to effect a significant change in organizational culture.
Which technique increases the chance of success?
- Developing a plan to help those employees who resist change to find a new job role
- Building a change plan with select employees to reduce internal stress before announcing changes at a company-wide meeting
- Launching directly into the new culture to minimize organizational stress for employees during the change process
- Communicating the change so that employees are fully informed of the plan prior to implementation
- Communicating the change so that employees are fully informed of the plan prior to implementation
A comprehensive communication plan outlining what and when will occur during the change effort is essential for an increased opportunity for success
A company is making a major change to the manufacturing process of glassware and is adding custom engraving to several of the products. Workers are concerned that productivity will drop when the new step is added and that error rates during the engraving process will be high. The owner understands the issues associated with making a top-down change and is committed to helping the employees understand the reasoning behind the decision.
Which employee issue is associated with this change direction?
- Inability to work together to construct the needed change
- Weakness in managing emergent processes for production
- Reluctance to move away from an established routine
- Discomfort with experimentation to determine best practice
- Reluctance to move away from an established routine
Top-down decisions move employees out of their comfort zone, and the direction of the decision may leave them to feel like they have no control about the matter. This will need to be addressed by the owner.
An organization merges with another, forming a new organization. Members of a team composed of executives and managers from both organizations agree that the strategic goal of the new organization is to expand market share to 50% of its niche in five years.
Which operational strategy should be used to achieve this target?
- Feature the new organization’s executives in an industry publication
- Create a specific set of actions and metrics for implementation
- Revise the organization’s mission statement to address the merger
- Devise a new internal slogan supporting the plan to improve morale
- Create a specific set of actions and metrics for implementation
Strategic operations decisions focus on identifying and measuring actions associated with a goal. This goal is to increase market share to 50% in five years. Creating a specific set of measurable tasks will engage employees in accomplishing that task.
A nursing home manager has been given a goal of reducing patient falls by 20% over the next three years by implementing a falls prevention protocol and reporting results annually.
What is this manager’s role now that the method to meet this objective has been established?
- Discussing the plan with newly admitted patients
- reating new goals to support the strategic plan
- Hiring new staff to supervise patient care
- Supervising implementation of the plan
- Supervising implementation of the plan
The manager would be responsible for identifying an objective such as reducing patient falls by 20% over the next three years, determining the steps required to meet the objective has been established, and supervising the process of implementation.
A manufacturer of baseball bats must determine the level of inventory necessary to make the bats. The bats require raw material of wood blocks. The manager wishes to have a certain number of blocks available in addition to just-in-time inventory.
What is an advantage of using this strategy?
- Reduced waste and cost
- Ready for demand spikes
- Less inventory to manage
- Efficient supply chain
- Ready for demand spikes
The extra just-in-case inventory allows the organization to prepare for demand spikes.
What is a variable cost for an electronic-watch maker?
- New accounting system software to track watch sales
- Insurance on the watch assembly line equipment
- Time of a technician to assemble the watch
- Routine quality testing equipment for watches
- Time of a technician to assemble the watch
This would be a direct variable cost.. Time of a technician to assemble the watch
A change professional has been asked to help prepare an organization to implement a new electronic production system to replace the current, inefficient system. The organization has finished the preparation for the project and is beginning the actual change process.
Which strategy should be used to reduce potential resistance and barriers at this stage of this process?
1 .Creating a history of success that demonstrates how the change effort is expected to progress
- Providing a severance package to displaced workers and assisting with job searches
- Identifying potential naysayers and encouraging them to leave the organization prior to implementation
- Requiring employees to attend mandatory diversity and inclusion training
1 .Creating a history of success that demonstrates how the change effort is expected to progress
Communicating a history of small successes over time demonstrates to employees that the planned change is likely to succeed given the history of successes within the organization.
A production manager has been given the responsibility to prepare the manufacturing employees for a change to different raw materials for making their products. This will require training on how to handle the new materials. Temporarily, this change will slow down production, increase labor costs, and likely increase material waste until the team is fully trained and skilled with the new materials. This manager has not taken time to discuss these issues with the materials procurement team nor with the shipping and sales teams.
This manager is exhibiting which hurdle to change?
- Not listening to bottom up feedback
- Not aligning to organizational goals
- Reinforcing departmental silos
- Personal low morale
- Reinforcing departmental silos
By not considering the impact of the change in manufacturing on other departments, there will be increased resistance to this change in the organization.
