Fundamentals of management essential concepts and applications 9th edition robbins solutions manual

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Chapter 8—Managing Change and Innovation

CHAPTER MANAGING CHANGE AND 8 INNOVATION

LEARNING OUTCOMES After reading this chapter students should be able to: 1. Define organizational change and compare and contrast views on the change process.

2. Explain how to manage resistance to change.

3. Describe what managers need to know about employee stress.

4. Discuss techniques for stimulating innovation.

Management Myth Myth: There’s nothing managers can do to reduce stress inherent in today’s jobs.

Truth: Astute managers are redesigning jobs, realigning schedules and introducing employee assistance programs to help employees cope.

Teaching Tips: In this chapter, students will explore the concept of stress and how it can be both a positive and negative force for individuals. As an introduction, it may be useful to ask students the following: 1. Have they ever experienced a lot of work related stress? Did they feel it negatively affected their behavior away from work? Or even their health?

2. Are there cases where stress can be positive, pushing people to meet important deadlines or to attain a difficult goal?

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I.

WHAT IS CHANGE AND HOW DO MANAGERS DEAL WITH IT? A. Introduction

1. The chapter opens with the example of Eli Lilly’s CEO, John Lechleiter: a) By 2016, Eli Lilly will lose $10 billion on other drugs no longer under patent protection. b) Eli Lilly will face a daunting task of making changes in the company.

2. Change is an alteration of an organization’s environment, structure, technology, or people.

3. If it weren’t for change, the manager’s job would be easy. a) Planning would be simplified. b) The issue of organization design would be solved. c) Decision making would be dramatically simplified.

4. Change is an organizational reality. a) Handling change is an integral part of every manager’s job.

5. A manager can change three things. a) Structure. b) Technology. c) People. d) See Exhibit 8-1.

6. Changing structure includes any alteration in any authority relationships, coordination mechanisms, degree of centralization, job design, or similar organization structure variables. a) These structural components give employees the authority and means to implement process improvements.

7. Changing technology encompasses modification in the way work is processed or the methods and equipment used. a) The primary focus on technological change in continuous improvement initiatives is directed at developing flexible processes to support better quality operations. b) Employees are constantly looking for things to fix. c) Work processes must be adaptable to continual change and fine tuning. d) This adaptability requires an extensive commitment to educating and training workers.

8. Changes in people refer to changes in employee attitudes, expectations, perceptions, or behaviors.

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a) Requires a work force committed to the organization’s objectives of quality and continuous improvement.

B. Why do Organizations Need Change?

1. What External Forces Create a Need to Change? a) They come from various sources.

(1) New competition.

(2) Government laws and regulations.

(3) Technology.

(4) Economics.

2. What Internal Forces Create a Need for Change? a) Internal forces tend to originate primarily from the internal operations of the organization or from the impact of external changes. b) When management redefines or modifies its strategy, it often introduces a host of changes. c) Employees may have their jobs redesigned, need to undergo training to operate the new equipment, or be required to establish new interaction patterns within their formal group. d) An organization’s work force is rarely static; its composition changes. e) The compensation and benefits systems might also need to be reworked to reflect the needs of a diverse work force and market forces in which certain skills are in short supply. f) Employee attitudes, such as increased job dissatisfaction, may lead to increased absenteeism, resignations, and even strikes.

C. Who initiates Organizational Change?

1. Changes within an organization need a catalyst.

2. People who act as catalysts and assume the responsibility for managing the change process are called change agents. a) Any manager can be a change agent. b) A nonmanager can also be a change agent.

3. For major systemwide changes, internal management will often hire outside consultants to provide advice and assistance. a) Outside consultants can offer an objective perspective. b) But they may have an inadequate understanding of the organization’s history, culture, operating procedures, and personnel. c) They are also prone to initiate more drastic changes than insiders.

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4. Internal managers who act as change agents may be more thoughtful and possibly more cautious.

D. How Does Organizational Change Happen?

1. The “calm waters” metaphor envisions the organization as a large ship crossing a calm sea. a) Change surfaces as the occasional storm, a brief distraction in an otherwise calm and predictable trip.

2. In the “white-water rapids” metaphor, the organization is seen as a small raft navigating a raging river with uninterrupted white-water rapids. a) Change is a natural state and managing change is a continual process.

3. What Is the “Calm Waters” Metaphor? a) The calm waters metaphor dominated the thinking of practicing managers and academics.

(1) The prevailing model for handling change in calm waters is illustrated in Lewin’s three-step model. (See Exhibit 8-2.)

(2) According to Lewin, successful change requires unfreezing the status quo, changing to a new state, and refreezing the new change to make it permanent.

(3) The status quo can be considered an equilibrium state.

(4) Unfreezing is necessary to move from this equilibrium. b) The driving forces can be increased (direct behavior away from the status quo). c) The restraining forces can be decreased (hinder movement from the existing equilibrium). d) The two approaches can be combined. e) Once unfreezing has been accomplished, the change itself can be implemented. f) The new situation needs to be refrozen so that it can be sustained over time.

(1) Unless this is done, there is a strong chance that the change will be shortlived.

(2) The objective of refreezing is to stabilize the new situation by balancing the driving and restraining forces. g) Lewin’s three-step process treats change as a break in the organization’s equilibrium state.

4. What is the “White-Water Rapids” Metaphor? a) The white-water metaphor takes into consideration that environments are both uncertain and dynamic.

(1) For example, variable college curriculum.

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b) Currently, the stability and predictability of the calm waters do not exist.

(1) Many of today’s managers face constant change, bordering on chaos.

5. Does Every Manager Face a World of Constant and Chaotic Change? a) Not every manager faces a world of constant and chaotic change. b) But the number of managers who don’t is dwindling rapidly. c) Few organizations today can treat change as the occasional disturbance in an otherwise peaceful world.

6. How Do Organizations Implement Planned Changes? a) Most change in an organization does not happen by chance. b) The effort to assist organizational members with a planned change is referred to as organization development. c) Organization development (OD) facilitates long-term organization-wide changes. d) Its focus is to constructively change the attitudes and values of organization members so that they can more readily adapt to and be more effective in achieving the new directions of the organization. e) Organization’s leaders are, in essence, attempting to change the organization’s culture. f) Fundamental to organization development is its reliance on employee participation. g) Any organizational activity that assists with implementing planned change can be viewed as an OD technique. h) The more popular OD efforts rely heavily on group interactions and cooperation. i) Survey feedback efforts are designed to assess employee attitudes about and perceptions of the change they are encountering.

(1) Employees are generally asked to respond to a set of specific questions regarding how they view such organizational aspects as decision making, leadership, communication effectiveness; and satisfaction with their jobs, coworkers, and management.

(2) The data the change agent obtains are used to clarify problems. j) In process consultation, outside consultants help managers to perceive, understand, and act upon process events with which they must deal.

(1) These might include workflow, informal relationships among unit members, and formal communications channels.

(2) Consultants are not there to solve these problems. Rather, they act as coaches to help managers diagnose which interpersonal processes need improvement.

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k) Team building is generally an activity that helps work groups set goals, develop positive interpersonal relationships, and clarify the roles and responsibilities of each team member.

(1) The primary focus of team-building is to increase each group’s trust and openness toward one another. l) Intergroup development attempts to achieve the same results among different work groups.

(1) Attempts to change attitudes, stereotypes, and perceptions that one group may have toward another group to achieve better coordination among the various groups.

From the Past to the Present “If you want truly to understand something, try to change it.” Kurt Lewin, who’s often called the father of modern social psychology (a discipline that uses scientific methods to “understand and explain how the thought, feeling, and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other human beings”), made his name in management circles through his studies of group dynamics. His approach was based on the belief that “group behavior is an intricate set of symbolic interactions and forces that not only affect group structure but also modify individual behavior.”

One of his research studies found that “changes were more easily induced through group decision making than through lectures and individual appeals.” His findings suggested that changes would be more readily accepted when people felt they had an opportunity to be involved in the change rather than when they were simply asked or told to change. Another of Lewin’s major contributions was the idea of force field analysis, a framework for looking at the factors (forces) that influenced a situation.

Discuss This:

II.

•

Explain force field analysis and how it can be used in organizational change.

•

What advice do you see in this information about Lewin’s ideas that managers might use?

HOW DO MANAGERS MANAGE RESISTANCE TO CHANGE?

A. Introduction

1. Managers should be motivated to initiate change because they are concerned with improving their organization’s effectiveness.

2. Change can be a threat to managers and to nonmanagerial personnel as well.

B. Why Do People Resist Organizational Change?

1. An individual is likely to resist change for three reasons: uncertainty, habit, concern over personal loss, and the belief that the change is not in the organization’s best interest.

2. Changes substitute ambiguity and uncertainty for the known.

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a) Employees in organizations often hold a dislike for uncertainty.

3. The second is habit. To reduce stress, we often rely on habit or programmed decisions.

4. The third cause of resistance is the fear of losing what one already possesses. a) Change threatens the investment in the status quo. b) The more people have invested in the current system, the more they resist change. c) They fear the loss of their position, money, authority, friendships, personal convenience, or other benefits that they value.

5. A final cause of resistance is a person’s belief that the change is incompatible with the goals and best interests of the organization. a) If expressed positively, this form of resistance can be beneficial to the organization.

C. What Are Some Techniques for Reducing Resistance to Organizational Change?

1. Dysfunctional resistance to change can be addressed with several strategies. a) See Exhibit 8-4.

2. Education and communication help employees see the logic of the change effort. a) Assumes that much of the resistance lies in misinformation or poor communication.

3. Participation involves bringing those individuals directly affected by the proposed change into the decision-making process. a) Allows expression of feelings, increases the quality of the process, and increases employee commitment to the final decision.

4. Facilitation and support involve helping employees deal with the fear and anxiety associated with the change effort. a) May include employee counseling, therapy, new skills training, or a short paid leave of absence.

5. Negotiation involves a bargain: exchanging something of value for an agreement to lessen the resistance to the change effort. a) This technique may be quite useful when the resistance comes from a powerful source.

6. Manipulation and co-optation refers to covert attempts to influence others about the change. a) May involve twisting or distorting facts to make the change appear more attractive.

7. Coercion involves the use of direct threats or force against the resisters.

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III. WHAT REACTION DO EMPLOYEES HAVE TO ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE?

Learning Catalytics Question: Instructor Directions and Follow-Up

Word Cloud

Word Cloud

Being a full-time student and balancing personal, educational, and employment demands can be very challenging.

What kinds of stress do you experience?

Understanding how to manage stress requires an understanding of the source of the stress. What are the kinds of stress that employees may face?

There is no correct answer.

Many students are no longer just full-time students, they also balance work and personal commitments. Help them contextualize their experiences with this question.

Options: role demands, interpersonal demands, organization structure, organization leadership, and task demands

A. What Is Stress?

1. Stress can be the aftermath of organizational change.

2. Stress is the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressure placed on them from extraordinary demands, constraints, or opportunities.

3. It is a complex issue.

4. Stress can manifest itself in both a positive and a negative way. a) It is positive when the situation offers an opportunity for one to gain something. b) It is when constraints or demands are placed on us that stress can become negative.

5. Constraints are barriers that keep us from doing what we desire. a) They inhibit you in ways that take control of a situation out of your hands.

6. Demands may cause you to give up something you desire. a) Demands preoccupy your time and force you to shift priorities.

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7. Opportunities are the possibility of something new or something never done before.

B. What Are the Symptoms of Stress?

1. There are three general ways that stress reveals itself: physical, psychological, and behavioral symptoms. (See Exhibit 8-3).

2. Most of the early discussions of stress focused heavily on physical concerns (health-related). a) High stress levels result in changes in metabolism, increased heart and breathing rates, increased blood pressure, headaches, and increased risk of heart attacks.

3. In Japan, there’s a stress phenomenon called karoshi (pronounced kah-roe-she), which is translated literally as “death from overwork.”

C. What Causes Stress?

1. Factors that create stress can be grouped into two major categories—job-related and personal stressors.

2. The discussion that follows organizes stress factors into five categories: task, role, and interpersonal demands, organization structure, and organizational leadership.

3. Task demands are factors related to an employee’s job. a) Design of the person’s job, working conditions, and the physical work layout. b) Work quotas can put pressure on employees. c) The more interdependence between an employee’s tasks and the tasks of others, the more potential stress there is. d) Autonomy tends to lessen stress.

4. Role demands relate to pressures placed on an employee as a function of the particular role he or she plays in the organization. a) Role conflicts create expectations that may be hard to reconcile or satisfy. b) Role overload is when the employee is expected to do more than time permits. c) Role ambiguity is created when role expectations are not clearly understood.

5. Interpersonal demands are pressures created by other employees. a) Lack of social support from colleagues and poor interpersonal relationships can cause considerable stress.

6. Organization structure can increase stress. a) Excessive rules and an employee’s lack of opportunity to participate in decisions.

7. Organizational leadership represents the supervisory style of the organization’s company officials.

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a) Some managers create a culture characterized by tension, fear, and anxiety.

(1) Unrealistic pressures to perform in the short run, excessively tight controls, and firing employees who don’t measure up.

8. Personal factors that can create stress include family issues, personal economic problems, and inherent personality characteristics. a) Some employees bring their personal problems to work with them. b) Employee personality can have an effect on how susceptible he/she is to stress. c) Type A personality is characterized by feelings of a chronic sense of time urgency, an excessive competitive drive, and difficulty accepting and enjoying leisure time.

(1) Only the hostility and anger associated with Type A behavior is actually associated with the negative effects of stress. d) Type B’s never suffer from time urgency or impatience.

(1) Type B’s are just as susceptible to the same anxiety-producing elements.

D. How Can Stress Be Reduced?

1. Some stress in organizations is absolutely necessary. Without it, people have no energy.

2. Job-related factors a) Letting employees know precisely what is expected of them, role conflict, and ambiguity can be reduced. b) Redesigning jobs can also help ease work overload-related stressors.

3. Personal factors a) Employee assistance programs (EAPs) assist employees in dealing with difficult issues in order to get the employee back to work as soon as possible. b) A wellness program is any type of program that is designed to keep employees healthy.

Right or Wrong?

One in five companies offers some form of stress management program. Although such programs are available, many employees may choose not to participate. They may be reluctant to ask for help, especially if a major source of that stress is job insecurity. After all, there’s still a stigma associated with stress. Employees don’t want to be perceived as being unable to handle the demands of their job. Although they may need stress management now more than ever, few employees want to admit that they’re stressed.

Discuss This: • What can be done about this paradox?

• Do organizations even have an ethical responsibility to help employees deal with stress?

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IV. HOW CAN MANAGERS ENCOURAGE INNOVATION IN AN ORGANIZATION? A. Introduction

1. The way organizations thrive today is through innovation or they will die.

2. The standard of innovation to which many organizations strive is that achieved by such companies as Apple, Facebook, and Nissan (with their all electric Leaf) B. How Are Creativity and Innovation Related?

1. Creativity means the ability to combine ideas in a unique way or to make unusual associations between ideas. a) For example, Mattel.

2. Innovation is the process of taking a creative idea and turning it into a useful product, service, or method of operation.

C. What Is Involved in Innovation?

1. Some people believe that creativity is inborn; others believe that with training anyone can be creative.

2. Creativity can be viewed as a fourfold process consisting of perception, incubation, inspiration, and innovation.

3. Perception involves the way you see things. Being creative means seeing things from a unique perspective.

4. Ideas go through a process of incubation. a) During this incubation period, employees should collect massive amounts of data that are stored, retrieved, studied, reshaped, and finally molded into something new. b) During this period, it is common for years to pass.

5. Inspiration in the creative process is the moment when all your efforts successfully come together. a) Creative work requires an innovative effort.

(1) Innovation involves taking that inspiration and turning it into a useful product, service, or way of doing things.

(2) Thomas Edison is often credited with saying, “Creativity is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.”

(3) That 99 percent, or the innovation, involves testing, evaluating, and retesting what the inspiration found.

D. How Can a Manager Foster Innovation?

1. There are three sets of variables that have been found to stimulate innovation. a) They pertain to the organization’s structure, culture, and human resource practices.

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b) See Exhibit 8-5.

2. How do structural variables affect innovation? a) First, organic structures positively influence innovation.

(1) They have less work specialization and fewer rules and are more decentralized than mechanistic structures; they facilitate the flexibility, adaptation, and cross-fertilization that make the adoption of innovations easier. b) Second, easy availability of plentiful resources is a key building block for innovation.

(1) An abundance of resources allows management to purchase innovations, bear the cost of instituting innovations, and absorb failures. c) Frequent inter-unit communication helps to break down possible barriers to innovation by facilitating interaction across departmental lines. d) Extreme time pressures on creative activities are minimized despite the demands of white-water-rapids-type environments. e) When an organization’s structure explicitly supports creativity, employees’ creative performance can be enhanced.

3. How does an organization’s culture affect innovation? a) Innovative organizations tend to have similar cultures: they encourage experimentation; they reward both successes and failures and they celebrate mistakes. b) An innovative culture is likely to have the following characteristics: (1) Acceptance of ambiguity.

(2) Tolerance of the impractical.

(3) Low external controls.

(4) Tolerance of risk.

(5) Tolerance of conflict.

(6) Focus on ends rather than on means.

(7) Open systems focus.

(8) Provide positive feedback 4. What human resource variables affect innovation? a) Innovative organizations actively promote the training and development of their members so that their knowledge remains current, offer their employees high job security to reduce the fear of getting fired for making mistakes, and encourage individuals to become champions of change. b) Once a new idea is developed, an idea champions actively and enthusiastically promote the idea, build support, overcome resistance, and ensure that the innovation is implemented.

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c) Research finds that champions have common personality characteristics: extremely high self-confidence, persistence, energy, and a tendency to take risks. d) Champions also display characteristics associated with dynamic leadership.

(1) They inspire and energize others.

(2) They are also good at gaining the commitment of others to support their mission.

(3) Champions have jobs that provide considerable decision-making discretion.

E. How Does Design Thinking Influence Motivation

1. Design thinking was introduced in previous chapter 2. Emphasis is on a deeper understanding of what customers need and want, not jst seeing them as a sales target.

3. Intuit example.

REVIEW AND APPLICATIONS CHAPTER SUMMARY 1 Define organizational change and compare and contrast views on the change process. Organizational change is any alteration of an organization’s people, structure, or technology. The “calm waters” metaphor of change suggests that change is an occasional disruption in the normal flow of events and can be planned and managed as it happens using Lewin’s three-step change process (unfreezing, changing, and freezing). The “whitewater rapids” view of change suggests that change is ongoing, and managing it is a continual process.

2 Explain how to manage resistance to change. People resist change because of uncertainty, habit, concern about personal loss, and the belief that a change is not in the organization’s best interests. Techniques for managing resistance to change include education and communication (educating employees about and communicating to them the need for the change), participation (allowing employees to participate in the change process), facilitation and support (giving employees the support they need to implement the change), negotiation (exchanging something of value to reduce resistance), manipulation and co-optation (using negative actions to influence), selecting people who are open to and accept change, and coercion (using direct threats or force).

3 Describe what managers need to know about employee stress. Stress is the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressure placed on them from extraordinary demands, constraints, or opportunities. The symptoms of stress can be physical, psychological, or behavioral. Stress can be caused by personal factors and by job-related factors. To help employees deal with stress, managers can address job-related factors by making sure an employee’s abilities match the job requirements, improve organizational communications, use a performance planning program, or redesign jobs. Addressing personal stress factors is trickier, but managers could offer employee counseling, time management programs, and wellness programs.

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4 Discuss techniques for stimulating innovation. Creativity is the ability to combine ideas in a unique way or to make unusual associations between ideas. Innovation is turning the outcomes of the creative process into useful products or work methods. An innovative environment encompasses structural, cultural, and human resource variables.

Important structural variables include an organic-type structure, abundant resources, and frequent communication between organizational units, minimal time pressure, and support. Important cultural variables include accepting ambiguity, tolerating the impractical, keeping external controls minimal, tolerating risk, and tolerating conflict, focusing on ends not means, using an open-system focus, and providing positive feedback. Important human resource variables include high commitment to training and development, high job security, and encouraging individuals to be idea champions.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 8-1 Why is managing change an integral part of every manager’s job?

Answer: Change is an organizational reality. Handling change is an integral part of every manager’s job because it is inevitable. Change is an alteration of an organization’s environment, structure, technology, or people. If it weren’t for change, the manager’s job would be relatively easy.

8-2 Contrast the calm waters and white-water rapids metaphors of change. Which of these

would you use to describe your current life? Why is that one your choice?

Answer: As you can imagine, most students will choose the white-water metaphor to describe their own circumstances. To dig deeper, you may ask students if they think this will change when they graduate or if their parents feel like they are in ‘calmer waters.’ In our society, it may very well be that the white water rapid feeling is fast becoming the norm.

8-3 Describe Lewin’s three-step change process. How is it different from the change process

needed in the whitewater rapids metaphor of change?

Answer: The prevailing model for handling change in calm waters is Lewin’s three-step model. See Exhibit 7-2. According to Lewin, successful change requires unfreezing the status quo, changing to a new state, and refreezing the new change to make it permanent. The status quo can be considered an equilibrium state.    

Unfreezing is necessary to move from this equilibrium.

The driving forces can be increased.

The restraining forces can be decreased.

The two approaches can be combined.

Once unfreezing has been accomplished, the change itself can be implemented.

The new situation needs to be refrozen so that it can be sustained over time. Unless this is done, there is a strong chance that the change will be short-lived.

The objective of refreezing is to stabilize the new situation by balancing the driving and restraining forces.

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The calm waters metaphor dominated the thinking of practicing managers and academics.

The prevailing model for handling change in calm waters is Lewin’s three-step model.

Lewin’s three-step process treats change as a break in the organization’s equilibrium state.

The white water metaphor takes into consideration that environments are both uncertain and dynamic. The stability and predictability of the calm waters do not exist. Many of today’s managers face constant change, bordering on chaos. Few organizations today can treat change as the occasional disturbance. Most competitive advantages last less than eighteen months.

8-4 How are opportunities, constraints, and demands related to stress? Give an example of

each.

Answer: Managers may create conditions that lead to stress. Task demands are factors related to an employee’s job—the more interdependence between an employee’s tasks and the tasks of others, the more potential stress there is. Role demands relate to pressures placed on an employee as a function of the particular role he or she plays in the organization.

Interpersonal demands are pressures created by other employees. Organizational structure can increase stress. Excessive rules and an employee’s lack of opportunity to participate in decision making can also increase stress.

Examples of each will vary based on the students' responses.

8-5 Organizations typically have limits to how much change they can absorb. As a

manager, what signs would you look for that might suggest your organization has exceeded its capacity to change?

Answer: There are a number of symptoms to indicate too much change; employee stress, fatigue, turnover, absenteeism, etc. All of the indications of stress like physical, psychological and behavioral changes in employees could be manifested from organizational change.

Organizational leadership is needed when change is happening. Training should be provided for everyone affected and to the extent possible, the change could be phased in gradually.

8-6 Why is organizational development planned change? Explain how planned change is

important for organizations in today’s dynamic environment.

Answer: Most change in an organization does not happen by chance. The effort to assist organizational members with a planned change is referred to as organization development.

Organization development (OD) is an activity designed to facilitate long-term organizationwide changes. Its focus is to constructively change the attitudes and values of organizational members so that they can more readily adapt to, and be more effective in achieving, the new directions of the organization. Organization leaders are, in essence, attempting to change the organization’s culture. Fundamental to organization development is its reliance on employee participation.

8-7 How do creativity and innovation differ? Give an example of each.

Answer: Creativity means the ability to combine ideas in a unique way or to make unusual associations between ideas. An organization that stimulates creativity is one that develops novel approaches to things or unique solutions to problems.

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Innovation is the process of taking a creative idea and turning it into a useful product, service, or method of operation. Custom Foot, a Connecticut-based shoe manufacturer, has combined mass production with customized customer desires. Another example, Novo Nordisk, a biotechnology company in Denmark.

8-8 Research information on how to be a more creative person. Write down suggestions in a

bulleted list format and be prepared to present your information in class.

Answer: Students answers will vary. Students can challenge themselves to spend more time brainstorming or reflecting on ideas that may be 'out-of-the-box' thinking.

8-9 How does an innovative culture make an organization more effective? Do you think an

innovative culture could ever make an organization less effective? Why or why not?

Answer: The innovative organization is characterized by the ability to channel its creative juices into useful outcomes. The 3M Company is aptly described as innovative because it has taken novel ideas and turned them into profitable products. So, too, are the highly successful microchip manufacturer Intel and Sony electronics.

When you find yourself experiencing dysfunctional stress, write down what’s causing the stress, what stress symptoms you’re exhibiting, and how you’re dealing with the stress. Keep this information in a journal and evaluate how well your stress reducers are working and how you could handle stress better. Your goal is to get to a point where you recognize that you’re stressed and can take positive actions to deal with the stress.

8-10

Answer: Student responses will vary depending on symptoms. This type of journal will help you throughout life to manage your personal and professional stressors better.

Management Skill Builder: Controlling Workplace Stress Ask any employee and they will tell you that they are stressed out. Heavier workloads, longer hours, continual reorganizations, technology that breaks down traditional barriers between work and personal life, and reduced job security are among factors that have increased employee stress. In this section, students will see some of the causes of stress and what companies can do to help employees deal with its adverse effects.

Teaching Tips: Personal Insights: How Stressful is My Life?

The scores can range from 8-40 and the higher the score the greater the stress likely being experienced. Class discussion of this assessment can focus on the relationship between stress and health. How do stressful events affect lack of sleep, acid reflux, migraines, and general aches and pains?

Skill Basics For reducing stress, the following individual interventions have been suggested: • Implement time-management techniques • Create personal goals.

• Use physical exercise.

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• •

Practice relaxation training.

Expand your social support network

Skill Application Four months in, Dana is dissatisfied with job at Dancer Advertising. Dana, a wife and mother of two young children, is working almost 80 hours a week at Dancer. The time pressure has resulted in lack of sleep, little time for her family, weight loss, and she has broken out in stress-induced hives. Dana has asked her old employer if she could come back, but the only position open is a lower level job with one third the pay.

Students are asked, ‘What would you do?’

Students should agree that the position with Dancer is not working out. Students could brainstorm possible solutions. Solutions could include asking Dancer to redefine her job duties, looking for a new position at another company, and taking a position at Taylor until another position which better fits her needs opens up.

Skill Practice 8-22 Think of a particularly stressful situation you had at home or at work. What was the cause of the stress? How did you handle it? Was your approach effective? What might you have done differently to have obtained a better and/or faster result?

Experiential Exercise Performance Pros To: Tina Sanchez, HR Director From: Aaron Scott, President Subject: Employee stress management program Performance Pros has made it through the initial phases of their restructuring efforts. To help minimize the pressures on our software developers and sales staff, the president of the company wants Tina to develop an employee stress management program that could be implemented immediately.

Teaching Tip: Students can refer to the skill basics mentioned above. Stress management and counseling can also be an important aid for employees. Some companies use EAP programs that provide employee assistance while keeping employees names and conditions of treatment confidential.

Case Application 1: The Next Big Thing Discussion Questions What do you think of UA’s approach to innovation? Would you expect to see this type of innovation in an athletic wear company? Explain.

8-23

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Chapter 8—Managing Change and Innovation

Responses from students will vary.

What do you think UA’s culture might be like in regards to innovation? (Hint refer to list on p. 237).

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The company exhibits several of the characteristics on the list provided. UA accepts ambiguity and their motto focuses on the impractical. They do have an open-system focus by responding to the environment and its customers’ needs.

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Could design thinking help UA improve its innovation efforts?

Students’ answers may vary but design thinking may help UA because it takes a customer focus. UA would need to speak to many customers to find out what they want and need in sportswear and attempt to design something that meets these needs.

What’s your interpretation of the company’s philosophy posted prominently over the door of its design studio? What does it say about innovation? What could other companies learn from the way UA innovates?

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The philosophy says that the company is still striving for the next thing and always forward focused. The saying shows that the company is always looking for the next big idea. This provides a great example for other companies. Demonstrating how to be looking ahead and using innovation to succeed.

Case Application 2: GM’s Latest Model Discussion Questions 8-27

What are some characteristics that you can see here of a company unwilling to change?

The company was very inflexible. Managers were afraid to make decisions and the company ignored failure and continued to reward poor performance.

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Why did GM need to change?

The reasons above speak to this but another reason GM needed to change was because they were not creating products that people wanted to buy. Ignoring the customer needs created a series of products that were from another generation.

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How was Ed Whitacre a change agent?

Ed was an agent for change in many ways. One, he was not afraid to point out failure and learn from it. Two, he looked for chances to optimize efficiency and hold management accountable for its decisions.

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Chapter 8—Managing Change and Innovation

What external forces continue to create a need for GM to change? How will the company’s four principles help them cope with that?

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The competitors in the car industry continue to push the boundaries of technology.

Customers continue to demand more for their money. The need to be environmental friendly is another big concern. The four principles will help to create focus that will guide employees’ actions, help them make decisions, and keep them focused on the future.

Case Application 3: Stress Kills Discussion Questions What is your reaction to the situation described in this case? What factors, both inside the company and externally, appear to have contributed to this situation?

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Students may take the side of employees, the organization, or they may see the situation looking from both perspectives. From the employees’ perspective, they may see the destructive power that organizations have over their employees. The suicides in this case are a result of what the company has done by creating a stressful work environment and the policies that may have ultimately lead to employees feeling depressed. From the company’s perspective, the causes of employee depression could be attributed to many factors external to the organization, i.e. competitive nature of work, economic conditions leading to underemployment, and poor employee self-esteem. Looking at this situation from both perspectives, we can see that both internal and external factors could be to blame for the employees’ behavior.

What appeared to be happening in the France Télécom’s workplace? What stress symptoms might have alerted managers to a problem?

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It appears that Télécom’s leadership was exerting pressure on their employees by exerting high levels of task demands and by changing the organization’s structure to produce higher levels of productivity. There are many warning sign’s to stress that most managers should recognize including decreased job satisfaction, poor organizational commitment, higher turnover and absenteeism, increased number of accidents, and poor communication. Other symptoms that most managers are not usually trained to see include depression, fatigue, and burnout.

Should managers be free to make decisions that are in the best interests of the company without worrying about employee reactions? Discuss. What are the implications for managing change?

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The key words in the first question are “without worrying about employee reactions.”

Management actions will not always be well received by employees. There is no good way to lay off or fire an employee. Many management decisions are made from the standpoint of 8-186 Copyright ©2015 Pearson Education, Inc.

Chapter 8—Managing Change and Innovation

what has to be done to ensure organizational survival and discipline. However, the idea that management would not worry about the reactions is far from the truth of what happens in organizations. Managers should always take into account how employees will react to their decisions – if not, then execution of those decisions could be affected. With regard to change, in general, employees do not like change. Any plan by management that changes the status quo should be evaluated to see how it would be received by employees and ways to mitigate negative employee reactions should be considered.

What are France Télécom’s executives doing to address the situation? Do you think it’s enough? Are there other actions they might take? If so, describe those actions. If not, why not?

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According to the case, Télécom is working to rebuild the morale of staff and they have halted the workplace practices identified as being particularly disruptive. The CEO has also changed company policy on transfers and began encouraging more supportive practices, including working from home. Other programs that Télécom could implement involve stress reduction techniques, such as providing yoga classes, wellness programs, and providing employees with counseling (i.e. an employee assistance program or EAP).

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What could other companies and managers learn from this situation?

What happened at Télécom is a sobering reminder about the negative effects of stress. In addition, these behaviors are not limited to one company or country. Suicides and homicide by employees are common occurrences in the United States. Companies should be prepared and have policies in place to deal with employees who exhibit out of the ordinary behavior.

Counseling and stress reduction programs should be in place for organizations where employees are exposed to high levels of stress. s

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