Troy University - MGT 6681 Quiz Review. Latest 2021
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Troy University - MGT 6681 Quiz Review. Latest 2021.1. Organizations often experience performance improvement after loosening, rather than tightening, thei r commandand-control structures. If tightening those structures would ordinarily seem to be capable of enhancing leaders’ ability to move the...
organizations often experience performance improvement after loosening
their commandand control struct
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1. Organizations often experience performance improvement after loosening, rather than tightening, their command-
and-control structures. If tightening those structures would ordinarily seem to be capable of enhancing leaders’
ability to move the organization in the desired direction, but doing the opposite is, instead, the real solution, then
this example of organizational change is
- An aberration
- A kind of tension
- A logical fallacy
- A paradox
Most of the issues that arise in organization change initiatives fall into one of two categories: (a) tension – which refers to
incompatibility between competing ideas; and (b) paradox – which refers to the fact that equally correct ideas may contradict one
another.
2. In answer to the question of what kinds of approaches are likely to work in organization change initiatives, what is a
key reason for the difficulty that exists in providing a straight answer?
- Agency problems
- Resistance to change
- Reliance on statistics
- Many variables
At least 3 major issues exist that confound the desire of practicing managers for simple, straightforward approaches to changing or
fixing their organizations. These reasons include: (a) slippery causality; (b) many variables; and (c) many stakeholders.
3. In the context of organization development and change, leaders within organizations often want a simple answer to
the questions, “What works?” Which of the following issues contributes to difficulty in trying to answer this
question?
- Lack of stakeholders
- Strategic confusion
- Slippery causality
- Problem definition
At least 3 major issues exist that confound the desire of practicing managers for simple, straightforward approaches to changing or
fixing their organizations. These reasons include: (a) slippery causality; (b) many variables; and (c) many stakeholders.
4. In the tension between reliance on organizational capabilities to effect change and approaching the task by
leveraging personal talent, which avenue is more likely to reap substantive rewards?
- Personal talent is the main ingredient in a successful change initiative
- Leaders must integrate personal talent with organizational capabilities
- Organizational capabilities and personal talent are equally necessary
- Relying on organizational capabilities is the more effective approach
In the tension between whether to rely more on organizational capabilities or personal talent in a change initiative, the organization’s
store of personal talent requires a sufficient freedom to act on behalf of the organization. Excessive rules will hinder that talent from
performing effectively. In this context, organizational capabilities refer to collective approaches and imply a top-down basis for
organizational action. Unlocking personal talent is the most effective way to pursue a successful change initiative.
5. In the aftermath of a crisis that an organization has survived, the organization should
- Enact rules to keep the cause of the issue from resurfacing later
- Implement a change in its way of managing the affected issue
- Study the issue and promote the experience as a lesson learned
- Quickly regroup to focus squarely on rebuilding performance
Surviving a crisis demands a substantive change in how the organization operates in the function affected by the crisis. Merely
learning a lesson, without, may make people sensitive to the threat, but it will fail to stop a recurrence. Enacting new rules to keep
the issue from resurfacing is even less valuable than treating the experience as a lesson learned. Implementing a real change
produces a different pattern of behavior from before. The new pattern of behavior is the optimal defense against a recurrence of the
noted crisis.
,6. One of the major reasons for the infeasibility of prescribing an unambiguous, universally applicable method of
changing an organization is
- Many stakeholders
- Volatile competition
- Regulatory constraints
- Shifting priorities
At least 3 major issues exist that confound the desire of practicing managers for simple, straightforward approaches to changing or
fixing their organizations. These reasons include: (a) slippery causality; (b) many variables; and (c) many stakeholders.
7. Incremental change:
- Kaikaku
- Kanban
- Kaizen
- Keiretsu
The Japanese term for incremental change is kaizen. Writers in the innovation literature propose that kaikaku and kaizen, which are
at opposite levels of depth in terms of change initiatives, must go together to provide for the optimal pace of innovative change
available to an organization.
8. How important is the pursuit of rapid change in a change initiative, given the threat of the so-called acceleration
trap?
- Speed creates momentum, but a methodical approach prevents destabilizing the system
- Moving too slower will cause instability, so a faster pace of change is always advisable
- Every change initiative requires both a fast and a slow component to maintain equilibrium
- Pursuing change quickly leads to rash decisions and discarding of establish procedures
Every change initiative needs to be able to maintain its momentum. Members of the organization affected by the change or who are
instrumental in effective it need to stay cognizant of the progress and relevance of the ongoing effort. Therefore, slowing down a
change initiative is risker than speeding it up. Nevertheless, the change initiative must also follow a methodical course, with as clear
a map of the trajectory as possible. Therefore, a rapid pace is advisable, but speed for the sake of speed will destabilize the system.
9. The literature on organizational change can be difficult for most people to grasp, for a number of reasons. Once such
reason is appearance, within the literature, of
- Fluid boundaries
- A slio effect
- False positives
- Mission drift
At least 5 key characteristics of the literature on organization change serve to dissuade practicing managers from attempting to
master the research and apply it to real situations. These characteristics include: (a) multiple perspectives; (b) conceptual spread; (c)
fluid boundaries; (d) rich history; and (e) varied settings.
10. What is the ideal leadership structure for a change initiative?
- An outside consultant should assume the main leadership role
- An energetic change campion is ideal for motivating the change
- A guiding coalition is the most effective way to organize leadership
- People in formal leadership positions should serve as the change leaders
While organization change initiatives are often successful when guided by a charismatic change champion, such as a new CEO, the
most reliable leadership structure to promote change is the use of a guiding coalition of leaders who dedicate considerable time and
energy to the change initiative while it is occurring.
11. What percentage of business schools around the world have AACSB accreditation?
- Over 50%
- Fewer than 5%
- Approximately 25%
- Almost 75%
,12. Among those features of the literature on organization change that keep practicing managers from easily mastering
the relevant theory, a particular source of confusion is the proliferation of guidance ranging from large-scale
paradigms to small-scale practical techniques, also known as
- The Pygmalion effect
- Conceptual spread
- Hypothetical realism
- The Abilene paradox
At least 5 key characteristics of the literature on organization change serve to dissuade practicing managers from attempting to
master the research and apply it to real situations. These characteristics include: (a) multiple perspectives; (b) conceptual spread; (c)
fluid boundaries; (d) rich history; and (e) varied settings.
13. Lowest level of depth in a change initiative:
- Maintaining status quo
- Solving minor problems
- Routinizing processes
- Improving efficiency
The lowest level of depth in a change initiative is nevertheless some kind of change. Maintain the status quo means making no
change at all, so this posture falls outside the model altogether. Quickly solving minor problems that may have served as annoyances
would constitute the lowest level of change. By comparison, the effort to improve efficiency is a somewhat deeper form of change
initiative.
14. Organization change initiatives often require convincing employees to accept technological change that will render
their current skills or knowledge obsolete. Employees may understand the benefits of the new technology while
nevertheless resisting the prospective change for the sake of their personal survival. Thus, the opposing pressures
inherent in this proposition create
- A conundrum
- A paradox
- An oxymoron
- Tension
Most of the issues that arise in organization change initiatives fall into one of two categories: (a) tension – which refers to
incompatibility between competing ideas; and (b) paradox – which refers to the fact that equally correct ideas may contradict one
another.
15. Should change leaders mainly use systematic tools or primarily engage in the political process of creating broad
coalitions?
- Systematic tools and political strategy are equal in importance overall
- The political process is more important than adhering to systematic tools
- Following systematic tools is more important than the political process
- The political process is effectively inherent in the use of systematic tools
In the tension between whether to adhere to systematic tools or engage in organization politics to change an organization,
systematic tools provide a guiding framework in terms of an expected sequence of events, but the political process will significantly
determine the success of the efforts.
16. Highest level of depth in a change initiative:
- Disruptive innovation
- Strategic change
- Paradigm shift
- Change in philosophy
The highest level of depth in a change initiative constitutes a dramatic redrawing of the sectoral boundaries that characterize an
organization. It is a risky undertaking that an organization may rarely pursue except to forestall a crisis of survivability. This level of
change is deeper than that of a paradigm shift, which is a fundamental change in thinking and strategic positioning but less that
what would constitute a change in the core functions of the organization.
, 17. A manager in an organization creates a team consisting entirely of engineers, for the purpose of brainstorming
innovative ideas. Which of the following properties does this team have in greatest abundance?
- Equipotentiality
- Feedback
- Negative entrophy
- Equifinality
Equipotentiality literally means equal power (or equal potential). If one of the engineers on this team happens to be absent on day, it
will have virtually no effect on the team’s ability to function, because all other team members are performing that function as well. In
any unit in which it is easy for members to substitute for one another, there is high equipotentiality, which translates into adaptability.
18. In a human production-oriented organization, throughput refers to
- The value-adding process
- Negative entrophy
- Feedback
- Dynamic homeostasis
The mechanistic or cybernetic structure of a profit-making organization includes the usual elements of input, throughput, output,
feedback and coding. Other names for throughput are transformation, processing, and production.
19. The search for elementary particles or lower-order objects to explain a phenomenon is
- Reductionist
- Teleological
- Systemic
- Holistic
Reductionism refers to a way of visualizing a phenomenon wherein one focuses on explaining it by first defining what its smallest
components are. In machine thinking, which is appropriate for anyone who wants to understand machines, one fist identifies the
smallest parts, and then one explains how they interact.
20. Systems property whereby the same pattern repeats itself across levels of scale:
- Fractality
- Butterfly effect
- Equipotentiality
- Adhocracy
First identified by Benoit Mandelbrot, fractality is a property of any geometric shape whereby the same pattern is visible at higher
and lower levels of scale. For example, small parts of a tree still look like a whole tree. This phenomenon apparently occurs in every
self-organizing system in the universe, whether animate or inanimate. Thus, fractality is visible in organizations as well.
21. General systems theory is correctly construable as
- A paradigm to guide theory development
- One of several possible explanations for how organizations work
- A metaphor for understanding organizations figuratively
- A model for how to design systematic processes
General systems theory is a paradigm. Thus, it constitutes a general set of laws that govern how self-organizing systems function.
Within this paradigm, researchers may formulate many individual theories. A few examples of such theories are leader-member
exchange (LMX), team member exchange (TMX), and fractal exchange quality (FXQ).
22. People rarely come to work with the intention to do a poor job; rather, when their effectiveness is suboptimal, the
deficiency is usually due to
- Faulty processes
- Poor management
- Their own mistakes
- Bad timing
A process is a series of events. In systems theory, the concept of cycles of events therefore refers to processes.
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