leadership and change management final exam questi
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2024- 2025 prep test
2024- 2025 prep test
2024- 2025 prep test
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Leadership and Change Management Final
Exam:
The Process Perspective of Change - ANS -How do we get from the present state to
the future state?
attends to the "how" of change and focuses on the way a transformation occurs.
It draws attention to issues such as:
-the pace of change and the sequence of activities
-the way decisions are made and communicated
-the ways in which people respond to the actions of others.
Change managers play a key role in this process
4 Change Theories (TDLE) - ANS -Teleological
Dialectical
Life cycle
Evolutionary
A common feature of all four theories is that they view change as involving a number of
events, decisions and actions that are connected in a sequence but they differ in terms
of the degree to which they present change as:
following a necessary sequence of stages, and the extent to which the direction of
change is constructed or predetermined.
Flamholtz Organisational Life Cycle (7 Stages) (NEPCDID) -- Important to consider
what stage the org is at when implementing the cycle - ANS -1. New Venture
2. Expansion
3. Professionalization
4. Consolidation
5. Diversification
6. Integration
7. Decline
Flamhloz argues that all organisations go through this cycle, and each stage, the critera
for organisational effectiveness changes
The major concern during the first stage of the organization's life cycle is survival and
critical areas for development are markets and
products.
In the second stage, resources are often stretched and operating systems become
overwhelmed, so resource management and the development of operating systems
emerge as key tasks.
,The third stage of the life cycle is the point where
more formal management systems, such as planning and management development,
are required to ensure the long-term functioning of the business, and so on through the
seven stages of the life cycle
Teleological Theory - ANS -assume that organizations are purposeful and adaptive,
and present change as an unfolding cycle of goal formulation, implementation,
evaluation and learning. Learning is important because it can lead to the modification of
goals or the actions taken to achieve them.
less prescriptive about the ordering of stages. They
present development and change as a repetitive sequence of goal formulation,
implementation and evaluation, leading to the modification of an envisioned end state
based on what was learned or intended by the people involved. While each of these
stages is important and there is a logical sequence connecting them, the sequence
does not have to, and often does not,
unfold in a way that follows the ordered linear sequence presented above.
Dialectical Theory - ANS -focus on conflicting goals between different interest groups
and explain stability and change in terms of confrontation and the balance of power
between the opposing entities.
Life Cycle Theory - ANS -assume that change is a process that progresses through a
necessary sequence of stages that are cumulative, in the sense that each stage
contributes a piece to the final outcome, and related - each stage is a necessary
precursor for the next.
life cycle theories are more prescriptive about
this than teleological theories.
Evolutionary Theories - ANS -posit that change proceeds through a continuous cycle of
variation, selection and retention. Variations just happen and are not therefore
purposeful, but are then selected on the basis of best fit with available resources
and environmental demands. Retention is the perpetuation and maintenance of
the organizational forms that arise from these variations via forces of inertia and
persistence.
Car importer example for teleological theories - ANS -The manufacturer of the
inexpensive range of cars informed an importer that it had decided to reposition its
brand. Recognised that this would require a lot of changes to its own business. An initial
diagnosis indicated that the importer would have to encourage many of these dealers to
,refurbish and modernise their premises, and in some cases relocate in order to attract
the type of customer who would be interested in more expensive and better quality car.
importer quickly began to formulate a change strategy, but initial approaches to a
sample of dealers to test out plans for change met with strong resistance. This triggered
a rethink
The third way forward was a two-prong strategy that involved:
•working with some of the existing dealers to help them make the changes necessary to
move up-market and sell the rebranded cars, •establishing a new business to import
and distribute the cheaper Indian produced vehicles.
Constructed Trajectories (TD) v Predetermined Trajectories (EL) - ANS -Teleological
and dialectical theories view change trajectories as constructed in the sense that goals,
and the steps taken to achieve goals, can be changed at the will of (at least some of)
those involved in the process (Human Agency!!)
argued that life cycle and evolutionary theories present
change as a predetermined process that unfolds over time in a prespecified direction.
This kind of change involves incrementally adapting organizational forms in
predictable ways. The process may be prescribed by some inherent code (as in
biological evolution) or by the limits imposed by a wider system.
Reactive Sequences (Dialectical Theories) DCCJ - ANS -Dialectical theories focus on
the conflicting goals of those involved in a situation.
These conflicts give rise to reactive sequences, in which one party challenges
another party's attempt to secure a particular change. In reactive sequences,
subsequent events challenge rather than reinforce earlier event.
A leader implements a decision (A) as the first step along the way to
achieving a particular outcome (F). This action leads to responses (events B and C)
that reinforce the leader's initial intention, but (in this example) this support is
short-lived. The earlier events provoke a reaction from others, maybe because they
see little or no benefit in the current direction of change.-- this changes the direction of
the change, and is referred to as a CRITICAL JUNCTURE-- these might minorly deviate
the plan, or make a drastic change.
BA Cabin Crew Dispute for Reactive Sequences Example - ANS -BA-cabin crew
dispute (an example of reactive sequences) A proposal to reduce the number of cabin
crew was fiercely resisted. Actions and reactions, including strikes, suspensions and
dismissals, continued for 18 months-- was eventually resolved but at a high cost
, Self Reenforcing Sequences ST v LR - ANS -Self-reinforcing sequences occur when a
decision or action produces positive feedback that reinforces earlier events and
supports the direction of change. This reinforcement induces further movement in the
same direction. While self-reinforcing
sequences can deliver benefits over the short term, change managers need to be
alert to the possibility that they may draw them into a path that will deliver suboptimal
outcomes over the longer term
3 Drivers of Self Reenforcing Sequences (IPC) - ANS -increasing returns,
psychological commitment to past decisions, and cognitive biases
Increasing Returns and 4 conditions that promote them (SLCB) - ANS -An important
driver of self-reinforcing sequences is increasing returns, a concept
that initially received attention from economists. Pierson (2000) traces early interest to
Arthur (1994) and David (1985). They argued that a particular technology
that is first to market or widely adopted by early users, may generate increasing returns
and achieve a
decisive advantage over competing technologies, even though it may not be the most
efficient alternative.
4 Conditions that promote increasing returns:
1. Set-up costs: Where these are high, there is an incentive to stick with a chosen
option so as to spread costs over a longer run of activity.
2. Learning: Knowledge gained from repetitive use can lead to increased proficiency
and continuous improvement. For example, organizational members learn by doing and
the more they do, the more proficient they become. This learning provides a powerful
incentive to continue down the same path because doing yet more of the same leads to
increasing returns from exploiting these
acquired competences
3. Coordination: Benefits received from activities increase as others adopt the same
practices
4. Betting on the right horse: People recognize that options that fail to win broad
acceptance will have drawbacks later on, therefore they are motivated to select the
option they think will be adopted by most others. They anticipate that persisting with this
choice will generate increasing returns in the future.
Example of Increasing Returns: Nokia - ANS -in the case of
Nokia, had led to too much attention being focused on devices. The company had
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