25 Questions
Emergent change arises out of experimentation and adaptation within the organization.
True
Radical change involves major shifts in business strategy and revolutionary changes throughout the organization.
True
Planned change is a deliberate action designed to move an organization from one state to another with discrete beginning and end points.
True
Convergent change is the adjustment of an existing configuration without changing the organizational template.
True
Evolutionary change refers to the slow adaptation of existing systems or structures.
True
Organizations go through five distinct growth phases, each associated with a different growth period and a crisis period.
True
Complexity theory is primarily based on chaos theory, dissipative structures, and complex adaptive structures.
True
The shadow system can coexist with the legitimate system, destabilizing the organization's equilibrium.
True
Logical incrementalism is a process of strategy evolution that is based on a certain logic of thinking and is incremental in its ability to adapt to new information.
True
The change-leads-to-more-change assumption suggests that the more an organization changes, the less it learns about how to do it successfully.
False
Diagnosing change situations is not essential for organizations to respond effectively.
False
Strebel's evolving cycle of competitive behavior does not introduce the concept of 'breakpoints'
False
Breakpoints can only be convergent, resulting in improved systems and processes.
False
Signals for convergence include declining customers and increased bargaining power for distributors.
True
Managers may perceive 'hard' problems as unclear, involving many people, and not having clear solutions.
False
Grundy considered three varieties of change: smooth incremental change, bumpy incremental change, and discontinuous change.
True
Smooth incremental change evolves rapidly in a systematic and predictable way in developed economies.
False
Bumpy incremental change is characterized by periods of relative calm, punctuated by acceleration in the pace of change.
True
Discontinuous change is marked by rapid shifts in strategy, structure, or culture, or in all three.
True
Organizational development (OD) is an integrated framework of theories and practices capable of solving most of the important problems confronting the human side of organizations.
True
Hard problems tend to have known timescales, be bounded, and have minimal interactions with the environment.
True
Messes are unbounded, have serious implications, and cannot be separated from their context.
True
The TROPICS test can accurately determine the nature of a problem.
False
Messes have little agreement on what constitutes the problem and will be solved quickly.
False
The change spectrum can help identify whether a change situation is characterized by hard or soft complexity.
True
Study Notes
- Transformational changes in organizations, such as new strategies, structures, and processes, often occur at a "tipping point" or a significant event that triggers a shift.
- The idea of a tipping point is a concept from complexity theory. It refers to a series of events leading up to a critical point where change becomes inevitable.
- Diagnosing change situations is essential for organizations to respond effectively. Tools to help include Greiner's organizational life cycle model, stakeholder analysis, and SWOT analysis.
- Multiple-cause diagrams can help identify causal relationships between events leading to change.
- Strebel's evolving cycle of competitive behavior introduces the concept of "breakpoints," which are phases where organizations must change strategies to adapt to competitor behavior.
- The cycle consists of an innovation phase, where a new business opportunity arises, triggering a divergence in competitor behavior. This is followed by a convergence phase, where the least efficient competitors are eliminated, and the industry consolidates.
- Breakpoints can be divergent, resulting in new offerings, or convergent, resulting in improved systems and processes.
- Formal and informal systems are necessary for organizations to identify breakpoints effectively.
- Signals for convergence include competitors offering similar products and services, declining customers, and increased bargaining power for distributors.
- Signals for divergence include a saturated market, increasing competition from new entrants, and declining returns for competitors.
- Some signals may not be easily categorized as either convergent or divergent, and managers may perceive them as "hard" or "messy" problems.
- "Hard" problems have clear priorities, quantifiable objectives, and a systems/technical orientation, while "messy" problems are unclear, may involve many people, and may not have clear solutions.
Test your knowledge of the dynamics of organizational strategy with this quiz. The quiz covers the emergence and evolution of strategies within different groupings of people, power dynamics, information access, time spans, and parochial interests in an organization.
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