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Fundamentals of Management 10th Edition Robbins Solutions Manual
Fundamentals of Management 10th Edition Robbins Solutions Manual
Fundamentals of Management 10th Edition Robbins Solutions Manual
CHAPTER MANAGING
8 CHANGE AND
INNOVATION
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Management Myth
Myth: There’s nothing managers can do to reduce the 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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Chapter 8 – Managing Change and Innovation
(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. It can be achieved in
one of three ways:
(a) The driving forces can be increased (direct behavior away from the
status quo).
(b) The restraining forces can be decreased (hinder movement from the
existing equilibrium).
(c) The two approaches can be combined.
b) Once unfreezing has been accomplished, the change itself can be implemented.
c) 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 short-lived.
(2) The objective of refreezing is to stabilize the new situation by balancing the
driving and restraining forces.
d) Lewin’s three-step process treats change as a break in the organization’s
equilibrium state.
3. 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.
b) In the white water rapids metaphor, change is the status quo and managing
change is a continual process.
4. 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.
5. 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.
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(1) 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.
(2) The organization’s leaders are, in essence, attempting to change the
organization’s culture.
(3) Reliance on employee participation is fundamental to organizational
development.
d) Any organizational activity that assists with implementing planned change can
be viewed as an OD technique.
e) The more popular OD efforts rely heavily on group interactions and
cooperation.
f) 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.
g) 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.
h) 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.
i) 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.
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A. What Is Stress?
1. Stress is the response to anxiety over intense demands, constraints, or
opportunities.
a) It is positive when the situation offers an opportunity for one to gain something.
2. Functional stress allows a person to perform at his or her highest level at critical
times.
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A Question of Ethics
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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5. Inspiration in the creative process is the moment when all your efforts successfully
come together.
a) Creative work requires an innovative effort.
b) Innovation involves taking that inspiration and turning it into a useful product,
service, or way of doing things.
c) Thomas Edison is often credited with saying, “Creativity is 1 percent inspiration
and 99 percent perspiration.”
d) 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.
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.
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So, how can companies make it work? Suggestions include: top managers need to support
the initiatives/projects and make that support known; managers need to support
employees who have
that personal passion and drive, that creative spark—clear a path for them to pursue their
ideas; perhaps allow employees more of an incentive to innovate (rights to design, etc.);
and last, but not least, don’t institutionalize it. Creativity and innovation, by their very
nature, involve risk and reward. Give creative individuals the space to try and to fail and
to try and to fail as needed.
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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
8-1 Why is managing change an integral part of every manager’s job?
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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 white-water rapids metaphor of change?
Answer: The prevailing model for handling change in calm waters is Lewin’s three-step
model. See Exhibit 8-2. 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.
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.
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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 organization-
wide 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.
8-8 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? Could an
innovative culture 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 manufacturers Intel and Sony electronics.
8-10 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
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where you recognize that you’re stressed and can take positive actions to deal with the
stress.
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.
MyManagementLab
8-11 Planned change is often thought to be the best approach to take in organizations. Can
unplanned change ever be effective? Explain.
8-12 Describe the structural, cultural, and human resources variables that are necessary for
innovation.
Skill Basics
For reducing stress, the following individual interventions have been suggested:
Implement time-management techniques.
Create personal goals.
Use physical exercise.
Practice relaxation training.
Expand your social support network.
Experiential Exercise
Performance Pros
Discussion Questions
8-14 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.
8-15 What do you think UA’s culture might be like in regards to innovation? (Hint: Refer to the
list on page 254)
8-16 How might design thinking help UA improve its innovation efforts?
8-17 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?
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.
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Discussion Questions
8-18 What external forces for change do you see described in this case? Would you describe
Avon’s environment as more “calm waters” or “white-water rapids?” Explain.
8-19 Why would it be more important for the CEO to look at those external forces when
planning organizational change?
8-20 Why might it be difficult to change a company that’s over 130 years old?
8-21 Avon is truly a global company. How might this affect the CEO’s efforts to implement
organizational change?
Discussion Questions
8-22 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?
8-23 What appeared to be happening in the France Télécom’s workplace? What stress
symptoms might managers have looked for to be alerted to a problem?
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8-24 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?
8-25 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?
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).
8-26 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 for 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.
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