Chapter 3: Patterns of Change

1. The gradualist paradigm posits that organizations adapt to opportunities and threats by engaging in a process of ______________________.

continuous incremental change short revolutionary periods of radical change short periods of transformational change continuous revolutionary periods of radical change

2. According to Weick and Quinn (1999), which of the following are the three related processes associated with continuous change:

Translation, action, feedback Improvising, translation, transformation Improvising, translation, learning Planning, action, learning

3. The essence of the punctuated equilibrium paradigm is that systems (organizations) evolve through the alternation of periods of equilibrium, in which persistent ________ only permit limited incremental change, and periods of revolution, in which these ________ are fundamentally altered.

shallow structures/shallow structures periods of planning/plans obstacles/obstacles deep structures/deep structures

4. Which term below does the following define: ‘the fundamental choices an organization makes that determine the basic activity patterns that maintain its existence’ (Gersick, 1991, p. 16)?

Equilibrium periods Deep structure Revolutionary periods Typology of organizational change

5. According to the punctuated equilibrium paradigm, in equilibrium periods, organizations are resistant to change because of forces of inertia that work to ____________.

maintain the status quo disrupt the status quo improve communication between organizational memebers improve accepted ways of working

6. Which of the types of change below does the following describe: ‘the deep structures must first be dismantled, leaving the system temporarily disorganized, in order for any fundamental change to be accomplished. Next, a subset of the system’s old pieces, along with some new pieces, can be put back together.’

Revolutionary change Incremental change Evolutionary change Reactive change

7. By what other name is an ‘adaptive organization’ often known?

A flexible organization A feedback-oriented organization A learning organization A Darwinian organization

8. According to the punctuated equilibrium paradigm, organizations experience two types of change:

Reactive and proactive Incremental and transformational Learning and flexible Protracted and abrupt

9. If managers are forced to react to an urgent and pressing need to change, they are relatively constrained because of several factors, including:

They will hold too much influence over markets and new technologies They won’t be able to communicate the change to organizational members They won’t have the funds to implement the change immediately There isn't much time to experiment

10. Nadler et al. (1995) identified four types of change:

Tweaking, adaptation, changing paths, overhauling systems Tuning, adaption, reorientation, evolution Adaptation, alteration, correction, revision Tuning, adaptation, reorientation, re-creation

11. Re-creation is a reactive change that involves transforming the organization through the ______________________ change of all its basic elements.

fast and simultaneous fast and progressive gradual and simultaneous gradual and progressive

12. With the increasing pace of change, many more organizations have experienced periods of strategic drift (Johnson et al., 2008) and ____________________, to the point where the only way forward requires some form of radical transformation.

alignment with inappropriate external factors misalignment with their environment misalignment within the organization misalignment of different strategies within the organization

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