Chapter 6: Building Change Relationships

1. How many different intervention styles can change agents employ and which of the following are examples?

Four; advising, practising Four; theorizing, identifying Five; challenging, dictating Five; supporting, information gathering

2. Which of the following is a disadvantage associated with advising?

Increased independence Reliance on clients’ knowledge about their own problem Clients become more experienced than the change agent Increased dependency

3. Change agents adopting collaborative modes of intervening work with clients to help them develop opportunities or ______________________.

tell them how to manage their problems discuss their insecurities manage their own problems explain Seligman’s theory of learned helplessness to them

4. Which of the following is a definition of the supporting approach to intervening?

It involves the change agent working with others to help them clarify their views and express feelings and emotions that impede objective thinking about a problem or opportunity It involves change agents identifying theories and conceptual models that are pertinent to clients’ problem situation It involves facilitating a better understanding of clients’ situations in an analytical cause-and-effect fashion It involves telling clients how they should feel about a change

5. Which of the following is an example of a theoretical framework that might help clients organize their thoughts and provide the basis for a fresh appraisal of their predicament?

The stakeholder grid discussed in Chapter 10 The Burke-Litwin causal model of organizational performance discussed in Chapter 7 Force-field analysis discussed in Chapter 2 All of the above.

6. The aim of the challenging approach to intervening is:

to strengthen values and assumptions in order to exploit different opportunities to challenge the organization’s culture to challenge values and assumptions and to identify alternatives that might facilitate the exploitation of opportunities to introduce new perspectives but discourage clients from asking questions

7. What is the assumption underlying the information-gathering approach?

That information surplus is an important cause of malfunctioning and miscommunication That information deficiencies are an important cause of malfunctioning That gathering evidence will help support one particular perspective (the change agent’s) That information deficiencies are best remedied by the change agent providing information to the client

8. Collaborative modes of intervening are most effective when they:

signal that the other’s viewpoint is worth listening to judge others’ viewpoints critically suspend critical judgement Both a and c

9. When might a prescriptive mode of intervention work best?

When a problem won’t have disastrous consequences if not solved immediately When the client needs a longer term fix so that they can solve all similar future problems themselves When the client has no idea of how to solve their problem When the client needs a ‘short-term fix’ to buy them time to develop the competences they require to manage similar situations

10. Which of the following is an example of a ‘helping skill’?

Probing for information Establishing a hierarchical relationship Focusing on detail rather than the bigger picture Teaching new technical skills

Check Answers