Chapter 9: The Role of Leadership in Change Management

1. Tichy and Devanna (1986) argue that there is tension between management and leadership because:

leadership is concerned with maintaining the existing organization, whereas management is concerned with change management is concerned with maintaining the existing organization, whereas leadership is concerned with change both are concerned with ‘doing the right things’ but achieving this in different ways both are concerned with ‘doing things right’ but achieving this in different ways

2. Kotter (1999) argues that managers are the people who are in the best position to provide the leadership required to ensure that a change will be successful. True or false?

True False

3. Higgs and Rowland (2000, 2011), after reviewing earlier work, report five behaviours associated with successful change implementation. Which of the following is NOT one of these behaviours?

Creating the case for change Telling others to develop effective plans Ensuring that change is based on an in-depth understanding of the issues Engaging others and building commitment

4. Which of the following is NOT part of Yates’ (2009) 4E framework for leaders?

Energizing themselves to drive the change Envisioning a values-driven set of goals and strategies Enabling their achievement by selecting appropriate methods, tools and people Empowering others by developing trust and interdependence between leaders and followers

5. Sense making is important but it is not always easy because leaders (and others) have a conservative tendency to __________________.

ignore past events even though they contain the key to the present focus on the marginal aspects of organizational culture seek data from just one or two sources interpret what is going on in terms of what has happened in the past

6. Which of the following does NOT describe Kotter’s (1996) description of a good vision?

Imaginable Desirable Robust Feasible

7. ‘Sense giving’ can also be referred to as:

explaining how the change is going to work making sense of complex data communicating the vision developing a recipe that the change agent can use to make sense of events

8. According to Oreg et al (2011), translating the recognition of a need for change into a desire for change is more likely to happen when the potential recipients of change trust their leaders and feel that _______________________.

they can have confidence in their decisions leaders respect their views leaders have the necessary skills to make the change a success leaders have all the know-how and don’t need to consult with them

9. Kotter (1996) argues that a central feature of modern organizations is _______________.

interdependence independence dependence on consumers individuality

10. Drawing on the work of Hackman (2002), Higgs and Rowland (2011), Oreg et al. (2011) and others, it is possible to identify a number of ways in which leaders can create the conditions that will enable people to contribute to change implementation. Leaders can enable people to deliver change by:

ensuring that everybody is clear about what needs to be done encouraging those involved in the change to generate and discuss explanations for how well the change is progressing Both a and b blocking access to restricted information

11. Lewin et al. (1939) studied the effect of leadership styles in classroom situations and concluded that ______________ leadership was more effective than __________ style.

autocratic/a democratic democratic/an autocratic autocratic/a laissez faire situational/a charismatic

12. Traditional, sometimes referred to as _______________ leadership models – that focus on goal setting, direction, support and reinforcement – only account for a relatively small percentage of variance in performance outcomes (Bryman, 1992).

transactional charismatic situational autocratic

13. In many organizations there has been a move from deep hierarchies, in which leader–subordinate relationships are clearly defined, towards new organizational forms. Which of the following is NOT an example of these new forms?

Networks Communities of practice Cross-functional teams Traditional bureaucracy

14. One of the key problems associated with managing change in pluralistic settings is the development of sufficient _____________.

communication channels strategy coherence external relations

15. Denis et al. (2001) found that leadership constellations are always fragile, and they define ‘fragility’ with reference to three types of ‘coupling’. Which of the following is NOT one of these three types?

Strategic Political Organizational Environmental

16. Environmental coupling is the degree of coherence between the leadership constellation’s vision and aspirations and the demands and constraints imposed by ________________.

external stakeholders the resistance of change recipients individual leaders within the constellation none of the above

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