Module 4 Questions and Answers PDF

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Module 4 of online workplace communications course. The questions and answers are all included....

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Module #4 Chapter 10 1. The text discusses different reactions to change in organizations. What are these reactions? Do these reactions occur at all stages of the change process (e.g., during the processes of change development, planning specific programs, and change implementation)? Use an example or examples to illustrate your response. The reactions to change in an organization are ownership tension, resistance to change, and uncertainty among the organizational members. These reactions can occur at any stage of the organizational change process. An example that immediately comes to mind is professors resisting technology changes through the pandemic. Last semester there was a lot of resistance to new technology developments that were needed to function in an online learning platform. Some of our professors at FIT have always had very hands-on, tactile jobs, where technology was never needed. The global pandemic has forced us all to use new technological methods of communication whether it is zoom or group padlet accounts. Some professors resisted this change and wanted to continue teaching through outlets they were already comfortable with. Other students and professors had no resistance to adapting to the new technology immediately, but they may have had resistance once they had experienced bugs in the programs or lagging. Everyone may experience their reactions to change at different stages in the organizational change process. 2. In the text, Clampitt, et al., give five managerial strategies for communicating about change (spray and pray, tell and sell, underscore and explore, identify and reply, and withhold and uphold). Which of these strategies was found to be most effective and which were found to be less effective? In your answer, be sure to define and provide examples of the various communication strategies. Which managerial strategy do YOU think is more effective and why? The Underscore and Explore strategy was found to be the most effective. In this strategy, management focuses on the fundamental issues related to the change’s success. Management then allows the employees to have the creative freedom to explore the various possibilities. This method is useful because it weeds out irrelevant information to the employees. It is pointless to overwhelm them with the information they do not need, which leads to less effective strategies. The Spray and Pray and Withhold and Uphold strategies are the least effective. The Spray and Pay method involves management showering employees with lots of information in the hope that the employees will be able to figure out which information is valuable and which is not. This does the opposite of the Underscore and Explore strategy. It overwhelms the employees with an abundance of information that they do not need. The Withhold and Uphold strategy is when management hides as much information as possible, and when management is confronted with questions or rumors, they uphold the party line.

I believe that the Underscore and Explore strategy is the best. When receiving news of change, I always prefer to only know how it will affect me and my job. I believe that most people are this way. Why get bogged down with useless information when you can get straight to the point? 3. Imagine that you have been hired by a management team at a large retail firm to help them institute a major change in inventory process at the store level. What advice would you give to this management team? Why would you give that advice? What is the basis for your advice-what reasons would you give to support your position? If I were hired by a management team at a retail firm to help initiate a major change, I would advise the management team to first tell the employees how the new inventory process will affect their job and how the new change will benefit the process for the better. I would also advise that the management team plans extra hours for themselves to help their retail employees adjust to the new process. The basis of my advice comes from personal experiences and information in the textbook. I have worked retail jobs in the past, and I usually did not care much about changes in processes besides how it would affect my tasks. I think that management should always be concise, especially with jobs that do not require degrees. It is pretty often where the employees do not want or care about irrelevant information about the new changes. The textbook states many problems that can occur when implementing changes, and many of them can be avoided by just having extra support from the management team. 4. Describe how leaders effectively communicate with their followers. Reference the findings presented in the chapter. -Have you ever worked for a person you thought was a "great leader?" Tell us what made them such an effective person. Leaders effectively communicate with their followers when they can have an attitude of transformation. Going back to our past lessons, it is still valuable for leaders to maximize production and concern for people simultaneously. I value transformational leaders and enjoyed learning more about this category of leadership. I believe that a great leader sees change and development for their follows, themselves, and the company or organization. Transformational leaders use communication to develop relationships between their leaders and their followers. This relationship allows everyone to reach their full potential and has the chance of transforming both the leaders and the followers. I worked for a great leader when I was interning at Lands’ End. The director of the department I worked for did a phenomenal job of effectively communicating and relating with her followers. Although the textbook does not fully support the trait approach to leadership, I do feel that this design director has many of the desirable traits that create a good leader. When I first started working there, I admired her confidence, not only in herself but in the whole team. Having a confident leader is a tricky balance because overconfidence is off-putting, but she did a

phenomenal job. Her intelligence and determination were also key. She was determined to make a change and to get every task done to the best of our ability. The director had an honest line of communication with her followers. Her honest opinions about design work created a great working environment. When design directors are not open and honest about ideas from the start, it can result in wasted time working on designs that the director does not even like. She also relayed truthful information and feedback from her superiors. Lastly, her sociability was incredible. She created the most tight-knit team environment that was not only fun to work in but productive because we all loved being there and working with each other. She organized outside of work activities to encourage bonding amongst us all. As a new team member for the summer, this quickly adapted me to the team which built their trust in me to work on more relevant projects. The director always chose to sit next to me at gatherings to get to know me when I first started. I believe that her intelligence, intuitiveness, and social skills contributed to how wonderful the rest of the team was as well. She chose great people to lead the team below her, and they all hired people that fit into the culture of the team. Her welcoming personality created an environment to work for that I will never forget. She set the standard very high for my future work expectations.

Chapter 11 1. You recently came to the conclusion that you are suffering from "burnout." Describe three symptoms that may have led to this diagnosis and prescribe two strategies you might use to cope with your situation. Provide specific examples to support your answer. Have YOU ever experienced BURNOUT? Three symptoms that led to the diagnosis of “burnout” are emotional exhaustion, a lack of personal accomplishment, and depersonalization. Emotional exhaustion is the first dimension of burnout, and consists of feeling fatigued, frustrated, used up, or unable to do another day of the job. The next dimension is the lack of personal accomplishment, which is when the worker sees themselves as a failure or incapable of effectively accomplishing the job requirements. The third dimension of burnout is depersonalization, which occurs in workers that have to communicate interpersonally with others. I have experienced burnout while juggling too many things at once! I had a semester where I had fewer credits, so I thought I could take on several other challenges. The few credits I had ended up being very work-intensive. I was juggling a school, a retail job, a school club position, a freelance gig, and an internship all at once, and I ended up drained at times. It resulted in some of the above symptoms and a few mental breakdowns. 2. Discuss three specific stressors that influence you in your role as a student. Choose one of these stressors, and describe how you could cope with this stressor using appraisal-focused coping, problem-focused coping, and emotion-focused coping. The stressors that influence me as a student the most are workload, life events, and occasionally home conflicts. Three ways of coping with these stressors are appraisal-centered coping, problem-focused coping, and emotion-centered coping. Appraisal-centered coping involves changing the way one thinks about a stressful situation. If I used this coping mechanism, I would tell myself that the large workload is preparing me for my dream job as a textile designer. Problem-focused coping involves dealing directly with the causes of burnout. If I used this technique, then I would consider talking to my professor about my over abundance of work and develop a strategy to still complete the work. Emotion-centered coping involves dealing with the negative affective outcomes of burnout. To successfully do this technique, I would carve out time everyday for yoga to relax my mind. 3. To what extent is bullying a major issue in the workplace? How can workplace bullying enhance the likelihood of a worker becoming burned out? What could be some effective measures taken to prevent bullying? Bullying is a serious and common issue in the workplace that I am sure many of us have seen or experienced either at work or school. The textbook states that 90% of adults have experienced workplace bullying at some point within their career. Workplace bullying results in the victim

feeling like they lost their professional reputation, have low self-confidence and have lost their beliefs in justice or fairness. These intense feelings easily lead to the symptoms of burnout. Ways to prevent workplace bullying are to ignore the bully, avoid conversation with them, or if those choices do not work, quit. Although quitting may seem like a rash choice, nobody should tolerate their personality and work being attacked. It leads to negative outcomes like burnout. 4. Explain why the National Guard reservists who are serving in the Afghanistan War might be more likely to experience burnout during their tour of duty than regular military personnel. What causes of burnout may be more likely to occur and why would those causes be more likely to occur?

The National Guard reservists may be more likely to experience burnout than regular military personnel because the reservists are not trained as much for combat purposes but could still get deployed. They also do work for local and natural disasters. These two tasks are demanding and have an intense workload. These tasks contribute to stressors such as role conflict and role ambiguity. Role conflict is where two or more role requirements clash with each other, and role ambiguity is when there is uncertainty about the role requirements. Not knowing whether you will be deployed or needed for a natural disaster is a stressful situation to be put in. The reservists do not have much clarity about what each day will entail, resulting in burnout....