Organizational Development

MID TERM EXAM

Submitted to:

Submitted by:

Bahria University Islamabad Campus

Shangrilla Road, Sector E-8,
Islamabad – Pakistan

Dated: Wednesday, May 20, 2020

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Question 1: It has been widely accepted in the modern organizational
literature that mostly changes fail in organizations as manager do not put
their hearts and minds in making organizations ready for change. As the
result, resistance occurs.

(A)While rethinking the concept of resistance, how would you identify and
define the different types of resistance? (3marks)

(B) Present a scenario of your own for each resistance type and also
propose a solution to each resistance type with respect to the scenario
presented by you. (3 marks)

A. Resistance to change:

Resistance is when change occurs is your organization or in your life, you are not prepared
for that change and you oppose that change. Resistance to change is the actions that
individuals take when they think that these changes are occurring as threats to them.

Identification of types of resistance:

We can identify the types of resistance by the way people response. People respond
differently in diverse situations. According to types of resistance, following responses can
come:

 Not knowing what is happening like in a meeting I don’t know what he is talking
about.
 Not liking the idea of the changes occurring in the organization like getting new
project that is a difficult one.
 Not liking the team like I don’t like the person who gave this idea.

Types of resistance:

Following are the types of resistance:

 Cognitive resistance: (I don’t get it)

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 Cognitive resistance occurs when there is a lot of information to understand, that
doesn’t mean that the person is not competent but human mind encounter a complex
situation when there is lot of information to handle. Cognitive resistance relates to the
world of information that includes facts, ideas, analysis, descriptions, presentations or
logical arguments. A person might have many questions in mind that needs to be
solved and explored.
It can occur when information given is not relevant or missing, or the purpose of the
information is not clear and is overburdened.
 Emotional resistance: (I don’t like it)
Emotional cognition includes emotions rather than cognition. An individual think
emotionally in this rather than going for facts and logics. This resistance arises from
fear such as loss of control, status, even jobs and wellbeing. In these situations, people
can get into fight, flight or freeze mode.
It can cause through complexity of the situation like too much change or demanding
too much. I can also occur through fear of isolation, some previous bad experience or
thinking of your idea as worthless.
 Personally Oriented Resistance: (I don’t like you)
Personally oriented resistance occurs when people don’t trust the change leader, or
they have no confidence in him. Individuals might be okay with the change but not
with the person who is initiating the change. Situation can be like this that employees
have no problem with the change leader but with other factors like change leader is
from Head Office.
It can occur when there is lack of trust and history of relationship is not good.

B.
 Scenario for Cognitive Resistance:
In a company, a new technology is introduced for the lower level employees like
clerks and they are given only one training session and all the information is loaded
on them which is very confusing for them as the whole training was in English and
only few of them understand English and they feel overburdened.
Solutions:
Company needs to arrange more training sessions and divide the information in equal
parts so they can digest the information easily and they can do On-job training so that

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 they can apply the new rules easily. Also, they need to give trainings in language that
employees understand. Also, they need to survey that whether they understand the
training or not.
 Scenario for Emotional Resistance:
A new technology in a company is introduced where the lower level employees are
advised to adapt it but the employees are worried as they find it difficult to adapt this
new technology and fear to lose their job if they failed to adapt this new change.
Solutions:
Company needs to give their employees confidence that they can do it. They can
ensure them that they will get proper training sessions and they will learn about it
easily. They should ensure them that they will not lose their job. And motivate them
that if they adapt this new technology, company will increase their salary and give
them bonuses.
 Scenario for Personally Oriented resistance:
Previously company’s HR department worked on a project with IT department and
they were not given the bonuses that were told by the Head Office and the whole
credit of project was given to the IT department. Now another project is assigned to
HR department and IT department by the Head Office and now HR department
refused to work with IT department even when the Head Office promised to give
them bonuses and promotion.
Solutions:
Head Office needs to apologize for their last fault of not giving bonuses to HR
department. They need to talk to HR department and ensure them that this time they
will be given equal benefits as of IT department and make contract so that their

Question 2: Look at the picture below and answer the following questions:
(Marks 3)

(A)Recall and answer, is it a participant active or facilitator active

intervention?

Justify your answer. (1)

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(B) Identify whether it is a role focused or a person focused intervention?
Justify your answer (1)

(C)Define the technique used in the picture. (1)

a. According to the picture, it is a participant active intervention because everyone in

this picture is participating and there is no facilitator present in this picture to guide
anyone and everyone is participating as shown in this picture. The people in the
picture are sitting in a circle and facing each other. It creates the sense of team
building and opens the opportunity for everyone to share their views and opinions.
b. The intervention used in this is Person Focused Intervention and in this picture it is
shown that people are sitting in a group and no roles are assigned to them. It is shown
that focus is on individuals and there is no facilitator available. This intervention is
used to help people share their views and to improve their skills and knowledge.
c. The technique used in this picture is Encounter groups because in this technique
unstructured groups are formed to motivate the person to express his feelings to create
emotional bonds by speaking up his matters. It is a bases for team building and
provide them chance to increase their knowledge.

Question 3: Imagine the situations given below. Identify which role-related

stress type Shumaila, Hamdan, and Lubna are going through. Also, define
the type of their role-related stress. (Marks 6) [You can choose among the
following role related stress types: inter-role distance, intra-role conflict,
role ambiguity, role erosion, role overload, role stagnation, role expectation
conflict, resource inadequacy, self-role distance]

Scenario 1:

The role related stress type used in this scenario is Role Erosion because Shumaila feel that
some functions which she would like to perform are being performed by Hammad. Her major
was HR but she was given the task to add inventory data and make cost calculations and on
the other hand Hammad was given the task to design interviews for future hiring and write
job descriptions so Shumaila felt stressed and her expectation doesn’t match with the
expectations of her role. She wishes to exchange her role with Hammad as her majors is in
HR and she would perform better if her role is exchanged.

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Scenario 2:

The role related stress type used in this scenario is Inter-role distance. It is because Hamdan
is facing difficulties in balancing both work and home life. He is a regional manager in a
bank. His bank is going through an audit these days that is why he is not able to come home
at time. Even in normal days he is not able to come home early and facing stress at work
because he keeps thinking of his family. He is facing difficulties in managing his both roles i-
e organizational role (work life) and non-organizational role (Personal life).

Scenario 3:

The role related stress type used in this scenario is Resource inadequacy because she is not
provided with adequate resources for performing the functions expected from her role. She
has to deliver hundreds of print catalogues to her clients on daily basis and her printers are
working super slow. That is why she is feeling stressed.

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