Question 1. When Jet Blue left their customers sitting on the tarmac for hours on Valentine’s Day, and their CEO was ultimately terminated as a result, the company was responding to (pick the best group) (Points : 7)

•        external, reputation, and credibility pressures.
•        hyper competition, market decline, and internal pressures.
•        mandated, fashion, and force field pressures.
•        growth, identity, and new broom pressures.
•        All of the above

Question 2. Which of the following best shows a company responding to identity pressures? (Points : 7)

•        McDonalds when they started selling coffee drinks and salads
•        Domino’s pizza’s new crust and pizza recipe
•        Dairy Queen when it invented “the Blizzard”
•        The Wall Street Journal when it went online
•        All of the above  

Question 3. Which of the following best defines the “7-S” model of diagnosing change? (Points : 7)

•        Includes purpose, structure, rewards, and helpful mechanisms
•        Is based on the conceptualization of the organization as a transformation process
•        Can be a starting point for an organization that has not given attention to the trends that may impact its future operations
•        Includes strategy, structure, process, and lateral capability
•        Includes structure, style, skills, super-ordinate goals, etc.  

Question 4. Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline created a powerful lens for empowering change in organizations called (Points : 7)

•        inputs/outputs/throughput.
•        logical reasoning from deduction.
•        systems thinking.
•        transformation lenses.
•        the Black Box model.

Question 5.) The Burke-Litwin model states that there are four transformation factors of change. Identify the answer below which contains at least three of those factors. (Points : 7)

•        Frames, lenses, angles, and hyperbole
•        Mission and strategy, leadership, and organizational culture
•        Hypotheses, problems, symptoms and inputs
•        Vision, identification strategies, litigation, and execution
•        None of the above

Question 6. A very broad-ranging diagnostic tool for change agents which should be used as a starting point when an organization has ignored the impact of trends on the business is(Points : 7)

•        diagnosis by image.
•        diagnosis by scenario analysis.
•        diagnosis using the PESTEL framework.
•        diagnosis by gap analysis.
•        diagnosis by transubstantiation.

Question 7. The actions of a visionary leader casting appropriate roles, engaging in dialogue to create message appeal, and directing the change through verbal and non-verbal behaviors is called (Points : 7)

•        scripting.
•        performing.
•        staging.
•        norming.
•        framing.  

Question 8. The ability to either exhibit or compartmentalize feelings and emotions in social and business settings is often described as a person’s (Points : 7)

•        mental acuity.
•        psychosis.
•        emotional intelligence.
•        level of change agent status.
•        competence.

Question 9. One day, while on the company elevator, the head of HR is talking to the CEO and doesn’t realize his speaker phone is on when the CEO asks, “Do you think that we can afford to keep the downtown branch of the company open? Or is it time to think about across-the-board layoffs?”  The HR head frowns, turns off the speaker and replies, “I’ll call you later” and hangs up. Four employees from the downtown branch are on the elevator and hear this comment. The HR head tells the four employees (whose names he does not know), “Say nothing about this. You heard nothing.” They immediately rush to their cubicles and begin spreading the word. The gossip has hit the entire department and local news agencies by the 6:00 news that night. The CEO is featured saying, “This is nothing but a rumor at this point. We have no current plan to lay off anyone.” This is an example of what type of communication plan on the part of the CEO? (Points : 7)

•        Spray and pray
•        Tell and sell
•        Underscore and explore
•        Identify and reply
•        Withhold and uphold

Question 10. Crisis management communication strategies for corporate situations which create injury or massive environmental damage (such as the BP Gulf Oil Disaster) might include any of the following, but almost always should include this one very important piece: (Points : 7)

•        total and full denial of blame.
•        shifting the blame.
•        apology.
•        shift the blame and apologize.
•        initial delay/silence while reviewing victim responses to the crisis.

Question 11. In July 2006, News Corporation (owner Rupert Murdoch) bought MySpace for $580 million. In June 2011, NC sold MySpace for $35 million to Specific Media. News Corp has stated in various filings that it recouped the total cost of MySpace through an ad contract with Google, but were tired of the “headache” of the site. 8 months later, through strategic partnerships with Facebook and Twitter, and investor Justin Timberlake, the site started to rejuvenate. Whether it will remake its brand remains a question. To the employees who have been with MySpace since 2005 (pre-Murdoch days) and who remain there in 2012 in the rejuvenation stage, the past 7 years could be described as a time of (Points : 7)

•        charismatic (inspirational) transformation.
•        cultural readjustments.
•        sustaining change.
•        All of the above
•        None of the above

Question 12. Which of the following is an example of the Beer, Nohria view of dimensions of change using Theory E + Theory O combined, from a leadership perspective? (Points : 8)

•        The Project Manager communicates to the software development team the timeline for a change and the CEO asks her to speed it up by 3 weeks.
•        The CIO decides to move from a mainframe approach to a PC approach, notifies all of her direct reports of the new vision, establishes a communication plan, timeline, and project roll-out plan, communicates the change (including positives and negatives) to stakeholders, and establishes a metrics system where innovation, efficiencies, and positive feedback on the project is measured and rewarded via awards, bonuses, and perks.
•        A fast food company decides to remove one slice of cheese from their cheeseburgers, although increasing the retail price by 10 cents, and has a cost savings which increases its stock price significantly. A group of health experts touts the company as being “health conscious” because the calorie content of the item is lowered.
•        The CEO of a Fortune 100 company hires a team of consultants to take over the HR department and eliminates all in-house HR people (about 85 employees).
•        A department head is invited to a meeting where he is asked to become a change agent for an exciting new product line. He accepts the assignment and goes back to his desk, whereupon he explains to his team that it is likely that their jobs will disappear in the next year because of job obsolescence, but that anyone who might like to consider helping with the new product line may be allowed to reapply for new jobs which open up.