The Loki Equipment Exercise Part 1: Leading Change

Abstract

Leading organizational change is a daunting aspect of leadership. However, effectively leading change enables positive individual and organizational outcomes. Herein, we present a case-based classroom exercise to teach students about organizational change, demonstrate different aspects of the change process, and teach how to overcome resistance to change. We draw upon research on leadership and organizational change to introduce the exercise. In the exercise, Taylor Smith, a CEO of a farm equipment manufacturing company, is pressed by the company board to lay off a significant portion of their workforce as production is being moved overseas. In this context, the exercise provides students with an in-depth look at the change process as they discuss how the company will be affected by the layoffs and then explore ways for the layoffs to be carried out.

Keywords

change management leadership classroom exercises case studies

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bate

Khan

Pye

(2000). Towards a culturally sensitive approach to organization structuring: Where organization design meets organization development. Organization Science, 11(2), 197–211. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.11.2.197.12509

Birkinshaw

(2022). How incumbents survive and thrive. Harvard Business Review, 100(1), 36–42.

Brockner

Wiesenfeld

B. M.

Diekmann

K. A.

(2009). Towards a “fairer” conception of process fairness: Why, when, and how more may not always be better than less. Academy of Management Annals, 3(1), 183–216. https://doi.org/10.1080/19416520903047228

Criscione-Naylor

(2020) Simulating operational complexities: A hands-on experiential exercise with laundry. Management Teaching Review, 5, 6–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/2379298118787798

Ford

J. D.

Ford

L. W.

D’Amelio

(2008). Resistance to change: The rest of the story. Academy of Management Review, 33(2), 362–377. https://doi.org/10.2307/20159402

Fugate

Kinicki

A. J.

Prussia

G. E.

(2008). Employee coping with organizational change: An examination of alternative theoretical perspectives and models. Personnel Psychology, 61, 1–36. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2008.00104.x

Hinchliffe

Abril

Belanger

Clifford

Decarlo

Dunn

Hackett

Heimer

Marquardt

Mashayekhi

Moore

Morris

D. Z.

Mukherjee

Pressman

Shen

Sraders

Wahba

(2021). The worst of times. The best in business. Fortune, 183(2), 108–117.

Huy

Q. N.

(1999). Emotional capability, emotional intelligence, and radical change. Academy of Management Review, 24, 325–345. https://doi.org/10.2307/259085

Jacobides

M. G.

Reeves

(2020). Adapt your business to the new reality. Harvard Business Review, 98(5), 74–81.

10.

Judge

T. A.

Thoresen

C. J.

Pucik

Welbourne

T. M.

(1999). Managerial coping with organizational change. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 107–122. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.84.1.107

11.

Kaltiainen

Lipponen

Holtz

B. C.

(2017). Dynamic interplay between merger process justice and cognitive trust in top management: A longitudinal study. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(4), 636–647. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000180

12.

Kan

M. M.

Parry

K. W.

(2004). Identifying paradox: A grounded theory of leadership in overcoming resistance to change. Leadership Quarterly, 15(4), 467–491. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2004.05.003

13.

Kotter

J. P

(1996). Leading change. Harvard Business School Press.

14.

Kotter

J. R.

(2007). Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail. Harvard Business Review, 85(1), 96–103.

15.

Levay

(2010). Charismatic leadership in resistance to change. Leadership Quarterly, 21(1), 127–143. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.10.010

16.

Lewin

(1951). Field theory in social science. Harper.

17.

Maes

Van Hootegem

(2019). A systems model of organizational change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 32(7), 725–738. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-07-2017-0268

18.

Margolis

J. D.

Molinsky

A. L.

(2008). Navigating the bind of necessary evils: Psychological engagement and the production of interpersonally sensitive behavior. Academy of Management Journal, 51, 847–872. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMJ.2008.34789639

19.

Meston

King

(1996). Making sense of resistance: Responses to organizational change in a private nursing home for the elderly. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 5, 91–102. https://doi.org/10.1080/13594329608414843

20.

Oreg

Berson

(2019). Leaders’ impact on organizational change: Bridging theoretical and methodological chasms. Academy of Management Annals, 13(1), 272–307. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2016.0138

21.

Oreg

Sverdlik

(2011). Ambivalence toward imposed change: The conflict between dispositional resistance to change and the orientation toward the change agent. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96, 337–349. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021100

22.

Quinn

R.E.

(2004). Building the bridge as you walk on it. Jossey-Bass.

23.

Quinn

R. E.

Sonenshein

(2008). Four general strategies for affecting change in human systems. In Cummings

T. G.

(Ed.), Handbook of organization development (pp. 69–78). SAGE.

24.

Seo

M.-G.

Taylor

M. S.

Hill

N. S.

Zhang

Tesluk

P. E.

Lorinkova

N. M.

(2012). The role of affect and leadership during organizational change. Personnel Psychology, 65(1), 121–165. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2011.01240.x

25.

Sonenshein

(2010). We’re changing—Or are we? Untangling the role of progressive, regressive, and stability narratives during strategic change implementation. Academy of Management Journal, 53(3), 477–512. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMJ.2010.51467638

26.

Sonenshein

Dholakia

(2012). Explaining employee engagement with strategic change implementation: A meaning-making approach. Organization Science, 23(1), 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1110.0651

27.

Spreitzer

G. M.

Sonenshein

(2004). Toward the construct definition of positive deviance. American Behavioral Scientist, 47, 828–847. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764203260212

28.

Trefalt

. (2020). Leading organizational change: Semester-long project. Management Teaching Review, 5, 41–58. https://doi.org/10.1177/2379298119881788

29.

Virajanand

(2020). Developing change readiness: A video-based classroom exercise. Management Teaching Review, 5, 20–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/2379298118822497

30.

Wanberg

C. R.

Banas

J. T.

(2000). Predictors and outcomes of openness to changes in a reorganizing workplace. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85, 132–142. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.85.1.132

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.01 MB