Change
Engagement
Activities
Shaifali, Audrey, Ely
Review From Last Week
What is a change agent?
 An individual who influences clients’ innovation-decisions in a direction deemed
desirable by a change agency.
What are two problems faced by change agents?
 Social Marginality and Information Overload
What are some of the roles of change agents?
 Develop a need for change; Establish an information exchange relationship; Diagnose
problems; Create an intent to change the client; Translate intentions into actions;
Stabilize adoption; Achieve a terminal relationship
What is an aide?
 An Aide is a less than fully professional change agent who intensively contacts clients in
order to influence their innovation-decisions.
What is the difference between centralized and decentralized diffusion models?
 Centralized—Overall control is held by government officials/experts
 Decentralized—Innovations spread by horizontal networks among near peers in a
spontaneous fashion
Innovation in
Organizations
Consequences of
Innovations
ALEC 640
Objectives
• Define
organization and role of a champion
• Discuss
the stages in the innovation process and subprocesses for organizations
• Define
and describe consequences
• Analyze
the form, function, and meaning of an innovation
• Discuss
state of equilibrium in a social system
• Describe
strategies to narrow gaps in a social system
What is an Organization?
• An
organization is a stable system of individuals who work
together to achieve common goals through a hierarchy of
ranks and a division of labor.
• Organizations
are created to handle large scale routine
tasks through a pattern or regularized human relationships.
• They
share:
 Predetermined Goals, Prescribed Roles, Authority Structure, Rules
and Regulations, and Informal Patterns
• Read
the paragraph at the top of page 405 by Max Weber.
 Do you agree or disagree with his assessment of bureaucratic
organizations?
What is a Champion?
A champion is a charismatic individual who throws his or
her weight behind an innovation, thus overcoming
indifference or resistance that the new idea may provoke
in an organization.
How is a champion in an organization like an opinion
leader in a community?
Five Stages in the Innovation
Process in an Organization
Decision
I. Initiation
1. Agenda
Setting
II. Implementation
2. Matching
3. Redefining/
Restructuring
4. Clarifying
5. Routinizing
Apply the Innovation
Process in Organizations
Read the case study “Adoption of New Communication
Technologies” or “The Santa Monica Freeway Diamond
Lane Experiment: Implementation Failure”
How does the innovation process apply to these two
situations?
What is a Consequence?
Consequences are the changes that occur to an individual
or a social system as a result of the adoption or rejection of
an innovation.
Read “Snowmobile Revolution in the Artic.”
What was the impact of the snowmobile on the people and
the reindeer?
Why was an entire culture disrupted as a consequence of
an innovation?
Studying Consequences
• How
are these questions different?
 “What variables are related to innovativeness?”
 “What the effects of adopting innovations?”
• Why
does the book suggest there have there been
so few studies on consequences?
• What
are the three dimensions of consequences?
the case studies, “ORT: The Consequences of
Consequences” and “Steel Axes for Stone-Age
Aborigines” what dimensions were addressed?
• In
Form, Function, and Meaning
the case study, “Steel Axes for Stone Age
Aborigines,” what was the form, function and meaning
of the innovation?
• In
• Why
is this generalization likely true?
 Change Agents more easily anticipate the form and
function of an innovation than its meaning.
• How
can empathizing with clients make the meaning
of an innovation more clear to the change agent?
• How
does equilibrium impact the system? What is the
equilibrium goal for change agents?
“The Mosquito Killer”
What was the problem with the DDT innovation?
Equality in the Consequences of
Innovations
• Why
does the diffusion of innovations generally cause wider
socioeconomic gaps within an audience? p.457
• Gap
Widening Consequences –Read Generalizations 11-4 and
11-5
 How do these generalizations apply to the Columbia coffee farmers
example on page 461?
• Social
Structure and the Equality of Consequences– Read
Generalization 11-6
 How does this generalization apply to the water well examples in
Pakistan and Bangladesh on page 463? What about the Columbia
coffee farmers?
Wider Gaps are
Not Inevitable
Strategies for
Narrowing Gaps
Read the strategies suggested on pages 464-467.
From the case studies we have reviewed, which strategy
might have been most effective in narrowing the gaps?
If you were a change agent, which strategies would you try to
utilize most often?
“The Digital Divide”
Which strategies for narrowing gaps would be most
effective in this example?
Are these issues still true today? Why or why not?
Overview
• Defined
organization and role of a champion
• Discussed
the stages in the innovation process and subprocesses for organizations
• Defined
and describe consequences
• Analyzed
the form, function, and meaning of an
innovation
• Discussed
state of equilibrium in a social system
• Described
strategies to narrow gaps in a social system
How likely is it that
you will serve in the
role of change agent?
Education, training, career goals and aspirations
Do you feel you are now more equipped to manage the
challenges of initiating change and the consequences of
adoption? Why or why not?
Reminders
• Next
week, November 17
 Conflict management during change—no advanced readings for
this session
• November
24
 No Class
 Work on Research Review Paper; due by Sunday, November 29
 Rubric is posted on Ecampus
•
December 1
 Meet at On The Border, 3:00-5:00 p.m.
•
December 16
 Take Home Final Due, posted to Ecampus