agents of planned social change: congruence of values, cognitions and actions

Agents of Planned Social Change: Congruence of Values, Cognitions and ActionsAuthor(s): Noel M. TichySource: Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Jun., 1974), pp. 164-182Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. on behalf of the Johnson Graduate School of Management,Cornell UniversityStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2393887 .

Accessed: 12/06/2014 21:12

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Sage Publications, Inc. and Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University are collaboratingwith JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Administrative Science Quarterly.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 188.72.126.181 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 21:12:34 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=sage

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cjohn

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cjohn

http://www.jstor.org/stable/2393887?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


Agents of Planned Social Change: Congruence of Values, Cognitions and Actions

Noel M. Tichy

1 This article is based on research conducted for a Ph.D. dissertation at Columbia Uni- versity, 1 972. The author wishes to ac- knowledge the substantial contributions of his advisor and colleague, Professor Harvey Hornstein of Columbia University, who is collaborating on an expanded change agent study currently in progress. Support for this study came from the Center for Policy Research, Inc., New York City, and the Garrett Chair for Social Responsibility, Graduate School of Business, Columbia University.

Questionnaire data collected from 91 varied well-known social-change agents were organized into a framework called the change agent's general change model. This model included their values about change, how they conceptualized means of effecting change, the techniques they used to carry out change, their personal characteristics and their descrip- tions of their work. A four-category scheme of types of change agents best accounted for differences in the variables being studied: (1 ) outside pressure, (2) people change technology, (3) organization development, and (4) analysis for the top. Data are analyzed comparing the degree to which their general change models were congruent along two dimensions: (1 ) the congruence of values and actions and (2) the congruence of cognitions and actions.

It was found that the outside pressure type was most congruent along both dimensions, while the people change technology type was moderately congruent along both dimensions. The analysis for the top type was congruent on the value/action dimension and incongruent on the cognition/ action dimension. The organization development type was incongruent on the value/action dimension and congruent on the cognition/action dimension.1

Postindustrial societies increasingly use professional change agents to improve and change social systems, and with the increase in the demand for change agents the number of practitioners and the variety of their approaches have also increased. There has been little study of how many kinds of change agents there are, or how they affect institutions and society.

Most practitioners of planned social change are artisans rather than scientists (Tichy and Hornstein, 1 972) and their approaches are based on implicit ideas rather than a set of clearly formulated principles. An understanding of the field requires knowledge of these implicit ideas, so exploratory interviews were taken with change agents to discover their implicit ideas about social change. The preliminary study was then followed by the study reported in this paper.

The reports that change agents give of their models of social change are not necessarily accurate portrayals of actual performance, but a critical examination of these models is important (1 ) to provide an empirical base for categorizing strategies for change; (2) to discover the contradictions or incongruencies in the models, which may greatly affect the practices of change agents.

ORGANIZING FRAMEWORK FOR STUDY

Data about change agents were organized into a framework called the change agent's general change model, which included three components: the change agent's (1 ) value component, (2) cognitive component (how he conceptualizes factors mediating change) and (3) change technologies. The model is directly affected by personal characteristics, that is, training, affiliations, political orientation, income, religion, age, sex, and concurrent characteristics, that is, contextual factors, organizational meetings, his relationship to clients, and so forth. The value component of the GCM represents the change agent's evaluative orientation to social change, such as, his attitudes toward important social changes, his own social- change goals, and the goals he feels change agents should have. This component represents behavior expected of a change agent. The attitudes toward social change suggest

1 64/ASQ



Agents of Change

the change agent's value orientation indirectly, while his statement of his goals provides a more direct indication of his value orientation.

The inclusion of the cognitive component or the change agent's concepts about means of affecting change is supported by the work of such cognitive theorists as Zajonc (1 968), who argued that people require general principles about social life to make successful predictions. Change technology refers to the tools and skills the change agent uses to effect social change. To make use of his knowledge (cognitive component) and to act on his values (value component), each change agent has a set of techniques, such as, sensitivity training, operations research, and so on.

Relationship of Components

Generai Change Modei

Component\

Background Change Concurrent Characteristics Technology Characteristics

Cognitivel Component

Figure 1. Framework for organizing change agent data

Figure 1 presents the relationships that are hypothesized to exist among the three components of the model, background characteristics, concurrent characteristics, and the model.

The relationships between the components of this framework are examined for different types of change agents. It is assumed that stress or tension exists in a change agent's model when the value component and concurrent characteristics (the change agent's actions) or the cognitive component and actions are not congruent. The results of this study are discussed in terms of the probable factors contributing to different levels of congruence and the probable consequences of different degrees of congruence for change agent practice.

METHOD

Selection of Respondents To include a broad spectrum of approaches a respondent selection guide was used. An existing a priori scheme by

1 65/ASQ



Hornstein et a!. (1 971 ) was selected as the most appropriate, providing approaches ranging from violent revolution to group therapy for organization managers. Respondents were selected in the following manner. First several key individuals from each of the six Hornstein categories were selected; they were either contributors to the Hornstein et a!. book or were taken from a response to the preliminary interviews in which respondents were asked to name others with a similar approach. Next these individuals were interviewed and asked to nominate five change agents most like themselves in over-all change approach. Thus, a 'snowball" selection of respondents was begun. The remaining respondents were drawn from the list of persons named by earlier respondents.

The survey questionnaire was administered in person to 60 individuals and mailed to an additional 31 individuals. The breakdown of return rates for each of the seven guide categories is as follows (the first six categories are from Hornstein et a!. (1 971 ) while the seventh was created a priori):

Respondents Refusals

Individual 17 8 Data-based 18 12 Techno-structure 15 5 Organization 1 5 1 1 Development Nonviolent 1 3 4 Violent 6 1 Eclectic 7 3

The comparatively low refusal rate for the violent and nonviolent categories represents special contact and follow-up efforts made in order to ensure cooperation. The reasons given for refusal included: no time for an interview, not appropriate for the work the person felt he actually did, and the data might be useful for the "establishment's" continued manipulation of institutions and people.

The response rate is judged quite satisfactory in view of the amount of time respondents were asked to give (a minimum of 1 1/2 hours), and their generally busy schedules. Cooperation was high for several reasons. First, the respondents were personally approached in such a way, by letter and telephone, as to make it known that they were specially selected as members of a small group. Second, many were interested in and supportive of the study. Third, this group of individuals had been subjected to very little empirical study, so they did not seem to resent the intrusion of researchers.

Development of Instrument

In response to open-ended questions in preliminary interviews, many respondents had difficulty articulating their assumptions about what mediates social change and about other aspects of social change. We assumed that such responses were due to their assumptions being implicit, and also due to the questions used to elicit these responses. This led to the development of data collection methods aimed at better eliciting implicit assumptions, that is, a structured questionnaire. Preliminary responses and social-change litera- ture were used to develop categories for the fixed alternative and checklist items in the questionnaire by collecting and categorizing descriptive data in such areas as the social systems that change agents worked with, entry strategies, and intervention techniques. These items were pretested on a broad range of types of change agents to determine their adequacy and breadth. Although the use of any structured

1 66/ASQ



Agents of Change

questionnaire influences and limits responses, it seemed an appropriate approach, in the light of the experience with open-ended interviews.

The instrument included questions corresponding to each of the five categories of the model (Figure 1). Background characteristics included questions about age, sex, occupational position, income, and political orientation. The cognitive component of the model was derived from a number of rating scales, as well as pair-wise similarity ratings of a set of 10 variables, representing means of effecting change.

The 10 change variables were adopted from a set of "building objectives" discussed by Perlmutter (1 965), and from responses to preliminary interviews. They are: (1) Organizing challenging jobs by building on the different strengths

of each person. (2) Improving the decision-making process. (3) Establishing equitable means for measuring and controlling per-

formance. (4) Creating effective communication to facilitate cooperation between

subsystems of the total firm. (5) Facilitating the development of symbolic identification by members

with the system. (6) Building an effective selection system which takes account of the

limitations of individuals as well as their strengths. (7) Building an effective management training and development program. (8) Organizing individuals and groups within the organization to form a

power base from which they can exert pressure on the existing power structure.

(9) Organizing individuals and groups outside of the organization to form a power base from which they can exert pressure on the existing power structure.

(10) Building an equitable system of rewards and inducements for all echelons of the organization.

Respondents rated each one of the 10 variables in terms of the overall amount of change it might produce in a social system, and in addition, the effectiveness of the variables in reaching three different goals: productivity, satisfaction, and responsiveness to the public interest.

An additional component of the cognitive structure of change agents was derived by a multidimensional scaling technique, from the respondent's pairwise similarity ratings of change agents who employed the different techniques represented by the variables.

For value component, several questions were asked about possible goals for change agents. Respondents ranked in order of importance their three goals, and in addition the three goals they thought change agents should be working towards. Respondents also rated a number of attitudinal items on socio-political and social-change issues.

The primary source of information for change technology was derived from the respondents' responses as to whether they employed each of a wide variety of change techniques. In concurrent characteristics, in addition to anecdotal and contextual information, data were collected about the kinds of systems each agent had been in and was currently involved with, and about how each related to the system undergoing change.

Exploratory Study

This study is exploratory. Since the necessary information was often lacking, several important methodological and theo-

1 67/ASQ



retical issues were resolved intuitively in the hope of gathering information which would allow more precise research in the future. For example, in this study there is no representative sample. Although the sociometric nomination technique was used to help broaden the classes of respondents in each category, an issue which this study is unable to resolve is whether the opposite might have occurred, for example, whether professional cliques or clubs, exist within categories who nominated each other, thus, providing a narrower range of respondents in each category than actually exist. It may be possible in the future to specify the universe of change agents and types of change-agents and then draw a representative sample, but this study is limited to an empirical study of some types of change agents.

A related issue is that statistical tests of significance are not appropriate for this study. A chi-square statistic was calcu- lated for levels of societal criticism (Table 2) to provide readers with a sample of whether differences would be significant if the study were based on a representative sample.

A third issue is the interpretation of the data. Because the study is correlational, causal interpretation is limited; for example, are certain variables causes or consequences.

RESULTS

This section describes four types of change agents that emerged in the preliminary study. Examination of the preliminary data and this study data indicated that differences in many of the important variables such as goals, tactics, and so forth, were not being fully accounted for by the framework of Hornstein et a!. (1 971). Four types of change agents emerged, from the preliminary study, and the results of the study are organized around these four types, outside-pressure (OP), organization development (OD), people-change technology (PCT), and analysis for the top (AFT).

Self-Description of Types of Change Agents

Outside pressure (OP). This category included 8 respondents who worked as part of a national consumers' advocate group; 1 3 respondents engaged in civil rights, women's rights, and peace-movement work as nonviolent interventionists; and 6 respondents involved in various social-change activities, resorting at times to violence as an intervention strategy. The OP respondents use various change techniques, from consumer-advocate muck raking reports to mass demonstrations, civil disobedience, and violence. Some of the OP responses to the open-ended question, "What is it you do?" follow.

An OP whose muck raking consumer report and various position papers comprised an initial organizing tool and often led to community-organizing activities, which in turn lead to the social, political, and economic pressure on the system attacked replied: Investigate and publicize, via reports, books, press conferences, abuses of consumers by business and government. I call myself a catalyst because I hope that others pick up on our themes, since if we remain isolated on an issue it is unlikely that social change will result.

An OP respondent, a retired professional who became involved in activist work when he was 65 and was 70 at the time of the interview, and who helped train others in nonviolent tactics said: I work as an older member of a collection of young people devoted to training students and neighborhood groups in nonviolent methods of

1 68/ASQ



Agents of Change

promoting needed changes, all in the Quaker tradition of caring for people. We train marshals for demonstrations and members of our team organize and participate in demonstrations.

A professional community organizer who saw his aim in life as attempting to bring about the "primacy of the people" said: We work with developing issues that people are interested in inside the organization. If there is a lot of interest in pollution, I go out and get the research facts, we try to figure out what would respond to some pressure from our organization (a grass roots community organization) . . . the reality is that it is a lot more dynamic than that, you respond to things that happen in the community by accident . . . we found out some information about Mobil Oil which we could use against them and the fight evolved from there . . . what an organizer does in a situation is provide a lot of good guesses about tactics, timing, etc.

An active welfare rights community organizer, who was a catalyst for radical action, said: I go into communities where I am invited and help create a strategy to meet whatever problem the group has. Often my role is in offering options that are more radical than the community might accept. This is done to encourage the group to consider other alternatives.... I get involved in mass demonstrations, civil disobedience, and other pressure tactics including violence.

Analysis for the top (AFT). This category consisted of 1 5 respondents who used operations research and systems analysis, 6 who did policy studies, and 7 who were "eclectic" analytic consultants (business school professors).

An academically based systems analyst reported his work as: Consult mainly with private corporations regarding system approaches to making strategy decisions and to making operating decisions and control management processes, such as investing and production control.

A member of a research institute with a systems-oriented policy who generally works on a team the institute assigns to a particular social system said: I work with groups concerned with problems of the design and operation of systems in order to aid in resolving their problems. Normally the work involves technological remodeling and analysis.

One of the heads of the same institute reported an additional task, looking for problems, that is, generating new business: Identify policy problems; define a subset of system problems; establish priorities; define alternative solutions; compare alternatives on the basis of anticipated (estimated) benefits/costs; estimate implementation feasibility; specify range of uncertainty; recommend one or more options for (a) experimentation or (b) implementation; remain involved as innovation succeeds or fails, or (as is often the case) has mixed results.

Organization development (OD). These respondents included those who were associated with two major nonprofit institutes and who referred to themselves as OD consultants. A freelance organization-development consultant said: I work on the human side of the enterprise. That is, I help people, mostly top executives, work out their problems of interpersonal relationships and communications, conflicts of interest, etc. I get involved in planning and implementing procedures of goal setting, decision making, conflict reso- lution, and the delegation of authority. In this way I help an organization develop and modify its governmental (self governance) and problem- solving mechanisms as well as help key executives work with each other within these ground rules.

An academically based OD consultant who described his work in terms of "process consultation" and who helped groups within organizations improve their social processes, said: My whole philosophy of process consultation is built on the notion of helping people to help themselves, therefore, an extremely important

1 69/ASQ



2 These Tavistock consultants are not to be confused with the socio-technical, Eric Trist, system consultants. The respondents in this study primarily use the Tavistock group approach, following Bion (1 952) and later A. K. Rice.

consideration and one of the reasons people will call me in is because they do not see me as having an axe to grind . .. primarily work with groups on their interactive process.

People change technology (PCT). These respondents included a Tavistock group consultant,2 a need-achievement consultant, a behavior-modification consultant, and a job- enrichment consultant.

The freelance consultant who did need-achievement training with executives and middle level managers in organizations said: Help individuals and organizations focus on: definition of goals, obstacles which stand in the way of goal attainment; individual motivational patterns against motivational patterns and requirements of the task; organizational goal attainment, emphasis on individual and organization self-development.

The academically based psychiatrist who used the Tavistock group approach to his consulting work said: I attempt to help groups, organizations, and individuals identify their own goals and ideals and relate these to current realities and projected possibilities. I help groups identify their own assets and problem areas, develop resources in order to more closely align current practices and goals.

The job-enrichment private consultant who thought that many of society's problems arise from an under-utilization of human resources, and that this could be remedied by changing the makeup of people's jobs, said: We help people understand or educate them to a deeper understanding of what turns people on and show them how to do it. That necessitates rethinking the historical model. The rationale for organizational training has been to change attitudes and then people will change behavior. What we are saying is let us physically change your situation, I'll force a behavior change and you will adopt an attitude consistent with your new behavior. We actually change jobs which force people in those jobs and the people who manage them to behave differently.

Background Characteristics

The OP's were quite distinct from the other three types, as is evident from Tables 1 and 2. They made less money, had less formal education, were younger and more political; for example, none of them considered themselves moderates, while 41 percent considered themselves left and 22 percent conservative, although based on anecdotal data, most were radical conservatives. The PCT's were somewhat distinct from

Table 1

Background Characteristics

OP PCT OD AFT (N==27) (N== 1 7) (N= 1 9) (N= 28)

Academic positions (%) 1 5 76 68 64 Median age 30-35 35-40 40-50 40-50 Religious composition (%) Protestant 41 52 58 43 Roman Catholic 22 6 10 11 Jewish 26 41 16 32 Other or None 26 0 16 14 Median income (in thousands) $1 0-$1 5 $20-$30 $30-$40 $40+ Highest academic degree (%) B.A. or less 42 6 13 15 Masters or professional degree 35 0 7 26 Doctorate 23 94 80 59

1 70/ASQ



Agents of Change

Table 2

Political Orientation and Attitudes (in percent)

OP PCT OD AFT (N= 27) (N== 1 7) (N== 1 9) (N =28)

Political orientation Left 41 20 10 0 Liberal 22 59 58 40 Moderates 0 6 16 32 Conservative 22 0 10 10 Other 12 12 5 8 Degree of Societal Criticism" High 52 23 26 4 Moderate and Low 48 77 74 96 Degree of Radical Change Advocatedt High 50 29 25 10 Moderate and Low 50 71 75 90

*Responses contributing to high scores on this index are: agreement with the statements that (1 ) society needs a complete restructuring and (2) that this society is structured in such a way that alienation is inevitable. X2==18.28; df=3; p. .001. This was computed to provide a sample of whether differences would be significant if the study was based on a representative sample.

tResponses contributing to high scores on this index are: agreement with the statement that one should "strike at the roots of problems no matter how much change is done" and disagreement with -''courts are useful vehicles for change," "violence is not justified means for change," "there are legitimate channels for change which have to be exhausted first," "compromise is essential for progress." Respondents could score between 0 and 5 on this index. In the table, "high" includes respondents with scores higher than 3.

the OD's and AFT's in that they had a slightly higher proportion of academicians and people with doctorate degrees, were younger, and made less money. Of the AFT's 32 percent were politically moderate and so differed from the PCT's and OD's, most of whom were left or liberal.

Value Component

As might be predicted from the political orientations of the four types, there were differences between them in their value orientation (Table 2). Not surprisingly, the OP's with the most extreme political orientations were most critical in their views of society and the greatest advocates of radical change. The AFT's were the least critical and the least radical, and the OD's and PCT's were moderates. A similar pattern emerged in ranking goals, 67 percent of the OP's compared to 23 percent or less of any of the other types advocated "equalization of power and system responsibility to the general public welfare" as their first priority.

The linkage between political orientation and values is also evident in the responses to a question about what goals change agents should be trying to achieve. Table 3 shows that 39 percent of the OP's, 28 percent of the OD's, but only 7 percent of the PCT's and 8 percent of the AFT's rated either 'increased democratic participation within the system by all members" or "help increase the social and political power of people at the bottom of our institutions and society," as a primary goal. The OP's attempt to change power relationships

1 71 /ASQ



through power tactics and the OD's attempt to make management more democratic and participative through per- suasive tactics are reflected in the responses. A comparison

Table 3

Primary Goal of Change Agents (in percent)

Primary goal of change OP PCT OD AFT agents (N=27) (N= 1 7) (N= 1 7) (N= 28)

Improved System efficiency and increased output 11 35 26 57

Improved system problem-solving 4 1 8 58 32

Equalization of power and system responsibility to social welfare 67 23 5 7

Improved satisfaction of members 4 6 0 4

Improved interpersonal relations 4 6 5 0

Increased range of individual choice and freedom 0 6 5 0

Develop new system 11 0 0 0

No answer 0 6 0 0

between ratings of actual goals and goals considered desirable for change agents shows the percentage of inconsistent cases; that is, those in which responses about what goals change agents should have were not comparable to what they reported as their actual goals. The following results were obtained. Consistency was determined by having judges catego- rize both the actual and desirable goals for each respondent into five categories: (1 ) improvement of system efficiency and output. (2) power equalization and/or social responsibility to social problems, (3) increased individual freedom, (4) developing new systems, and (5) individual and interpersonal satisfaction. Each respondent's actual was then compared to his desires goal to determine whether the two were consistent.

The following results were obtained. The OP's were the most consistent, a not surprising finding, given the social and political idealism that motivate OP's and whose work is primarily directed to what "should be," in contrast to those who are more or less technicians for hire. A large percentage (80) of OD's were inconsistent, and although espousing with PCT's such goals as "democratic participation and solving social problems" their reports of what they actually did indicated that many were working to make systems more effi- cient and productive. A larger portion of PCT's than OD's reported that what they actually did was consistent with their goals. This was also true of AFT's.

Cognitive Component

It was expected that the cognitive component of a change agent's general model of social change would be affected by background characteristics and that there would be an inter- action between the value component and the cognitive component. The data suggest that such relationships do exist. Before the differences among the respondents in the cognitive component are discussed, it is necessary to explain how the data were analyzed. It was assumed that a change agent's concept of means for effecting social change is not unidimen- sional. Most change agents use several dimensions in making judgments about the similarity of different means of effecting

1 72/ASQ



Agents of Change

change. To identify the dimensions a multidimensional scaling approach was selected as an appropriate technique.

The discussion focuses on the INDSCAL analysis of respondents' pair-wise similarity ratings of change agents who used different techniques represented by the 1 0 change variables. It is assumed in the INDSCAL model (Carroll, 1972; Carroll and Chang, 1 970) that all subjects use the same set of dimensions in making judgments of similarity or dissimilarity, but differ with regard to the relative importance, or weights, of these dimensions. As in other multidimensional scaling procedures, the solution is assumed to be related to distances between stimuli in some latent psychological space. However, in the INDSCAL model the distances depend on the subjects' dimension weights as well as on the stimulus coordinates. The dimension weights for a particular subject indicate (approximately) how much each dimension stimulus will correlate as highly as possible with that subject's similarity ratings. It is more or less true that the square of a subject's weight on a dimension indicates the proportion of variance of his similarities data that can be accounted for by the dimension. The aim is to determine (by means of an iterative least-square procedure) the stimulus coordinates and subject weights that will account for as much variance of the similarities data of all subjects as possible.

Although the INDSCAL model assumes that there is a common set of dimensions for subjects, it does allow for the possi- bility that some dimensions will have zero weight and be irrelevant for some subjects. Since different subgroups can have nonzero weights for different sets of dimensions and zero weights for the dimensions relevant to other subgroups, the procedure can accommodate much variation in multidimensional structures.

Measuring and Controlling Performance Improving the

Decision-making Process

Building an Equitable Reward System

Building Effective Management Training

Organizing Challenging Creating * JJobs * Effective

Building an Communication Effective Selection System

Organizing Within the Organization

Organizing E Outside the

aDDeveloping Organization V) Symbolic Identification CNJ

DIM 1: Shifting the locus of power

Figure 2. Dimensions 1 and 2 of three-dimensional INDSCAL configura- tion for 10 means of effecting change

1 73/ASQ



Figure 2 shows the first two dimensions of tactic similarity as determined by the INDSCAL procedure. The dimension was labeled 'shifting the locus of power." Tactics tending to shift organizational power and authority such as organizing inside and outside pressure groups, projected on one end, whereas tactics such as changing the selection system, management training, etc., which tend to have little effect on the organizational power and authority structure, projected toward the other end, maintaining locus of power. Creating effective communication between subsystems and improving the decision-making process had dimension values slightly toward the shifting locus-of-power end of the dimension. These may be perceived as having secondary effects on the power and authority structure of an organization.

The vertical dimension in Figure 2 was interpreted as "system/ individual interest" because tactics that contribute most directly to overall system efficiency and output, such as measuring and controlling performance, loaded high on one end and tactics such as organizing load on the other end. Management training, creating challenging jobs and creating effective communication have intermediate values on the system/individual dimension because they may benefit both the individual and the system. Organizing

Outside the Organization

Organizing Within the Organization

Building an Effective Selection System

Organizing Measuring and Challenging Jobs.* Controlling Performance

Building an Equitable Reward System

U) Building Effective U) Management Training o

0

Developing Symbolic Improving the Identification * Decision-Making

co Process E Creating Effective

Communication cYr

DIM 1: Shifting the locus of power Figure 3. Dimensions 1 and 3 of three-dimensional INDSCAL configura- tion for 1 0 means of effecting change

Figure 3 shows the third dimension human "relations/structural." It separated tactics focusing primarily on social- psychological processes-effective communication, improved decision making, management training-from those focusing on changing structural aspects of the system-creating challenging jobs, building an equitable reward system, changing the selection system, and organizing outside.

1 74/ASQ



Agents of Change

Table 4

Desired Primary Goal of Change Agents (in percent)

Goal that should be primary OP PCT OD AFT

Growth and development of the corporation-increased efficiency and output 9 7 11 32 Insure individual freedom 1 7 7 11 20 Increase democratic participation in decision- making by all members 17 0 11 4 Aid society in solving social problems 22 67 33 28 Help increase social and political power of people at the bottom of our institutions and society 22 7 1 7 4 Other 13 13 17 12

Table 4 shows the mean weights for each of the four types of change agents on the three dimensions. The AFT's had the lowest mean on locus of power, and the OP's the highest. The greater salience of this dimension for OP's is consistent with their political stance, whether left or right, and their change goal, the distribution of power, whereas the AFT's were the most status-quo oriented in terms of power distribution. The OD's and PCT's were also concerned with power distribution, but not as strongly, so their means fell between the other two types.

The reverse pattern occurred on the dimension, system/ individual interest which was more salient for the AFT's, consistent with their focus on output and efficiency; and for PCT's, 35 percent of whom had output and efficiency as a primary goal. This dimension was less salient for OP's, since their concern was with the general public interest rather than with the interest of a particular system; and for OD's who were more concerned with internal processes than with overall system output and efficiency.

Effectiveness of means in accomplishing different goals. Table 5 presents the three means of effecting change that the four Table 5

Mean Weights on Dimensions I, II and IlIl

OP PCT OD AFT Dimension (N= 27) (N= 17) (N= 14) (N= 28)

Shifting locus of power .45 .42 .43 .37 System/individual interest .24 .28 .39 .48 Human relations/structural .31 .30 .31 .32

types of change agents said are most likely to be used to achieve each of the three change goals. The four types indicated that these were the three means they would actually use to achieve those goals.

Table 6 indicates that the four groups differed very much in the consistency between means they rated as effective for each goal and means they would actually use. The OP's and OD's were much more consistent than the AFT's or PCT's. The differing degrees of consistency may reflect some important underlying differences between the types, such as the reliance of PCT's and AFT's on a limited set of change

1 75/ASQ



Table 6

Rating by Change Agents of Means of Effecting Change

OP PCT OD AFT Means of effecting change (N= 27) (N= 17) (N= 19) (N=28)

Creating challenging jobs Sat. (Prod.) Sat. (Prod.) Prod. (Prod.) Sat. (Prod.) (Sat.) (Sat.) Sat. (Sat.) (Sat.)

(Pub.)

Improving decision-making Prod. (Pub.) Pub. (Pub.) Prod. (Prod.) Prod. (Prod.) Sat. Sat. (Pub.) Sat. (Pub.) Pub. Pub. Pub.

Measuring and controlling performance Prod. (Prod.) Prod. (Sat.) Sat.

Creating effective communication Prod. (Sat.) Sat. Prod. (Prod.) Prod. (Sat.) Pub. Sat. (Sat.) Pub. (Pub.)

Pub. (Pub.) Developing symbolic identification

Building an effective selection system Prod. (Prod.) Sat.

Building effective management training Prod. Pub. Pub. Sat. Pub.

Organizing within the organization Pub. (Pub.)

Organizing outside the organization Pub. (Pub.) (Pub.) Pub. (Pub.) (Pub.)

Building an equitable reward system (Prod.) Prod. (Prod.) (Sat.) (Prod.) (Sat.) (Sat.) (Sat.)

(Pub.)

*The three change variables that change agents would actually use to achieve increased productivity (Prod.) increased satisfaction (Sat.) and increased responsiveness to the general public interest (Pub.) are shown without parentheses. The three change variables that change agents rated as most likely to achieve each of the goals are shown in parentheses.

techniques or tactics; while the OP's who are committed to certain societal goals, are not constrained by client/consultant relationships to apply a particular technique and are therefore freer to use whatever they think will work. The OD, on the other hand, is more focused on change processes and is even less committed to using only one set of change techniques.

Change-Technology Component

In one part of the questionnaire respondents were asked to identify their means of effecting change. The OP's responses indicated that they used means similar to the "organizing within" and "organizing outside" variables, in fact, the best descriptive label for their tactics is 'pressure" tactics. As Table 7 indicates, these include mass demonstrations, civil disobedience, destruction of property, violence and work stoppage-tactics essentially never used by the other groups.

The principal means for the PCT's, were role clarification; changing the decision-making structure, the authority structure, the reward structure; technological innovations; and behavioral science training. Based on other contextual data, it was clear that when PCT's referred to technological innovations, they meant social and people change technologies, such as behavior modification, job enrichment, and need- achievement training. Technological innovations, changing the decision-making structure, and role clarification were important in the work of the AFT's. The OD respondents used a distinct set of means. Over 79 percent of the OD's reported using several related techniques, such as, sensitivity training, team development, and individual counseling.

1 76/ASQ



Agents of Change

Table 7

Proportion of Each Type with the Same Means Rated among the Top Three for being Most Effective and for Being Most Likely to be Used

Proportion of Each Type with the Means of effecting Change among the Top Three for-Effectiveness and Own Use

OP PCT OD AFT Goal (N= 27) (N== 17) (N= 1 9) (N= 28)

Increased productivity 2/3 2/3 3/3 1/3 Increased satisfaction 2/3 2/3 2/3 1/3 Responsiveness to the public interest 3/3 1/3 3/4 2/4 Total 7/9 5/9 8/10 4/10 Total (as percent) 77 55 80 40

Concurrent Characteristics

Although the data available in this study on what the change agent actually did and how he performed in his field was limited, self-report data was collected on who respondents worked with and also on characteristics of their relationships with the systems undergoing change.

Table 8

Use of Various Tactics (in percent)

OP PCT OD AFT Change Tactics (N= 27) (N== 1 7) (N= 1 9) (N= 28)

Mass demonstrations 78 0 0 0 Civil disobedience 55 0 0 0 Destruction of property 1 9 0 0 0 Violence 30 0 0 0 Work stoppage 33 0 5 0 Confrontation meetings 83 47 95 39 Survey feedback 23 46 50 38 Interviews and feedback 39 43 84 57 Job training 44 65 22 75 Behavioral science training 26 88 95 50 Sensitivity training 27 41 79 21 Team development 50 65 100 31 Individual counseling 42 53 95 46 Technological innovations 48 71 63 89 Change in the reward structure 44 82 58 71 Change in the authority structure 63 71 89 71 Change in the decision- making structure 70 76 94 96 Role clarification 70 100 100 75 Selection system 55 65 53 53

The systems change agents worked with are presented in Table 8. The PCT's, OD's, and AFT's had fairly similar patterns of involvement and all differed from the OP's, who fell into two categories. One included business and government units, which the OP's attempted to change but never collaborated with. The other category included groups such as unions, community groups, foundations, and schools, with whom the OP might have worked in order to help them change internally

1 77/ASQ



or to help them work against an external system, such as a business or government unit.

Table 9

Kinds of Systems and Means of Implementing Changes (in percent)

OP PCT OD AFT Kinds of Systems (N==24) (N== 17) (N== 14) (N==28)

Government Units 71 70 84 84 Community Groups 96 70 72 28 Unions 54 6 16 11 Foundations 23 35 52 36 Schools 68 82 95 59 Businesses 19 53 91 72 Other 34 47 16 11 Means of Implementation Develop power to implement change 52 0 0 0 Influence individuals within the system to implement change 37 63 31 52 Provide information for decision makers to make own decisions 11 37 68 48

*Worked against, not with.

The four types differed in their relationships to systems undergoing change. Table 9 shows how decisions were implemented by each type. Half of the OP's and none of the others reported that they developed the power to implement change decisions. Most of the remainder of the OP's reported that they tried to influence insiders to carry out their change decisions. Both, especially the first, represent the exercise of power. Since OD's attempted to relate collaboratively with members in the system undergoing change, it was not surprising that 68 percent tried to provide information rather than attempting to influence system members directly. The PCT's and AFT's were respectively, expert doers and expert advisors, so that direct influence on key individuals in a system was important. Most responded that they implemented change decisions by influencing members of the system.

Responses to the question, 'With which groups do you generally work directly?" indicated that all types had most of their contact with top and middle-level groups.

Finally, respondents were asked to indicate to whom they felt responsible in a system- 'the top," 'the person who called them in," 'the total system," or the 'general public interest." The differences between groups in terms of who they felt responsible to was found to reflect the commitment of OP's to the "general public," of the AFT's rather clear commitment to being hired to aid and advise the heads of systems and the PCT's and OD's view of themselves as doing things which are contributing to more widespread system good.

The picture that emerges is somewhat troubling. Even though the four types appear to have fairly congruent change models, all but the OP's model include some inconsistencies. These inconsistencies appear in the relationships between either actions and cognitions.

1 78/ASQ



Agents of Change

Congruence

High

Organiza- Outside tion Prssue Develop- Pressure ment Type Type

o

0

0

0

U ~~~~~~~People

; ~~~~~~Analysis for the Top Type

Low _ Low Congruence of Value-Action High

Figure 4. Degree of Cognition-Action Congruence and Value-Action Congruence for Four Types of Change Agents

In Figure 4, each of the four types is located along two con- gruency dimensions; the congruence between the change agent's values and actions, cognitions and actions. The place- ment of the four groups along the two dimensions in Figure 4 is based, approximately, on the findings reported in the preceding section. The OP's are the highest in both dimensions. The centrality of political ideology and values, in addition to being a motivational force, a framework for concep- tualizing social relations (cognitive component) and determin- ing the appropriate interventions (change technology and concurrent characteristics), makes for this congruence. A related hypothesis is that their model is simple and therefore makes for congruence; for example, power is unequally dis- tri'buted and should be more equal; therefore engage in power equalization tactics.

The OD's congruence is high on the cognitive/action dimension and low on the value/action dimension. Most of the OD's indicated that they should be striving for such goals as increased democratic participation by all members in a system, increased individual freedom, aiding society in solving social problems and power equalization in society; however, they reported that they actually worked to improve productivity or problem-solving ability in the system. The paradox for OD's is that they have a value-oriented change approach as reflected in their goals, but they are generally employed by organizations not for these values, but to help with problems effecting efficiency and output.

The low value/action congruence of OD's seems related to inadequiate attention to the larger sncial context within which

th0)cane r ocrig

0 9/S



Neither the PCT's nor the AFT's were as low on congruence as the OD's on the value-action dimension. The PCT's fall into two groups: one group comparable to the AFT's, espoused productivity and improved efficiency goals and consistently worked toward them, while the other espoused more socially- oriented goals. The latter differ from the OD's in that they report actually working toward these social goals. Whether behavior modification or job enrichment in a factory leads to aiding society to solve important social problems remains open to future investigation, but based on their own reports, the PCT's are not value-action incongruent.

On the cognitive-action dimension, however, the PCT's and AFT's are more incongruent than the other two types. Perhaps, as already mentioned, the PCT's and AFT's have a limited set of change technologies that they use in almost all settings, under almost all conditions, for a range of goals. Examples include AFT's who only use operations research, or PCT's who use job enrichment or behavior modification.

Persistence of Incongruencies

One of the factors that allow incongruence to persist, is undoubtedly ignorance. Change agents are probably not aware of any incongruence on either the value or cognitive dimensions. Their work does not require explication and systematic focus on their assumptions.

For those who are aware of value-action inconsistencies in their models, they may still persist. Gouldner (1 958) in his discussion of the applied social scientist, states that he is oriented not only to the value of his profession but also to the values of laymen; therefore, the change agent's selection of dependent variables (goals) is influenced by laymen's needs, and he might, at times, let their goals supersede his own. Gouldner also pointed out that for the applied social scientist, knowledge is not just a matter of understanding complex social phenomena, but of facilitating solutions or changes; therefore, independent variables, in addition to their predictive power are selected for their accessibility to control. Change agents can therefore know powerful means of effecting change, yet see them as not accessible to control and therefore not usable.

Incongruent models may persist through sham. Although there was no evidence of sham in the questionnaire data or from personal contacts with respondents in this study, it is certainly likely that it does exist in such a fast growing and lucrative profession as "change agentry." O'Connell, in 1 968, estimated the management-consultant business to be nearly a billion-dollar-a-year industry, since then the figure has gone up.

The factor that contributes most to maintaining the incongruencies in the three models is how planned change is implemented and the role of the change agent in that process. For social innovations to be implemented, someone must indicate that they have a high probability of improving the system in some desired way. The change agent is generally in this advocate role. As Campbell (1 973) so aptly pointed out: The overadvocacy trap emerges from the extreme difficulty within any political system or bureaucracy of getting a new program adopted. The advocacy involved is almost certain to make exaggerated claims as to the degree and certainty of the program's effectiveness, and involves almost certain political jeopardy. The advocacy of different reforms by competitors for positions of power exacerbates this threat. Anticipation of marginal effects due to program focus on the failures of preponderantly

1 80/ASO



Agents of Change

general services, or due to the trivial magnitude of the program as implemented, provide understandable grounds for opposition to evaluation.

Because of overadvocacy, there are vested interests in avoid- ing evaluation, both by the change agent and the supporting system members. Thus, change agents are not forced into clear articulation of their goals and assumptions prior to intervention so that their work can be evaluated. Another factor, longer lasting and more detrimental is that there can be little learning from successes and failures; thus, understanding, prediction, and control continue to remain intuitive, unknown resources of change agent artisans. It is desirable for the three groups to move toward more congruent models because of unneccessary costs not only on the change agents but on the institutions in society which they influence.

Consequences of Incongruencies

For the OD's to remain as they are means that they are always in potential conflict with the group which hires them. There seems to be latent pressure on OD's for them either to adjust their values to those of system leaders (which seems to happen implicitly to many) or to confront the value differences or work with lower-level members in grass-roots democratization efforts. The consequences of OD's continuing in their present state are: (1 ) an increased probability of value conflict for the practitioner; and (2) a high probability of contradictions existing in their intervention approach-that is, working toward increased collaborative management in systems in which basic governance structures and form of owner- ship are inconsistent with such management (Dahl, 1 972).

For the OD's to become more congruent, they must face their latent value conflict with power groups. This can be accom- plished by: (1 ) dealing explicitly with values prior to entry, providing the client with an informed consent that includes the costs of participative management; (2) not promising increased efficiency and productivity as a likely consequence of an OD intervention unless supported by evidence; (3) working with the lower levels of organizations in joining forces with and/or using tactics of the OP's in grass-roots democratization efforts.

For the AFT's to remain in their present position means that at times they will be carrying out intervention tactics to accomplish goals which they know are not the most effective tactics. The PCT's share some of the consequences of both the OD and the AFT. On the value-action dimension, a portion of the PCT's are in a value-conflict similar to the OD's. The more important consequence, however, related to the position of PCT's on the cognitive-action dimension, where they are in exactly the same dilemma as the AFT's that of using a limited range of instruments.

For AFT's and PCT's to achieve congruence along the cognitive-action dimension, they must either broaden the range of change technologies they are able to use or develop more explicit contracts with the client about what they can hope to accomplish. Also, they can limit their change work to trying to achieve goals for which they know they have the tools. The congruence of the OP's seems due to their simplistic, uni- dimensional model; it is therefore probably effective only for an extremely narrow range of social change goals.

Advantages of Congruence

The establishment of four types of change agents with four internally congruent models of change does not improve the

181 /ASQ



application of planned social change or make it more scientific. But with internally congruent change models, other important conditions for moving toward a science can be made, such as: (1 ) making the change agent's model assumptions and values explicit; (2) changing values of clients and change agents toward accepting innovations as opportunities to learn about social change through evaluation research; and (3) increasing evaluation research on competing intervention strategies. If the practice of planned social change began operating in an experimental fashion, a true body of pertinent knowledge could evolve and there would be less dependence on the skills of "immutable" change agents.

Noel M. Tichy is assistant professor at the Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, and research associate at The Center for Policy Research in New York City.

REFERENCES

Bion, William R. 1 952 "Group dynamics a re-

review." International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 33: 235-247.

Carroll, Douglas J. 1 972 "Individual Differences and

Multidimensional Scaling." In A. N. Shepard, A. K. Romney, S. Nerlove (eds.), Multidimensional Scaling: Theory and Application in the Behavioral Sciences, New York: Academic Press.

Carroll, Douglas J., and Jih-Jie Chang 1 970 "Analysis of individual

differences in multidimensional scaling via an N-way generalization of Eckart- Young decomposition." Psychometrika, 35: 283-31 9.

Campbell, Donald 1 973 Methods for the Experi-

menting Society. Unpub- lished working paper, Evanston, Illinois: North- western University.

Dahl, Robert 1 972 "A prelude to corporate

reform." Business and Society Review, 1: 1 7-23.

Gouldner, Alvin 1 957 "Theoretical requirements

of the applied social sciences." American Socio- logical Review, 12: 92-102.

Hornstein, Harvey, Barbara Bunker, Warner Burke, Marion Gindes, and Roy Lewicki 1 971 Social Intervention: A

Behavioral Science Ap- proach. New York: Free Press.

O'Connell, Jeremiah 1 968 Managing Organizational

Innovation. Homewood, Illinois: Richard D. Irwin.

Tichy, Noel, and Harvey Hornstein "Stand When Your Number Is Called: An Empirical Attempt to Classify Types of Social Change Agents," Working paper, New York: Columbia University.

Wish, Myron, Morton Deutsch, and Lois Biener 1 960 "The process of cognitive

tuning in communication." Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 61: 1 50-1 67.

1 970 "Differences in conceptual structures of nations: an exploratory study." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 1 6: 361-373.

Zajonc, Robert 1 968 "Cognitive theories in social

psychology." In Gardner Lindzey and Elliott Aronson (eds.), The Handbook of Social Psychology, Vol. I. E. Reading, Mass: Addison- Wesley.

Zajonc, Robert, and D. Wolfe 1 966 "Cognitive consequences of

a person's position in a formal organization." Human Relations. 1 9: 1 39-1 50.

1 82/ASQ



agents of planned social change: congruence of values, cognitions and actions

Documents