NCJ Number
76399
Journal
Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 8 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1981) Pages: 95-118
Date Published
1981
Length
24 pages
Annotation
Planned change and administration in prison systems are examined using the framework of Blake and Mouton's Managerial Grid, and ethical problems associated with planned change in penal settings are considered.
Abstract
Application of the grid to individual change juxtaposes a change agent's concern for client commitment to the change program with the agent's concern for client conformity. Horizontal and vertical axes express the mixture and various levels of these concerns. As adapted by theorists, the grid allows individual change agents to reexamine their choices in view of individual client characteristics, an approach which has received considerable support in previous research. Use of the grid facilitates the movement from a treatment strategy focused on all clients to one emphasizing selected approaches oriented to clients with specific characteristics. Change agents in prisons face far more difficult and confusing choices than those in other sectors. Business change agents can decide not to assist a problematic client; in prisons, problematic clients do not present this choice. Many planned change relationships follow the path of least resistance rather than that of most constructive change. Self-determination represents another area for ethical concern. A total of 43 references are included.