NCJ Number
197889
Date Published
June 2000
Length
50 pages
Annotation
This monograph focuses on planned change as a social process over which planners have some influence, and it offers a model to describe the stages of this process.
Abstract
Although much of the attention and most of the examples refer to communities as units of change, the basic planned change process described could apply just as well to individuals, small groups, organizations, or larger social units, such as ethnic groups or nations. The total process of change is portrayed as a systems model with three distinct subsystems: the planning phase, the implementation phase, and the resolution phase. Change begins with the identification of a problem or the experiencing of a need by an individual or a group. Constructive planned change will not begin until someone or a group perceives the problems and focuses the attention of others on them. No matter who first identifies a problem or issue, the change agent is the person or group that begins planning to address the problem. Under the planning stage, this monograph discusses the identification of the change agent, community mobilization, resources, the setting of goals, the identification of change targets, and the communication subsystem. Stage Two, the change process, begins with goals already identified and targets already selected in the first stage. The function of the second stage of the change process is to select appropriate strategies to reach the desired targets and to implement those strategies through communication appeals. In discussing this stage, the monograph considers strategies for change, the use of power (threat of sanctions), persuasion, education, and outcomes of social change. Stage Three, the outcome of change, involves the achievement of the efforts of the previous stage. This consists of appeals that move the target through four stages, ultimately resulting in the desired action. The four stages are awareness of the problem, a sense of the importance of the problem, an intention to engage in appropriate action to deal with the problem, and constructive action. Other aspects of this stage discussed are the qualities of the change agent, the evaluation of change, and ethical issues involved in achieving social change. 84-item annotated bibliography