Week Two - Jeff

Identify a model of change to help explain change within an organisation which you have experienced

To illustrate how diffusion of innovation theory applies to the organization I am working for, I would like to make use of my recent information management experience for my Division. One may be surprised by the fact that despite a small Division with only numerous persons, the wide acceptance and adoption of information management has a long way to go because information management would mean a significant and instant change to one’s custom work setting that one has long been used to.

The five categories suggested by the theory as below would best describe the progress of the information management I have gone through over the past few months.

1. Innovators

2. Early Adopters

3. Early Majority

4. Late Majority

5. Laggards

As an Innovator who first introduced the concept of standardized information management (e.g. Common Information Sharing Platform) to the Division, I was the few who was keen to challenge the traditional way of information management perceived by everyone with a passionate hope for success while there were still reluctance towards the idea as benefits from information management could only be obtained until the change had been implemented for a certain period of time.


For sure, authority-based decisions would not be an ideal measure for implementing change because individuals are not encouraged to propose creative ideas under authority, I therefore attempted to adopt ‘optional’ approach at first stage and ‘collective’ approach at late stage by giving an option the management to adopt or reject the idea at first and inviting opinions from teammates to reach consensus for information management for the Division.

The management, however, are the Opinion Leaders who first accepted my innovative ideas in making changes to the Division and assigned extra responsibility to me to establish an information sharing platform for the Division and becomes the Early Adopter who adopts to the changes I made. My immediate supervisor, on the other hand, serves as the Change Agent who mediated between my teammates and I to provide positive influence over my concept.


With the wide acceptance by the management,  all teammates in my Division did not only become Early Adopters but later transformed into Early Majority, thanks to the Opinion Leaders and Change Agent. The fact to learn that my teammates become Early Majority is supported by the fact that active and positive replies have continually been submitted by teammates through formal and informal channels.

To make a final success towards technological invocation change for my Division, I will consider employing the change aides (e.g. information management officers from other Divisions) to gain trustworthiness credibility with my teammates to strengthen their confidence of such change. After all, the implications of a change are not about ‘visible transformation’ but ‘invisible improvement in effieciency’.


Below is an interesting video I found on Youtube in regards to an information mangement fairytale which inspires people who do not see change as necessary when they actually have the tools to do so. Please enjoy it.

References:

Rogers, E. M. (2003). Diffusion of Innovations. New York: Free Press.