Strategies for Organizational Innovation: An Empirical Comparison

Abstract

The paper identifies several sociological strategies of intervention used in a national effort to reform social organizations and compares their relative effectiveness. Different streams of sociological literature dealing with unplanned social change suggested concepts and variables that might apply to the problem of deliberate organizational reform. Indicators were then derived from questionnaires and interviews with new teacher-interns, experienced teachers, ond college professors who were part of a national experiment to train teachers for low income schools (the Teacher Corps program). The analysis is based on forty-two public schools and ten universities located throughout the United States. The dependent variable is the number (and innovativeness) of new technologies introduced into schools through the program (derived from a content analysis of interviews). A factor analysis of thirty-five indicators revealed seven factors underlying the different explanations. A regression analysis based on these factors indicated that approximately half of the variance in the dependent variable could be explained. Technological innovation appeared to be produced by a combination of: (a) a dominant outside organization staffed by competent and liberal members; (b) competent, receptive boundary personnel in the host organization; and (c) functional interdependence and channels for cooperation to take place. These conditions underscore the importance of characteristics of the general organizational context in which innovation is taking place. The findings also suggest that a mixture of conceptual approaches is needed to explain organizational change.

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