Ch 9: Building Support for Proposed Change
According to the text, macro practice in social work can be
viewed as having four major parts: (1) understanding the important components
to be affected by the change— problem, population, and arena; (2) preparing an
overall plan designed to get the change accepted; (3) preparing a detailed plan
for intervention; and (4) implementing the intervention and following up to
assess its effectiveness.
This chapter does a great job outlining the steps needed to
propose change. Planned change requires careful study and analysis before
taking action. Chapter 9 outlines four tasks that will provide the foundation
for moving toward the strategies and tactics one may choose in order to effect
change.
According to the text, the first task is to develop the
intervention hypothesis. In this task we reexamine all relevant finding from
analyses of problem, population, and arena. The relevant quantitative data and
other types of information should be distilled into a clear working hypothesis of
etiology. Etiology refers to the underlying cause of a problem. Therefore the
hypothesis establish an understanding about cause and effect relationship.
Based on the working hypothesis of etiology, creative ideas should be generated
about interventions that appear to be relevant to the need as it is currently
understood. Using the proposed interventions, a working intervention hypothesis
should be developed. The intervention hypothesis is a series of statements that
lay out a clear set of understandings about the nature of the interventions and
the expected results or outcomes.
The second task is to define the participants. Building
support beings with understanding the major participants or stakeholders. In
order for effective macro change to occur, it is necessary to have allies.
Change agents need to understand all of the systems involved. The text apply
the system theory to identify who should be involved and why. According to the
text the systems to be considered includes the initiator system, change agent
system, client system, support system, controlling system, host and
implementing systems, target system, and action system. In translation, the
system will include agency, office holder, position, committee, and task force.
The third task is to examine the capacity for change. An
assessment of readiness should include consideration of their openness,
commitments, and abilities to pursue the proposed change; availability of
resources to implement the proposed change; and the degree of outside resistance
likely to be encountered. Openness to change involves an informal assessment,
based on experience, of how people in decision-making positions have dealt with
earlier proposals. The social worker must recognizing who are the leaders
within the action system and what they bring to the change effort. Assessing
the capacity of the groups that form each system to follow through with what
needs to be done may make the difference in whether the proposal can
successfully move forward.
In the final task, the change agent must select a change
approach. Our book suggest choosing a policy, program, project, personnel, or
practice approach, or some combination, based on what is known about what is
likely to successfully work with the population and the problem. Table 9.5 on
page 327 defines each of these approaches to change. When these tasks have been
accomplished, the change effort is ready to move toward selection of strategy
and tactics. These tasks will help the intervention logically flow from an
understanding of all the known factors that contribute to the problem, need,
issue, or opportunity.
This was a great summary of the reading.
ReplyDeleteI liked this Chapter because I could see what and how Children's Division makes some policy changes. CD often uses pilot programs prior to changing policy. There is a pilot project in Kansas City for foster parent licensing and recruitment changes. If it goes well there may be one or two central licensing locations.
ReplyDeleteDorothy, it seems like there are a lot of participants to be considered. And this is just for *proposing* change! The section on outside opposition to change reminded me that internal resistance isn't the only type to beware of. We are all aware of internal opposition from those entrenched in the organization and don't want to rock the boat (in my experience, this is especially true of government employees). But external resistance can shut the organization down (like certain politicians did to ACORN).
ReplyDeleteGreat summary of the chapter Dorothy.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate how we can relate the work in the chapter to the work we are doing within our assigned communities. By working at the macro level we can implement the four above steps of:
1. Understanding the important components to be affected by the change— problem, population, and arena
2. Preparing an overall plan designed to get the change accepted.
3. Preparing a detailed plan for intervention.
4. Implementing the intervention and following up to assess its effectiveness.
By utilizing these four above steps we can collaborate with the residents and/or key players within the communities to create best practices to then create an intervention to further implement change within the community.
I liked this chapter because it can be used as a guide to propose change in a community. It is important to remember that you need some sort of leverage when trying to propose change. The latter is where a key stakeholder will come into play.
ReplyDeleteI really liked reading this chapter as well. I am very interested in a career in Macro practice and will be doing a number of these things during my practicum this summer. This particular chapter was really helpful to me in the way it broke down the steps.
ReplyDelete