INTERORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS DURING THE INITIATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN INNOVATIVE PROGRAM

                        CADIGAN, ROBERT THOMAS; PHD

                        BOSTON UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL, 1981

                        SOCIOLOGY, INDUSTRIAL AND LABOR RELATIONS (0629)
 

                         The research examines the changes in relationships among the members of an organization-set during
                         the development and implementation of an innovation sponsored as an experiment in system
                         development by a State Planning Agency. The organization-set studied consisted of rehabilitation
                         agencies coordinated through a Regional Council affiliated with the National Council on Alcoholism. The
                         innovative program being developed is a post detoxification intermediate care facility funded through the
                         State Division of Alcoholism. The methodologies employed included participant observation (as the
                         director of a mandated evaluation project), interviews with key organizational participants and statistical
                         analysis of client flow. The social context in which the development of intermediate care was perceived as
                         a significant development was examined from two sources: the official State Plan with its emphasis on
                         incremental system development and the everyday activities of the agents of social control working in the
                         management and treatment of alcoholics. The differences in two ideal orientations within alcoholism
                         (decriminalization and medicalization) are documented. Eight stages in the innovation process are
                         identified: (1) perception of need; (2) decision to sponsor; (3) decision to compete; (4) decision to award;
                         (5) program design; (6) initial implementation; (7) program stabilization; and (8) diffusion. Four of these
                         stages (perception of need; decision to compete; program design; and initial implementation) are
                         examined in detail. While these stages appear as a functionally ordered sequence, differences in
                         predominant structures of organizational action and related meaning structures are observed. In the
                         perception of need stage, an interorganizational action-set developed to represent the interests of
                         detoxification counselors is studied. The recognition of a system performance gap and consensus on
                         the value of intermediate care emerged through a process of confrontation intended to change the
                         behavior of individual post-detox treatment providers. In the decision to compete stage, the predominant
                         organizational structure is the interorganizational task force, which though composed of members of
                         specific organizations, develops an individual role and meaning structure, here identified as hypothetical
                         rationality. In the program design stage, while the actors remain the same, the role structure of the group
                         is changed with members emphasizing their roles as members of specific organizations. The associated
                         meaning structure is called 'bounded self interest'. In initial implementation, the roles of participants as
                         controllers of organizational resources is predominant. The meaning structure operative at this stage
                         'domain realignment', involves the active prosecution of organizational interest. Conflict over the
                         structuring and implementation of the proposed innovation first appeared at the stage of program design
                         (stage 5), a later stage for the initial appearance of conflict than that reported in most studies of
                         innovation. Divergent expectations are identified and related to input, technical core, or output
                         structures. The source of conflict within the coordinated system is related to the tight coupling of two
                         organizations functioning with distinct ideal orientations. Its resolution is related to the capacities of the
                         conflicting organizations to establish partially independent domains.

 


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