IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ormnsc/v27y1981i2p139-154.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Planned Change: Prospects for the 1980s

Author

Listed:
  • Gerald I. Susman

    (The Pennsylvania State University)

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to suggest some directions in the 1980s for the development of the theory and practice of planned change. The author makes two basic assumptions in approaching this objective. First, the two fields most widely associated with planned change, organization development and planning, are increasingly addressing similar or related problems and, as a result, offer significant opportunities to contribute to the development of the other. Second, we will not learn very much about directions for the field of planned change if discussion proceeds without consideration of the kinds of concrete problems we will likely face in the 1980s. The opportunities suggested in the first assumption will become clear by presenting some illustrative problems to be faced in the 1980s. The illustrative problems presented are highly interdependent. Organizations which attempt to solve these problems will find that many of their goals compete with or facilitate the goals of other organizations. Such problems and organizational consequences cannot be readily dealt with through central, comprehensive planning. An alternative is to create forums within and between organizations which include representation from all parties with an affected interest in the problems at issue. Action research is proposed as a problem-solving mode appropriate to such forums. It is a mode of problem-solving which searches for common values underlying different interests and encourages commitment to solving jointly defined problems.

Suggested Citation

  • Gerald I. Susman, 1981. "Planned Change: Prospects for the 1980s," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(2), pages 139-154, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:27:y:1981:i:2:p:139-154
    DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.27.2.139
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.27.2.139
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/mnsc.27.2.139?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ormnsc:v:27:y:1981:i:2:p:139-154. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.