Agents of Planned Social Change: Congruence of Values, Cognitions and Actions

Abstract

1 This article is based on research conducted for a Ph.D. dissertation at Columbia University, 1 972. The author wishes to acknowledge the substantial contributions of his advisor and colleague, Professor Harvey Hornstein of Columbia University, who is collaborating on an expanded change agent study currently in progress. Support for this study came from the Center for Policy Research, Inc., New York City, and the Garrett Chair for Social Responsibility, Graduate School of Business, Columbia University. Questionnaire data collected from 91 varied well-known social-change agents were organized into a framework called the change agent's general change model. This model included their values about change, how they conceptualized means of effecting change, the techniques they used to carry out change, their personal characteristics and their descriptions of their work. A four-category scheme of types of change agents best accounted for differences in the variables being studied: (1 ) outside pressure, (2) people change technology, (3) organization development, and (4) analysis for the top. Data are analyzed comparing the degree to which their general change models were congruent along two dimensions: (1 ) the congruence of values and actions and (2) the congruence of cognitions and actions.