Change management paper
The following two models describe how fads grow and end.
Life cycle of organizational fad.
1. Academic discovery. Typically a journal article.
2. Simplified description of the study. No limitations or details are discussed.
3. Popularized through best seller. Someone who is not a researcher decides to write a book about the findings and it sells well.
4. Consultants hype the book and talk about it universal application.
5. Total commitment by true believers.
6. Doubt, cynicism, and defection. Word begins to diffuse that the idea is costly and people begin to criticize it including true believers.
7. New discovery replaces the discredited practice and it all starts over.
History of fad.
1. Stage 1: Creation: Performance gap of crisis proportion is followed by hype by champions touting a solution.
2. Stage 2: Narrative Evolution. Word of successes disseminate often through media with no discussion of cost or failure. Organizations who adopt the innovation are applauded and those who resist are stigmatized as backward.
3. Stage 3: The Time Lag. Stories by true believers are written but cautionary evidence slowly disseminates.
4. Stage 4: The narrative devolution. Word of failure with evidence diffuses and the fad is discredited and abandoned.
5. Stage 5: The resolution of dissonance. True believers blame the failure on poor leadership, lack of resources, employee resistance, and improper implementation. That leave open the possibility that the fad can emerge later in a morphed form.
How fads morph and come back.
Jingle jangle fallacy-repackaging failure.
1. Jingle fallacy-two things labeled similarly are perceived to be the same thing.
2. Jangle fallacy-two things labeled differently are perceived to be different.