Date of Award

12-15-2014

Document Type

Open Access Dissertation

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Abraham Wandersman

Abstract

Introduction. In the implementation literature, organizational readiness is associated with an increased likelihood of achieving innovation outcomes. Organizational readiness consists of organizational capacity (general and innovation-specific) and organization motivation. Organizations who wish to get results from their innovations have an interest in making sure that certain factors and subcomponents are in place. However, having awareness that certain capacities and factors that influence motivation are linked to improved innovation outcomes does not necessarily help organizations to get “more ready.” There is a need for organizations to know if and how they can effectively put these factors and subcomponents into place. This dissertation set out to synthesize the strength of the evidence on how the Support System can use various techniques and interventions to build organizational readiness for implementing innovations, whether support system activities that specifically target readiness factors and subcomponents as part of an innovation implementation process demonstrate better innovation outcomes than non-targeted support system activities, and whether there were any circumstances under which readiness factors and subcomponents were less responsive to support system activities. Methods. A broad based research synthesis was used to gather information about what is known about providing support to enhance organizational readiness. To identify relevant articles, the search terms for each factor or subcomponent of readiness AND implementation AND each support strategy (tools OR training OR technical assistance OR quality assurance OR quality improvement) were entered into PsycInfo and PsychArticles (Behavioral Health), Medline and CINAHL (Health Care), and Science.gov and PAIS International databases (grey literature). 4397 articles were initially identified, with the full text of 297 articles were reviewed and coded following screening. 173 articles were retained and included in the syntheses. A coding form developed for this dissertation had an interrater reliability of κ = 0.76, with a percent agreement of 89.64. Results. The information gathered in this synthesis indicated that, 1) there is evidence that support system activities can enhance certain factors and subcomponents of organizational readiness, though the strength of evidence varied between factors and subcomponents, 2) support systems activities that target readiness are more likely to see changes in readiness outcomes than those that do not (log odds =1.13; SE = 0.46; p = 0.0137; OR = 3.1; 95% CI[1.23,7.48]), 3) support system activities that target readiness are more likely to achieve innovation outcomes than those that do not (log odds = 1.92; SE = 0.84; p = 0.0234; OR = 6.8; 95% CI [1.18,38.83]), and, 4) there are some statistical differences in articles that report changes in readiness versus those that do not. Conclusion. The findings indicate that there is evidence that organization readiness can be enhanced through the use of targeted support system activities. These findings have implications for service organizations that may be mandated or otherwise pressured to implement policies, program, or process by showing that there is potential to enhance the capabilities of organizations and therefore improve their ability to get positive innovation outcomes. Some next steps for research and practice are proposed.

Rights

© 2014, Jonathan Peter Scaccia

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