Reference no: EM133990327
Assignment
Directions
For your final assignment in this course, you will design a creative and innovative solution to a problem your organization is experiencing. If your organization/department is not education-related or you are not presently employed, you may select another education-related organization (e.g., after-school programs, park district education programs, PTA, church groups (Sunday school), book clubs, etc.). If you work in a non-education-related organization, you might consider diffusing an innovation within your organization's training/development department, which is education-focused. As long as the organization or department is education-focused, you may use it as the basis for this assignment. Check with your instructor if you need help determining the organization's suitability for this assignment.
You will begin by defining the problem and then develop a plan to diffuse an innovation in the organization.
You may select any innovation to diffuse in the organization, including the innovation that was the focus of your Assignment. The innovation may have been diffused elsewhere, but it may be new to your chosen organization. You may also choose to develop your own innovation. In this paper, you will analyze the diffusion process from start to finish. You will apply the principles and generalizations from the course readings to a particular innovation and help the reader to understand how you will diffuse this innovation within the organization.
Your paper should be 6 to 8 pages (double-spaced), including a title page, abstract, and references. The paper should be organized as follows:
I. Introduction
II. The Problem
1. What is the problem or need that your innovation will address?
2. How will you measure your success? What metrics will demonstrate that the innovation has solved the problem or met the need?
III. The Organization or Social System
1. Describe the organization in which the innovation will be diffused.
2. Who are the organization's stakeholders, opinion leaders, and influencers?
a. What are their needs?
b. How receptive are they to innovation?
3. Describe the communication network within the organization/system.
a. What is the communication proximity of the organization's members?
IV. The Innovation
1. Describe the innovation.
2. Discuss the first three steps of the innovation-development process for this innovation. How did this innovation come to be?
a. Recognizing a problem or need
b. Basic and applied research
c. Development
3. What is the object of the innovation? Organization model, social, product, service, or process?
V. The Innovation-Decision Process
1. Identify the type of innovation decision for the organization:
a. optional
b. collective
c. authority
2. Trace the Innovation-decision process for this innovation as it will be diffused in the organization:
a. Knowledge
3. Who will the earlier "knowers" of this innovation be, and who will be the "later knowers"? How might they differ?
4. Persuasion: What opinion(s) do you predict will be formed about the innovation? Will they be positive or negative?
5. Decision: Do you believe the organization's members will accept or reject the innovation? Why? Active or passive rejection? How will you achieve "critical mass" in the organization? Get the best quality Business management assignemnt help.
6. Implementation:
a. When will the innovation be put to use?
7. Discusses the length of the process and variables impacting the length of the process
VI. The Communication Campaign
1. Describe the communication campaign you will use throughout the innovation-decision process.
2. What formative research will be done?
3. What will the goals of the campaign be?
4. Who is the audience? How will the audience be segmented?
5. What incentives will the audience receive for participating in the campaign?
VII. Opinion Leaders and Change Agents
1. Opinion Leaders.
a. Will the opinion leaders necessarily be innovators?
b. Will demonstrations be used? If so, how? Will they be experimental or exemplary?
2. Change Agent. This is YOU!
a. How will you:
i. Develop a need for change?
ii. Diagnose problems?
b. How will you, as a change agent, interact with the opinion leaders?
VIII. Conclusion
1. The paper should include a conclusion summarizing its key findings and giving a final impression of its central idea.