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T E Backer

Publications and source records attributed to T E Backer.

15 recordsLinked to original sources

Managing the human side of change in VA's transformation.

Transformational change interventions often fail or short fall of their intended impact on organizations and systems. One main reason is that these interventions frequently do not strategically address the complex human dynamics of change. This happens despite awareness of and commitment to intervening at this level by top management and change leaders. The wisdom that "systems don't change; people change" is widely acknowledged but inadequately applied. These are exactly the conditions the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) faces in deploying its new Veterans Integrated Services Networks (VISNs). Applying validated behavioral science strategies that address the human side of change will help VA implement VISNs effectively. Six strategies derived from many years of study and practice in the public and private sectors are discussed, along with suggestions for VISN managers about how to implement them.

Community Networks↗

The role of knowledge utilization in adopting innovations from academic medical centers.

A literature review and an exploratory survey were conducted to find out about knowledge utilization activities in academic medical centers. Structured interviews were conducted with one respondent in each of ten selected programs in one center and were followed by qualitative data analysis concerning types of knowledge utilization activities and their effectiveness, and barriers and incentives to the success of knowledge utilization. Suggestions are provided for ways administrators in both academic and community medical centers may increase their effectiveness in using knowledge utilization strategies to promote the adoption of innovations.

Academic Medical Centers↗

Durability of innovations: how goal attainment scaling programs fare over time.

Why do some implementations in human service settings of goal attainment scaling (GAS), an innovative program evaluation technique, last over time, whereas others die out despite an initially successful period of operation? To provide some tentative answers to this question and to help shed more light generally on differences between sustained and nonsustained innovative programs in service delivery organizations, 10 intensive case studies were conducted. Four were goal attainment scaling programs that have proved durable over time in their host organizations versus six other programs in which goal attainment scaling did not survive despite some initial success. These case studies were analyzed both clinically and by means of expert judges' ratings to identify some of the critical variables that seem to be associated with durability of the goal attainment scaling programs.

Adolescent↗