Thinking About Implementation

This article is about the cognitive aspects of implementation. Recent ideas from cognitive psychology are used to explore the role of differential perceptions, attributions, and inferences in how people, especially managers, think about implementation. Illustrative data are presented from a case of managerial innovation in one urban school district. In the course of implementing the innovations management-by-objectives program-some perceptions, attributions, and inferences shifted over time, but initial major differences associated with organizational position and commitment to the innovation did not change. Implications are suggestedfor managers and for researchers who study implementation.