Program Change and Organizational Properties a Comparative Analysis

Empirical indicators of the organizational properties of complexity, centralization, formalization, and morale are developed and related to the rate of adoption of new programs and services in sixteen social welfare organizations. Specifically, a high deree of participation in agency-wide decisions, a low deree of job condification, and a high degree of job satisfactions are found to be most highly associated with a high rate of program change. Measures of staff attitudes toward change are forund to be only weakly and inversely to the rate of innovation of new programs and techniques. The relationships between organizational properties and rate of program change largely remained when size, auspices, age of oranization and function were controlled. The distinction between rate of program change and changes in decision making, job codification, and job satisfaction allows us to discuss changes within a system and changes of a system of organizational properties.