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Wednesday, November 19, 2008

E-Learning Adoption in Organizations 2: Characteristics of the Diffusion Process

Getting a new idea adopted, even when it has obvious advantages, is difficult.

(Rogers, E., Diffusion of Innovations, p.1)

In yesterday’s post, I began looking at the challenges of driving adoption of e-learning in organizations, and how looking at organizations from a Functionalist perspective could enable us to understand ways to drive the broad adoption of e-learning.

Innovation and change - new ideas, processes, technologies, and work practices are a common part of the workplace environment. Sometimes these emerge spontaneously, and are disseminated organically, but more typically, new or different approaches are implemented as part of a strategic plan, or imposed upon workers under an operational or performance enhancement program.

I think I can say without fear of contradiction that anyone who has tried to develop an e-learning initiative for an organization has met with resistance at some level, whether it be a C-level exec with a “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” attitude, or workers simply refusing to take advantage of the resources placed at their disposal, citing reasons including:

  • perceived poor focus of the initiative
    • (“this doesn’t apply to me”)
  • lack of time to learn a new way of working
    • (“I’m too busy to learn a new way of working”)
  • too much effort to change
    • (“my approach works just fine – why should I bother to change?”)
  • lack of awareness
    • (“I didn’t know about it”)
  • resistance to change
    • (“I’m not going to change”)

Understanding why workers exhibit these behaviors can be an effective means to counteract potential blocks to implementing new initiatives and to transition people in organizations to align with changes.

Diffusion of innovation is a theory of how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures. Based upon research undertaken by Joe Bohlen and George Beal in the late 1950’s, Everett M. Rogers developed and generalized the theory in his 1962 text Diffusion of Innovations, stating that

Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. It is a special type of communication, in that the messages are concerned with new ideas.

(p.5)

Rogers considered that the “special” (p.6) characteristic of diffusion centered upon the notion of innovation, or newness. This newness means that a certain degree of uncertainty is bound up in diffusion. Implicit in this is “a lack of certainty, of structure, of information” (p.6). Information (delivered by any one of a number of channels) is a means of reducing the degree of uncertainty.

Rogers asserted that innovation diffuses through organizations in an S curve (see Figure 1), as early adopters initially select the innovation, followed by the majority of users, until a technology or innovation is common.

Scurvebellcurve

Figure 1 Charting the Diffusion of Innovation

In tomorrow’s post, I will look in-depth at the phases of diffusion.

FOGRA: Well done to Munster yesterday, nearly a miracle.

________________

References:

Bohlen, J. M., Beal, G. M. (1957) The Diffusion Process, Special Report No. 18 (Agriculture Extension Service, Iowa State College) 1: 56-77. [Internet] Available from: http://www.soc.iastate.edu/extension/presentations/publications/comm/Diffusion%20Process.pdf [Accessed 3rd November 2008]

Rogers, E. M. (2003) Diffusion of Innovations, 5th ed.. Simon & Schuster International.

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