ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING AND CHANGE IN A PUBLIC CHILD-WELFARE AGENCY

Cited is evidence that most public child welfare agencies operate as m onolithic bureaucracies with rigid lines of authority and top-down dec ision making that often is uniformed by worker experience. Lacking str uctures for modification, these agencies are characterized by slow cha nge and by frustration and resistance within the staff. The authors il lustrate how organizational change can take place in human service org anizations through staff empowerment and collaborative action research . The change strategy in the case study centered around the creating o f ''learning laboratories'' where new approaches were identified and t ested, leading to spin-offs of innovation and experimentation.