Hostname: page-component-5447f9dfdb-lxcff Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-07-29T06:26:09.031Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Process of Change within an established System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2025

David Green
David Green*
Affiliation:
Regional Services, Social Welfare Department, Victoria
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

“Innovation starts from the collision between theory and reality within an irreverent mind”

David Donnison

David Donnison’s definition is both useful, and relevant to the theme “The Process of Change from within an Established System”. The relevance, I suggest, relates to the words — theory, reality and irreverence. How many of us working within an established system have a sound theoretical base, are in touch with reality, and have an irreverent mind. Such a combination of attributes are considered unusual in bureaucrats — although they can be acquired. However the acquisition requires the bureaucrat to give up some of the conventional attributes of success, or at least, a quiescent life in the organization. People involved in change really do see the world as it is without the assistance of self-interest filters.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Children Australia , Volume 3 , Issue 3-4 , December 1978 , pp. 54 - 57
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

*

This is an edited version of a paper given at a Conference in Alice Springs in July 1978. A number of illustrations and specific examples discussed by the author at the Conference have been omitted from his written paper.

References

Reference:

1. Donnison, David: “The Discovery and Development of Knowledge” Unpublished Paper. May, 1978 Google Scholar
2. Tierney, L. J.: “The Next Twenty Years in Social Work” in Boas, P. J. and Crawley, J. “Social Work in Australia” Australia International Press. 1976.Google Scholar
3. Institute of Applied Economics and Social Research. University of Melbourne. 1978.Google Scholar
4. L. J. Tierney. Op Cit p 256.Google Scholar