Public Relations and Social Marketing

PUBLIC RELATIONS AND SOCIAL MARKETING 4(1+3)

Lesson 11 : Importance of Social Marketing in Development

Society- community/organizational network models

Use helmet, prevent accidents

1. Organizational change theory(OCT): Organizations are complex and layered social systems, composed of resources, members, roles, exchanges and unique cultures. Thus, organizational change can best be promoted by working at multiple levels within the organization. Understanding organizational change is important in promoting health to help establish policies and environments that support healthy practices and create the capacity to solve new problems. While there are many theories of organizational behaviour, two are especially promising in public health interventions: stage theory and organizational development theory (ODT).


1. Stage theory: The stage theory is based on the idea that organizations pass through a series of steps or stages as they change. By recognizing those stages, strategies to promote change can be matched to various points in the process of change. An abbreviated version of the stage theory involves four stages:
1. Problem definition (awareness).
2. Initiation of action (adoption)
3. Implementation of change
4. Institutionalization of change.

Organizational Development theory
The OD theory grew out of the recognition that organizational structures and processes influence worker behaviour and motivation. The OD theory concerns the identification of problems that impede an organization's functioning, rather than the introduction of a specific type of change. Human relations and quality of work life factors are often the targets of OD problem diagnosis, action planning, interventions and evaluation. A typical OD strategy involves process consultation, in which a specialist from outside the organization helps to identify problems and facilitates the planning of change strategies.

When combined, the stage and OD theories have the greatest potential to produce health enhancing change in organizations. Such strategies can be used at various stages as they are warranted. Simultaneously, the stages signal the need to involve organization members and decision-makers at various points in the process. For example, these could become the guide to the development of a smoke-free work site programme.

2. Community organization theory(COT): This theory emphasizes empowerment and active participation of communities that can better evaluate and solve health and social problems. This theory originates from the theory of social networks and support. Community organization is the process by which community groups are helped to identify common problems or goals, mobilize resources, and develop and implement strategies for reaching their goals.


1. It has roots in several theoretical perspectives: the ecological perspective, social systems perspective, social networks and social support.
   
2. It is also consistent with the SL T and can be successfully used along with SLT-based strategies. Although community organization does not use a single unified model, several key concepts are central to the various approaches.
   
3. The process of empowerment is intended to stimulate problem-solving and activate community members.
   
4. Community competence is an approximate community-level equivalent of self-efficacy plus behavioural capability, which include the confidence and skills to solve problems effectively.
5. Communities of people who share common health problems have combine to attract attention and obtain power to address their needs including health services, anti-discrimination policies and more research funding.


3. Diffusion of innovations theory(DIT): This theory addresses how new ideas, products, and social practices spread within a society or from one society to another. Some of the most important characteristics of innovations are their relative advantage (is it better than what was there before?), compatibility (fit with the intended audience), complexity (ease of use), trialability (can it be tried out first?), observability (visibility of results). Risk: can the behavior be adopted with minimal risk and uncertainty?
   
   What should be one of the more important models for people who are attempting to influence the behavior of large groups of people is diffusion of innovations.
   
   Kotler and Roberto (1989) review diffusion of innovations research and its application to social marketing programs. One of the first points they make in this discussion is that there are different types of adopters in every target audience that, based on hundreds of different studies, usually are represented in certain proportions and have unique motivations for adopting a new behavior. These five adopter segments and their motives are:


1. Innovator (2.5%) need for novelty and need to be different.
   
2. Early Adopter (13.5%): recognize the value of adoption from contact with innovators.
   
3. Early Majority (34%): need to imitate or match up with others with a certain amount of deliberateness.
   
4. Late Majority (34%): need to join the bandwagon when they see that the early majority has legitimated the change.
   
5. Laggard (16%) need to respect traditions.