Leadership Ethics for Social Change

How Does Social Change Occur
The main purpose of this chapter is to examine the concept of social change and what it means for people, how it is communicated, how it is achieved, how it spreads, and so on. Hickman (2010) here aims to show the social change does not spontaneously manifest itself as a protest like that seen during the 1960s or 1970s. Instead, the author intends to show that social change begins organically, usually at a grassroots level, and grows as more and more people find commonality with the views of the movement. When the ideas have spread to a large population from a small population, social change is demanded and effected, sometimes through the sort of protests that one typically associates with social change. The author pursues this purpose by defining social change, the purpose of social change, the language of social change, concepts in social change (particularly the periods of social change—i.e., the first period being the classical period in which movements are irrational, the second period in which rational action within structural constraints is demonstrated, the third period in which new social movements arise). Types of important social change concepts include leadership without formal authority, transactional leadership, charismatic leadership and so on. The author looks at social movement structure, resource mobilization, political opportunity structure, and the development of strategic capacity.
The key question that the author is addressing is what it means to engage in social change and how the engagement is demonstrated. The author aims to answer this question by looking at theories of social change over time. When the author wrote this chapter the key question in his mind was most likely this: How can I discuss the issue of social change in a comprehensive and informative manner that addresses the most important issues without glossing over important substantial details?
The most important information in this chapter is this idea that “social change initiatives call for the development of social capital to succeed” (Hickman, 2010, p. 208). In other words, social change cannot succeed without the proper movement and use of people in one’s network. That network will generally start out small and then grow as important people from other communities sign on and commit to spreading and promoting the message. The idea of suing social capital effectively is really at the heart of social change.
The main inference/conclusions in this chapter are that social change is generally achieved through a complex interaction of factors and variables, such as a ripening political environment in which social change can serve as a lever for political action—somewhat like the movement for a new economic order is happening today among far-left politicians responding to a far-left movement for social change. There also has to be an environment of nonconstituted leadership in order for change to happen, as this allows for multiple people on multiple fronts to lead in a truly collective effort that does not depend upon a single leader or decision-maker to call all the shots. Instead, the collective moves organically.
The key concepts we need to understand in the chapter are the concept of political opportunity structure, strategic capacity, and nonconstituted tactics. By these concepts, the author means that political opportunity structure is the “conditions in mainstream institutional politics or policies that either enhance or inhibit prospects for social movement participants to take action” (Hickman, 2010, p. 212). Strategic capacity is a function of the motivation of actors or leaders, access to salient knowledge, and the quality of heuristic or imaginative processes actors employ in their deliberations (Hickman, 2010, p. 212). It gives support to the basic engine of social change in that it reveals the extent to which change is possible. It links up with and connects to the concept of opportunity structure. Nonconstituted tactics are ways of drawing the most “attention to social issues through a process of signalizing—the activity of apprising [constituted] leaders of circumstances that appear meaningful enough to merit diagnosis and policy response” (Hickman, 2010, p. 207). Of the three, the nonconstituted tactics concept is perhaps most important because it shows the importance of the mass media in spreading the ideas of social change. Social media is particularly important in today’s digital age as it can allow information to spread quickly to the most number of people on the planet who are interested. By understanding these ideas, one can better understand what social change is and how it works.
The main assumption underlying the author’s thinking is that all social change happens along the same general lines: there is a grassroots vision that is organically manifested and spurred on by individuals who share a desire to get the message out and spread it far and wide. Mass media can help and soon the message has caught on among groups all over the nation. These groups then network and connect in bigger ways and proceed to take advantage of political opportunities to effect change.
If we take this line of reasoning seriously, the implications are that social change is almost more like a science than an art and that change can be implemented simply by taking it step by step, starting at the grassroots level, developing a vision, promoting it, getting people to identify with it and get behind it and then networking it and spreading the vision so that it becomes a mission to get the vision implemented. The idea is that social change for anything can be accomplished simply by following this blueprint for change. That means social change is really all just a matter of organization and promotion.
If we fail to take this line of reasoning seriously, the implications are that people will never really understand how easy it is to develop social change and create a social movement. Or they will never understand how the formula for social change can be exploited by those who seek to manipulate the nation into adopting and accepting a social change that is not truly organic or wanted by the majority of people. The formula for social change as put forward in this chapter can easily be used by any group that seeks to foment revolution.
The main points of view presented in this article are that social change occurs and has occurred in the past in a way that can be patterned, analyzed, interpreted and understand in terms of thematic structuring. There is, in other words, a pattern to how social change happens. The perspective presented here is that social change happens because of very real factors and variables being taken advantage of at a time when it is feasible for them to exist. The more that these variables are ripe for plucking, the more likely social change is to happen.
How does the text chapter relate to three “dimensions”? The chapter relates to the three dimensions in that discusses how public value creation and social responsibility are at the basic foundation of social change, and how leadership and political interest play a part in strengthening social change. It describes the importance of networking—and all of this is part of the first dimension. The chapter also discusses the language of social change and how important it is, and how established interpretations can be a block depending on how the media spins things. This is part of the third dimension. The second dimension consists of answers to questions that lead to more answers and questions, and this is essentially what transpires as interest in social change grows: people start asking more questions and getting involved in the groups that seem to have the answers. Marvel, mystery and magnificence will also play a part in social change, as these are elements of the second dimension as well: the networking and use of social capital allows for individuals to connect in a marvelous way yet it retains some degree of mystery as the people do not really know or need to know one another. What binds them is their appreciation for the vision, the change that is being promoted and the good that can come from it. This is the magnificence aspect of the process that comes into play: there really has to be a sense of magnificence among the people and a belief in the incredible, because social change is so unusual in many ways and so unexpected because it seems to come out of nowhere though it is slowly building and building like a volcano that is about to erupt.
What are the related implications, benefits, impact, relevance and returns on investment if we take the author’s underlying premises? The related implications, benefits, impact, relevance and returns on investment if we take the author’s underlying premises are that social change does not necessarily have to be something that the majority of people are convinced of or are convinced is needed. Instead, social change can occur because the opportunity is there for the right people at the right time to take it and make something new happen. There has to be alignment among a number of factors so that there is momentum for the social change, there is access to power that can actually make the change happen, and the movement is real.
References
Hickman, G. R. (2010). Leading Change in Multiple Contexts : Concepts and Practices in Organizational, Community, Political, Social, and Global Change Settings. SAGE.