The Change Grid and the Active Client

• Published date: 01 March 1981
• Date: 01 March 1981
• DOI: 10.1177/009385488100800107
• Subject Matter: Articles

95

THE

CHANGE

GRID

AND

THE

ACTIVE

CLIENT

Challenging

the

Assumptions

of

Change

Agentry

in

the

Penal

Process

JOHN

KLOFAS

DAVID

E.

DUFFEE

State

University

of New

York

at

Albany

Following

Blake

and

Mouton’s

Managerial

Grid

(1964),

a

variety

of

two-dimensional

models

have

been

used

to

explore

problems

in

planned

change

and

administration.

The

change

grid

has

been

used

to

examine

the

relationship

of

change

agents

and

individual

changees.

This

article

reexamines

the

assumptions

of

that

model

in

the

context

of

individual

client

adaptations

and

bureaucratic

classification

systems,

which

channel

masses

of

clients

into

programs

that

are

designed

to

implement

specific

change

strategies.

The

article

concludes

that

penal

organizations

specifically,

but

perhaps

other

human

service

organizations

as

well,

select

and

place

clients

so

that

programs

remain

stable,

rather

than

sequence

programs

to

meet

the

needs

of

clients.

espite

the

ostensible

parallels

between

the

fields

of

penology

D and

planned

change,

the

language

of

applied

behavioral

sci-

ence

has

been

late

in

coming

to

the

world

of

prisons,

probation,

and

parole.

Correctional

officials,

whether

they

be

prison

guards,

counselors,

parole

agents,

or

probation

officers,

have

intervened

routinely

in

the

lives

of

offenders

and

have

long

held

explicit

expectations

about

guiding

change.

Yet

until

the

middle

of

the

1960s,

these

officials,

who

were

change

agents

by

trade,

rarely

framed

their

activity

in

terms

of

the

Lewinian

tradition.

Around

1965,

a

number

of

events

altered

that

situation.

Several

influen-

tial

participants

of

both

The

President’s

Commission

on

Law

En-

forcement

and

the

Administration

of

Justice

(1967)

and

The

Joint

96

Commission

on

Correctional

Manpower

and

Training

(1969)

were

well

versed

in

the

training

and

organizational

development

principles

of

the

National

Training

Laboratories.

They

were

interested

in

applying

a

variety

of

planned

change

philosophies,

strategies,

and

techniques

at

several

levels:

(1)

to

the

interaction

of

correctional

officials

arid

offenders,

(2)

to

the

training

and

development

of

correctional

staffs,

and

(3)

to

reformulation

of

correctional

policy

and

programming.

Among

other

innovations,

these

people

were

interested

in

applying

principles

of

&dquo;normative-

reeducative

change&dquo;

to

what

had

previously

been

an

arena

of

&dquo;power-coercive&dquo;

change

(Chin

&

Benne,

1969).

They

were

also

interested

in

the

potential

of

a

particular

aspect

of

what

we

might

call

&dquo;grid

methodology&dquo;

to

resolve

what

had

been

some

rather

long

standing

and

seemingly

irresolvable

dilemmas

in

correc-

tional

administration.

Following

the

lead

of

Blake

and

Mouton

(1964)

in

organiza-

tional

development,

a

number

of

writers

sought

to

reexamine

the

problems

of

penology

by

abandoning

the

age-old

debate

about

custody

or

treatment

(Street

et

al.,

1966)

and

substituting

a

two-

dimensional,

gridlike

framework.

Nelson

and

Lovell

(1969)

applied

the

original

managerial

grid

to

a

discussion

of

correc-

tional

management.

O’Leary

(1967)

and

O’Leary

and

Duffee

(1971)

constructed

a

new

&dquo;grid&dquo;

concerning

correctional

goals.

A

variety

of

researchers

sought

to

characterize

probation

and

parole

supervision

on

the

two

dimensions

of

helping

and

controlling

(Glaser,

1969;

Studt,

1972;

Stanley,

1976).

Another

influential

grid

in

penology

has

been

the

&dquo;change

grid,&dquo;

which

provides

a

framework

for

analyzing

change

agents

confronting

individual

&dquo;clients&dquo;

in

the

penal

system.

Like

the

other

grids,

the

change

grid

is

a

two-dimensional

model

which

juxtaposes

attitudinal

concerns

such

as

those

for

&dquo;commitment&dquo;

or

&dquo;ownership&dquo;

with

behavioral

concern

for

output

or

conformity

to

a

given

set

of

standards.

The

change

grid

has

been

utilized

to

examine

some

of

the

assumptions

underlying

particular

change

strategies

and

to

compare

specific

change

inducing

actions

to

theoretically

consistent

modes

of

action.

In

this

article,

we

use

the

change

grid

as

a

vehicle

for

reexamining

the

application

of

applied

behavioral

science

tech-