Challenges and Opportunities for Innovation in the Public Works ...

Technology Transfer (T) as a Work-Practice Change Process: An Essay
by
Jesus M. De La Garza
Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering
Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061-0105
"To every action there is opposed an equal and opposite reaction." Technology
Transfer (T-) demands change and departure from a work-practice process that is intricately
woven into the professional and personal lifestyles of working individuals. For most working
people, continued job security and recognition are based on successfully achieving
predefined measures of performance. Individuals can easily construe the application of new
technologies to their work-practice process as a threat to the formula for obtaining success,
i.e., continued job security and recognition. Tinkering with an individual's professional
means to succeed can quickly propagate to the personal level, inducing anxiety and fear as
well as endangering an individual's personal lifestyle. The effort involved in absorbing and
conquering new technologies is likely to consume the time dividends distilled from efficiently
applying tested means and ways. Time dividends are usually applied to discretionary tasks
which are undertaken to precisely control and space out day-to-day schedules. Thus,
whether or not the fears of failure associated with change are warranted, reactions from the
individuals being affected by the adoption of new technologies should be anticipated.
Technology Transfer (T1`2) is good for your company. Top management has long
recognized that the individuals within an organization represent the single most important
financial asset. After all, if it were possible to r,;place everyone overnight, the company's
reputation and image, which largely form the basis for on-going business, are not
automatically carried over with the new work-force. T 2 improves the individuals'
competence leading to an increase of assets which in turn leads to a better image and
reputation for a company. Thus, individuals at all tiers of the corporate ladder need to
believe that the adoption of new technologies is an important means to enhance the
performance of individuals, and consequently, the longevity of the company.
Corporate culture shock. Preparing for Technology Transfer requires not only
remolding individuals' attitudes towards change, but it also implies redefining the firm's
traditional organizational culture. Corporate cultures evolve over a period of time. They
are outlined by senior management, influenced by the market, and brought to existence by
the work-force. Corporate cultures manufacture postures, attitudes, and shields against
internal and external forces, only a few of which are real. Corporate cultures sanction workplace
behaviors and set the stage for an organizational environment that is either
recalcitrant or conducive to innovation and Technology Transfer. Institutionalizing T 2 and
Newton's third law; Essential Engineering Information and Data, Ganic, E.N., and
Hicks, T.G., McGraw Hill, 1991.
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