MAKE IT LAST FOREVER: THE ... - National Service Resource Center

However, organizations, like people, are flexible, in that they change periodically. While the entire mission and goals of an
institution are unlikely to shift regularly, new strategies often emerge to help achieve its purpose. As people continually look to
improve their functional capacity or efficiency, creative approaches and new systems are attempted. Occasionally, one of these
experiments is deemed worthy enough to become a permanent component of the institution - and thus the process of
institutionalization begins.
Many questions often arise about how to integrate a new approach into an existing system, for people know from prior
experience that doing so will produce numerous, and often unanticipated, consequences for the entire system. Even the smallest of
innovations can completely transform institutions, if not immediately, then certainly in the long term. As such, planning is essential to
ensure that strategies are incorporated in appropriate ways.
Varied approaches to such planning endeavors have been tried throughout human history. Some recent analysis of the
indicators of institutionalization suggests that there is general agreement about its definition. When an idea or approach is
institutionalized, it becomes routine, and people within the organization are committed to using it consistently and across arenas,
communicate its importance, and expect that it has the legitimacy to continue.
This process usually takes time. A new idea is raw, often untested. People may be skeptical about it, or not believe it merits
permanence within the system. The process often begins, then, with making everyone within the institution aware of the innovation in
question. This starting place is part of a continuum of change. To help us understand the chronological process of institutionalization,
some researchers have suggested levels or phases of implementation; these inform users and observers alike where they are in the
process at any time.
The following table illustrates some of the best-known conceptual frameworks that have been developed previously by
researchers for the purpose of examining service-learning institutionalization. While the stages are unique in terms of their language,
as a whole they reflect very similar concepts of how systems evolve so that a new approach can be institutionalized within it.
DESIGNER STAGE 1 STAGE 2 STAGE 3 STAGE 4 STAGE 5
Andy Critical Mass Quality Building Sustained
Furco Building Institutionalization
Parker Palmer Divided No Communities of Going Alternative
More Congruence Public Rewards
Terry Beginning Emerging Work Systemic Sustainable
Pickeral Work Work Change
Maine Dept.
of Education
Exploring Transitioning Transforming
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