| The study of organizational change and its impact on the individual has a long history in the field of psychology. While many organizations face continuous change, nowhere is change more prevalent than in the social service delivery system. A current change happening in the field of service delivery is the trend toward consumer-directed services. This study integrates a qualitative design to investigate the attitudes and experiences of case managers shifting from a traditional model of case management to a consumer-directed approach to older adult home and community-based service care. Specifically, this study investigated the possibility of the existence of cognitive dissonance as case managers shifted from their traditional role of director to collaborator in the care planning process. This is not a study on case management but instead a study on the experience of change in the workplace and ultimately, the acclimation to that change. Thematic, theoretical analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data into emergent themes and meaning units. Results of the study indicated that case managers did experience cognitive dissonance because of the systems change and attempted to alleviate the dissonance in ways congruent with cognitive dissonance theory. |
