Managing change in design and technology

The ability to manage change is now a desirableattribute for those who work in today’s rapidlychanging competitive environment. It is especiallyimportant for those who manage people andteams in nearly every type of industry andbusiness. The education field is no exception.Placed in this context, this paper considers someof the issues that effect the management ofdesign and technology in an ever demandingchange environment.It begins by placing Design and Technology interms of the macro and micro influences on itschange field. A number of models will be examinedwhich relate design and technology to the externaland internal pressures.The work then goes on to propose a change modelfor design and technology. This emphasises theneed to focus on team building as a methodologyto manage change. To support the theoreticalwork a number of semi-structured interviews havebeen carried out in schools in the North West ofEngland. Those interviewed include Heads ofDepartment, subject teachers, newly qualifiedteachers and trainee teachers. The findings fromthis work provides an insight into current designand technology management approaches and howeffective these are at creating a design andtechnology department that can adapt to change.The field work has been used to evaluate themerits and demerits of the theoretical changemodels and how these may be used to develop adepartment that can cope with change.