The SWTCIE Illinois Evaluation Team conducted a survey of the staff of the six project agencies to gather data related to organizational transformation towards competitive integrated employment (CIE). The construct of interest in the survey from our project evaluation framework was Transformative Business Model. In SWTCIE Illinois, a transformative business model (TBM) is a process of business model exploration, creation, adoption, and transformation aimed at (1) sustainable development and long-term prosperity of the organization and its stakeholders, and (2) adopting solutions that foster sustainability (Geissdoerfer et al., 2018). The evaluation question of focus was: What evidence exists regarding 14c organization transformative business model development and sustainability?
The Organization Transformation Self-Assessment instrument was used to evaluate the extent to which the six SWTCIE Illinois agencies have practices in place that facilitate successful organizational transformation towards competitive integrated employment. The goal of the instrument is to promote organization staff understanding of their current strengths and weaknesses leading to the development of priorities that can act as a roadmap for CIE action planning (Agency Change Toolkit, act.thinkwork.org/).
The Organization Transformation Self-Assessment instrument is comprised of 80 items total across ten elements that facilitate organizational transformation toward CIE. Each item is rated on a six-point Likert scale from strongly agree = +3 to strongly disagree = -3, with a higher score indicating that the respondent believed that their agency was effectively addressing that organizational area. A sample item is “My agency develops employment plans that support meaningful inclusion in the workplace.” The ten organization transformation elements with their mean scores are presented in Table 1 below.
In the current survey, a total of 170 respondents from the six SWTCIE Illinois agencies rated the 80 items across the ten organization transformation elements (please refer to Table 1). In the element mean score comparisons shown in Table 1, the highest two elements are: (1) Element #9 - A Holistic Approach (Mean = 1.89) and (2) Element #3 – Active, Person-centered Job Placement (Mean = 1.78). The lowest two elements are: (1) Element #4 – A Strong Internal & External Communications Plan (Mean = 1.36) and (2) Element #5 – Reallocated & Restructured Resources (Mean = 1.34). Please note that a higher score means a better state of CIE service delivery readiness while a lower score indicates a need for improvement.
Table 1 – Overview of Ten Element Mean Score Comparisons
Element | Mean |
Element # 9: A Holistic Approach | 1.89 |
Element # 3: Active, Person-centered Job Placement | 1.78 |
Element # 6: Ongoing Professional Development of Staff | 1.76 |
Element # 7: Customer Focus and Engagement | 1.68 |
Element # 10: Multiple and Diverse Community Partnerships | 1.68 |
Element # 8: Performance Measurement, Quality Assurance, & Program Oversight | 1.66 |
Element # 2: An Agency Culture that Supports Inclusion | 1.61 |
Element # 1: Clear and Consistent Goals | 1.58 |
Element # 4: A Strong Internal and External Communications Plan | 1.36 |
Element # 5: Reallocated and Restructured Resources | 1.34 |
TBM Overall Score | 1.63 |
Note 1: Six-point Likert Scale is defined from Strongly Agree (+3) to Strongly Disagree (-3).
Note 2: All ten element mean scores are greater than 1, meaning that TBM works positively!
Key Takeaways
Key takeaways from the SWTCIE Illinois Transformative Business Model survey include both areas of agency strength and organizational areas that can be enhanced. The SWTCIE Illinois agency strengths illustrated by survey data were holistic approaches and active, person-centered job placement. Agency staff responses to survey items indicated that they believed that their organizations were most effective at considering the whole person with wrap-around life supports as necessary and using a career planning process that involves multiple stakeholders (e.g., staff, parents, friends) and necessary accommodations. Survey data also demonstrated that agency staff believed that their organizations were effective at providing proactive job placement that created organizational momentum and enthusiasm.
The organizational areas that survey respondents rated lowest and thus in most need of enhancement by their agencies were communication plans and reallocated and restructured resources. Regarding communication plans, survey results suggest that the SWTCIE Illinois agencies could be enhanced by ensuring clear and authentic expectations both internally to all levels of staff and individuals with disabilities and their families and externally to their wider community of stakeholders. Finally, results of the SWTCIE Illinois Transformative Business Model survey indicate that agencies could enhance organizational CIE practices by making changes to how they fund services and direct staff to budget their time and energy.
References
Geissdoerfer, M., Vladimirova, D., & Evans, S. (2018). Sustainable business model innovation: A review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 198, 401-416.
Kamau, E. & Timmons, J. (2018). A roadmap to competitive integrated employment: Strategies for provider transformation. Bringing Employment First to Scale (Issue Number 20). Boston: ThinkWork!
Lulinksi, A., Timmons, J., & Leblois, S. (2017). From sheltered work to competitive integrated employment: Lessons from the field. Bringing Employment First to Scale (Issue Number 11). Boston: ThinkWork!
Lyons, O., Timmons, J., Cohen-Hall, A., & Leblois, S. (2018). The essential characteristics of successful organizational transformation: Findings from a Delphi panel of experts. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation (49), 205-216.
Sulewski, J. S., Timmons, J., Lyons, O., Lucas, J., Vogt, T., & Bachmeyer, K. (2017). Organizational transformation to integrated employment and community life engagement. Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation (46), 313-320.
ThinkWork! (n.d.) Agency change toolkit: Ten elements of organizational transformation. Retrieved December 11, 2024 from https://act.thinkwork.org/.