Public Health Informatics and Organizational Change

Overview

Effective public health informatics requires a project manager to be as conscious of the attitudes and needs of employees as of technical determinations associated with information technology in a public health organization. Bringing informatics to bear on a public health organization necessarily involves change in the way work gets done, and, in general, the natural tendency of people is not always to welcome change. An implementer of an information system must be aware of the types of change typical in an organization and of the impact of those types on various levels of the organization. In addition, a project manager needs to expect, identify, and deal with resistance to change. To do so, a project manager needs to be conscious of the magnitude of change that a system will create. A knowledge and application of small group theories and field theory can be very useful to a project manager who wants to secure employee commitment to changes resulting from a new or significantly modified system. Finally, a change manager can greatly facilitate the task of guiding employees toward the changes brought about by new systems through involving employees in the changes by the use of practical change management strategies.