From Innovators to Laggards: how new technologies are adopted

There are several classifications about the organizational population of companies: age, gender, hierarchical level, and more. But are we categorizing people according to the application of technology in organizations? More info at https://www.paperhelp.org/custom-paper-writing.html
 

From organizations to individuals, society is walking the path of digital transformation. That is, the process of change that involves the application of technology in different aspects of our lives, from our daily lives, with the application of technology in our daily lives (smartphones, social networks, kitchen utensils, transportation, among others), to the way we work and develop in organizations, transforming the various processes that compose it through technological elements.

One of the most important aspects of digital transformation is people since they are the main actors in the technological changes that organizations carry out. Given this, it is worth asking ourselves: How do we understand the impact that technological initiatives have on employees from the area of people management?

As we mentioned in the first part of this series of articles, for Human Capital, the main challenge when promoting innovation initiatives is the possibility of doing so in an agile and continuous manner, seeking to generate a positive impact on the employees that make up the organization.

But not all people in an organization receive technologies in the same way; this will depend on the ease with which they adopt new ideas compared to other members of the organization and how they face change processes.

Here, the Human Capital area plays a fundamental role, facilitating the implementation of these initiatives through a timely diagnosis and subsequent analysis of the workforce, generating action plans and strategies that allow employees to receive these initiatives in a better way.

Because of this, the technology adoption curve proposed by Everett Rogers is a tool that is useful when we seek to understand the different positions that people adopt when facing the technological changes that digital transformation generates in organizations, allowing us to identify how people face these processes:
 

Innovators

They are the first to be interested in new ideas or initiatives and represent 2.5% of the population. They like to take risks, lovers of the challenging and risky. They play an important role in organizations by importing ideas from beyond the limits established by the organization, becoming the gatekeepers of the flow of new ideas in organizations.
 

Pioneers

Early Adopters or Pioneers are a more integrated part of the system representing 13.5% of the total, seen as opinion leaders by the rest of the system, they have usually referenced points in terms of advice and information on innovation and are usually consulted before using a new idea, and are seen as a model to be followed by the rest of the organization.

Early Majority

This category, being between the innovators and pioneers and the late majority and laggards, has a fundamental role in the change process by being the interconnection in the organization. To adopt the changes, they usually need evidence to support the innovation initiatives, such as success stories. Represents 34% of the total population.

Late Majority

The late majority tends to adopt new ideas after the average member of the organization, initiatives by this group are viewed skeptically and treated cautiously, so this group does not adopt initiatives until the majority has incorporated them. This category represents 34% of the total.

Laggards

Representing the remaining 16%, they are the last in an organization to adopt a change initiative. They tend to take refuge in the established, making decisions based on their past and previous organizational experience.

Identifying these categories in our organization allows us to develop action plans for specific organizational populations concerning change management processes, generating a greater understanding of each group's challenges, such as uncertainty or resistance to change. This, in turn, allows us to reduce the time gaps regarding the adoption of technology among the groups that compose it.