I just finished reading the Liu et. al. article "Challenges of Being an Instructional Designer for New Media Development: A View from the Practitioners." I really appreciated the information put forth in this study, but I would like to talk about another area that could be a challenge in certain environments, something that I wish this article would have delved into.
When you take a position as an instructional designer, do you have free reign to do as you please design-wise, or are you held back by politics? By "politics" I mean people who are in positions higher than you who seem to be unwilling to change and allow for new and fresh ideas? As an instructional designer, you are schooled to be creative and innovative, to be at the cutting edge of technological advances, but when you reach your career destinations, do politics get in the way and hold you back? Does anyone here have any experience with this?
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I guess I would be a little philosophical about this, and assume that the political issues that you discuss are ubiquitous in any organization -- that "free reign" for anyone is a very rare phenomenon. Having said that, I would also submit, from my own experience, that technology presents a unique sort of challenge, especially in larger, less flexible organizations. In general technological advances happen quicker than organizational change, and tend to drive it as well. People also tend to resent having to learn how to do things over and over, especially if they have gone through a painful transition (eg typewriters to PCs).
In a moment of transition, techie folks can either get resentment or praise, depending how smoothly things go.
Also, I think the non-techie higher-ups can be a little suspicious of techies, who often want to buy new things and change things more often than non-technical employees. On occasion, organizations get a big influx of cash to upgrade their technology, which causes a whole new set of political issues.
I think listening to Jennifer Blades (past graduate) last week helped me understand that this sort of thing happens everywhere. And as you said, implementing a technology into an organization brings about apprehension, especially with the additional monies that have to be thrown that way to fund it. I appreciate hearing your perspective. Thanks for your post Dan!
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