There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. Machiavelli.This study assessed the communication methods used to promote energy reduction within a city council, and suggested ways of improving them. These methods were assessed using Lichtenstein's chaotic logic of organizational transformation, which uses chaos theory to divide a cultural change process into three stages. The council was identified as not having completed stage one of that change process, which involves the identification of reasons as to why a change process is necessary, and communicating about the change process to everybody in the entire organization. This was judged to be because the organization-wide formal and informal communication network necessary for efficient cultural change had not been built. In order to improve the efficiency of communication, education and training methods, recommendations were made that included a council-wide survey around energy issues, a series of informal meetings and the utilization of peer pressure and formal, informal, qualitative and quantitative feedback.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.