UT professor Donde Ashmos Plowman recently was awarded the Academy of Management Best Paper Award for 2007 for a research project for work she and her previous doctoral students conducted at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

The paper, “Radical Change Accidentally: The Emergence and Amplification of Small Change,” highlights the case of a church in San Antonio, Texas where membership increased following a decision to serve Sunday breakfast to the city’s homeless. 

The paper develops a theory about how radical change can be the result of unintended small changes, which take off in directions not planned by leaders. 

Plowman and her students extensively researched how reaching out to the homeless not only affected the church population but started a chain reaction that impacted the entire community.  The church’s project ultimately grew into an entire ministry devoted to providing medical attention, childcare and education to the homeless population.

There was something really powerful from the very beginning of the project - it just took off.  We felt like we were working on something really special - UT professor Donde Plowman on her class' research project

In studying this case, Plowman and her students were able to develop a new theory about radical change.  It is a generally accepted belief that most radical change is planned, but in this case change came from an unplanned decision by a handful of young people to reach out to the neglected.

The research idea emerged from a class project, which was somewhat unplanned, Plowman said. When her original plan for a class research project failed, she asked her friends, co-pastors of a declining downtown church, if her students could come study that organization. 

“There was something really powerful from the very beginning of the project - it just took off,” Plowman said.  “We felt like we were working on something really special.”

They interviewed many of the marginalized people who were receiving aid from the ministry and found that many of the stereotypes placed on the homeless are inaccurate.  For example, they discovered only 20 percent of the San Antonio homeless population had substance abuse problems.  Plowman considers learning about homelessness an “unintended consequence” of the study.

The paper was published in the Academy of Management Journal, a premier journal in its field.  According to a UT press release, the award winner is then selected by a committee comprising scholars who rate all previous-year published articles based on idea importance, extent to which the idea advances organizational understanding, sound research methods and potential to affect future research and practice.

“It was exciting, and I’m so proud of the work,” Plowman said.  “I can’t believe I received this honor. The people who received this award before have been giants in this field and have inspired me in my work.”

Plowman holds a doctorate in strategic management from The University of Texas at Austin.