Social Technology as a Method for Management of the Social Processes

The article discusses the social technology as a tool for management of the social processes and the methods for assessment of its effectiveness. It makes a review of general assessment analysis on each stage of the program realizationdesign, implementation and the evaluation of program benefits.JEL Codes: H55Keywords: social technology; social processes; social effectiveness1. IntroductionSocial technology is a tool for the management of the social processes that provides a framework of consistent actions of an individual, a team and authorities governing a region, an area, a community, city, town or other place of residence. The model of "technologization" or technological development of the social environment/arrangement/ via the social objects and processes represented in it aggregated by attributes, features, characteristics, methods of forming, manifestation and reproduction. The evaluation of these technologies should take into consideration the effectiveness of the methods used to reach the set goals and the extent to which they ensure the achievement of required results.2. Material and Methods. ResultsThe effectiveness of the social technologies could be assessed using valuation analyses that have been widely adopted lately. A valuation analysis could be performed either by the sponsor of the project for design and implementation of a social technology or by the designer of the technology. It is important to note that an assessment review could be performed at the design stage as well as at the implementation stage of the lifecycle of the technology.The assessment review may focus on the technology end-to-end or only on a part of it. It has to be noted that the assessment review is concentrated on the internal characteristics of the technology, which allows drawing conclusions for its positive and negative qualities. The assessment strategy for the design stage and the implementation stage involve evaluation of the external effects and the program results.The evaluation of the effectiveness of the technology could be based on different models. The goal assessment model is focused on the analysis of the program goals, the extent to which the social technology meets them and the extent to which they are realized. In this case, as a first step, an assessment of the potential goals of a specific social technology and their formulation is performed and, as a second step, the ability of the technological processes to ensure the accomplishment of the goals is reviewed. The effectiveness of a technology is as high as the extent to which it reaches its goals.The general assessment review is targeted towards discovering the obvious and hidden effects of the social technology. The evaluation of the effectiveness of the social technology is closely related to the complexity of the expected benefits: while there is poly-modality of the real effects for the object, the subject and the social technology itself as a tool, there is no adequate valid document for their measurement.The effectiveness of the social technologies could be measured via comparison of possible realization levels: the first level could be reached with the existing resources and limitations without implementation of technologies, while the second one is reached via implementation of specific technologies in the context of existing resources and limitations and eventually via development of applied technology tools and elimination of various impediments. In addition, the effectiveness of the social technology is strongly related to the availability of resources for its realization.The effectiveness of the social technology is determined by subjective, as well as objective factors. The former are related to the individual skills of the experts participating in the implementation of the technology, the level of their professional skills and experience. The objective factors include the factual conditions of the environment, the work processes, the information flow and the control3. …