Model of rural area change management using the principle “bottom-up”

The management of changes in rural area is rather sophisticated process in which the integration of various management models and principles can be met. The article deals with the changes peculiar to rural areas and the factors of internal and external or real-life environment that mostly impacts on these changes. The endogenous model of changes in rural area has been analyzed more widely, and the scheme of the development of rural area has been given. Attributes of the “bottom-up” principle have been identified, the expression of these attributes in the management means of changes initiated by the rural development actors and the analysis of the forces stimulating and impeding these changes made the basis to determine and substantiate the combined elements of the model of rural area change management using the “bottom-up” principle. The investigation aim is to justify the model of the rural area change management using the “bottom-up” principle. Strategy of local activity group of Kretinga Municipality titled “The Improvement of Life Standards in Kretinga Municipality in 2007 - 2013” has been chosen for empirical investigation. The method of real-life analysis of the forces has been used for the identification of people involvement into the forces stimulating and opposing the preparation of the strategy. These forces have been estimated in accordance with the scores of the impact strength. The model of the rural area change management using the “bottom-up” principle has been made on the basis of the explicit methodology of strategic management integrating the results of empirical analysis. The identification and validation of the model elements has shown that the model can change if governed by the goal of the change management and other factors of internal and external or real-life environment. It has been determined that the rural area change management using the “bottom-up” principle is based on the change management through theVytauto Didžiojo universitetasŽemės ūkio akademij