Organizational Change at Harpers University, Research Paper Example

Academic Research on the roles of senior management in the success of Organizational Change at Harpers University

How the leader’s perspective on change differs from that of the employee’s perspectives?

Harpers University change initiative to raise its international competitiveness in the field of higher education differed significantly among two of its major stakeholders, namely its leaders and employees.  The strategy development for the university was established by the leaders which include the executive board, the supervisory board, and the academic senate operating within government regulations and de-regulations guidelines, while the employees according to Anderson (2011), who often faces limitations presented by their security of tenures and heavy workloads, envision change through their respective knowledge development using much autonomy, creativity and flexibility.

The leadership of Harpers University, in their approach seems to think they can bring change to the institution so that students from the international market will be able to achieve comparable results like other reputable universities, by prescribing what they believe all employees will accept without any form of consultation with the employees themselves or research work by external sources to support their strategy.

They had failed to see any disconnect or lack of continuity within the organizational structure as a result of its decentralized nature which prevented communication of quality .information between them and the employees. Additionally, they also failed to see that the employees had little or no motivation to operate on the level these leaders expects, and saw change through quickly finishing their dissertations, so that they can advance to the stage where they can have their own research department, according to Anderson (2011)

Harper’s University Leadership were going to be lacking in their drive to achieve the change needed by their improper application of the Kurt Lewin’s three change theory of Unfreeze, Change and Freeze, in that they sought to unfreeze only at the apex of the organizational structure and expected the same results on the lower employee rungs when there were not proper extrinsic motivation in place to achieve it.

The institution employees saw no reason to why they should change their perspective on how the change initiative of the organization was going to achieve, and according to Klein (2003), the stability of human behavior was based on a quasi-stationary behavior which was supported by a large force field of driving and restraining forces.

Klein (3002), went further to explain that that for the change to occur, this force filed had to be altered under complex psychological conditions which would ensure the production of immediate counter force to maintain equilibrium.

However, the university leadership were not able to impart their appropriate force filed to impact the employees at their level due to the disconnect that existed, the dysfunctional nature of the organization, and the low motivational levels of the employees which cause them generally to see change from their perspective only and that was closely associated with how they were going to survive in that operating atmosphere.

Managing the Change Initiative through the Kurt Lewin’s Three Step Model

The three step change model, when appropriately applied can effectively manage the change initiative at Harpers University. One of the main reasons why this is achievable was that that at the end of the process employees will undergo cognitive redefinition, according to Klein (2003).

Klein (2003) reiterated that in the process of taking in new information, one or more of the following impacts occurs, namely, semantic redefinition, cognitive broadening, and new standards of judgment or evaluation. In semantic redefinition regarding the change envisioned by the by the leadership the information communicated to the employees will cause them to begin to have new perspective on how change can occur, while cognitive broadening widens their perception as to how their careers can be advanced within the organization as a result of the proposed change, and as such they begin to make new evaluations and judgment (Klein 2003), which will synchronize well with those of the leadership.

However, in order to effect this change Harper’s University leadership will have to perform an assessment gap among its employees, to find out where they are in terms of their perspective on the change initiative, their job satisfaction and motivational status, and then take corrective actions to ensure these employees are in the appropriate frame of minds to accepts and begin to process the information that will be communicated to them.

The incentive to participate in the change initiative to raise the university competitiveness on the international market, will then be in place among the employees, due to the infusion of benefit package which include performance related compensation clauses, improvement, improvement in security of tenure limits as well as increase in accommodation allowances and more technologically related cutting edge teaching methodologies and instructional techniques.

The leadership of the university, within six months of the implementation of these motivational strategies will then have to meet with its employees and communicate to them the modus operandi of the change initiative, prior to sending the questionnaire via e-mails for completion within a two week period.

The questionnaire, from the moment of delivery and reception, becomes part of the force filed to unfreeze the thoughts, perceptions, feelings and attitude of the employees, as they begin to make contribution to the strategy change initiative of the university.

According to Schein (2003), to be motivated to change we must accept the information and connect it to something we care about, and by these employees introspecting regarding their inadequacies and re-evaluating these their prospects under the possibilities that now seems available, will experience survival anxiety, or the feeling that if they do not change, neither they nor the university may not survive against the competition provided by other educational institutions.

Process variables like job satisfaction, benefits from change, willingness to participate, procedural justice, and opinion on the quality and importance of information, will play significant part in evoking responses like highly committed to change initiative, appropriate value-congruency fit, change support, and team player acceptance over the three periods of measurement and evaluation.

Reinforcement of the change will then be accentuated by the university leaders approving the implementation of the empathy walk concept by different department leaders into other department to see what features are similar or different to theirs, according to Klein (2003), and then having these issues discussed at both the employee and leadership levels with a view to see how the competitiveness of the university can progress towards those of its global competitors.

Additionally, the provision of the extrinsic motivational, the engaging of the employees in the change process and the result of the impact of cognitive redefinition will sufficiently create the psychological safety necessary to ensure the survival anxiety felt will translate to bring about the desired change strategized by the Harpers’ University leaders.

Harper’s University leaders possess the  intellectual quality and experience to manage this change initiative process effectively, which according to Klein (2003), can only be achieved by balancing the amount of threat that produced by the disconfirming data with enough physiological safety features to ensure employees accept the information improve their learning and according to Senge (1990), become motivated to make the change which will be tied to the university achieving its goals and objectives.

Application of the model to my university

The university has been experiencing decreasing levels of enrollment, most likely due to harsh economic times, increasing competitiveness from institutions nationally and globally, and lack of innovation in the presentation of its educational programs especially in distance teaching to enable it to be a niche institution in the market place.

After careful analysis of the university performance over the last five years, this consultant recommended that base on its rapidly diminishing revenue base, and the desire to achieve maximum results in both the short, medium and long term, it should only apply the Kurt Lewin’s three stage change model after conducting a market survey, to assess the public perception of its image in terms of the quality of education offered, its competitiveness in terms of tuition, ease in matriculation, and the number of its graduates who have been able to secure jobs, as well as other salient factors.

On completion of the marketing survey and armed with critical information, this consultant would then approach the leadership of the organization and the employees to communicate the information as well as to get feedback on how they think they can best contribute simultaneously to the university increasing its enrollment in the market as well as remaining competitive consistently.

This consultant will remain mindful throughout the interactions that, according to Robbins (2003 pp.564-568), some activities that can assist in the unfreezing steps of Lewin’s change management model include motivating participants by preparing them for change, building trust and recognition for the need to change, and actively recognizing problems and brainstorming solutions within groups, and apply these principles when necessary.

Having extracted all the necessary information from the university leaders, which included the senate board and chancellors as well as the different groups of employees, this contracted consultant will then develop the pertinent variables that will be used during the three online surveys. These surveys will be conducted between three separate student and leadership groups and will constitute sample sizes of 2000 each and extend over first six weeks of the second semester next year.

The findings will be presented then be presented to the leadership of the university who will have two weeks to analyze its content and then will ask this consultant to join them as per prior agreement to meet and communicate to employees and students the outcome of the survey and the proposed modifications that will be made to ensure the goals of the institution remain on track.

It is hoped through that according to Klein (2003), that the thought process of the employee will be subjected to cognitive redefinition based on the information communicated about the present recruitment rate of the university and the threat to their survival and the relevance of the institution to its future stakeholders should the trend continues.

As a consultant, this individual will strive to remain objective throughout the process and as such, will have to ask the leadership to publicly address the issues of security of tenure, acquiring more advance technological instructional methodologies, and improving benefit packages to attract and retain the quality staffing necessary to achieve and maintain the scope of growth envisioned in the next five years.

This strategy the consultant hope will accelerate the cognitive broadening of the perspective of employees and caused them to develop new evaluations and judgment on how in a win/win situation they can contribute to the growth of the university and their careers at the same time.

The employees will then be informed that two more questionnaires will be sent to them to them via the same process and the university will be asked to improve its communication mechanism to ensure all progress, initiatives and developments are transmitted in real time to employees to ensure proper management of Lewin’s change model is maintained until the next stage of refreezing can be implemented.

Finally, the  success achieved the consultant will recommend to the university that it conducts a similar process at the end of three years to assess the change achieved and gave them permission to make contact with the management of the company at any point in time they think they will need any assistance to fine tune the enrollment strategy.

Reference

Anderson, R. (2011). “Organization Development and Change” Sage Publications USA

Lewin, K. (1947). Change Management Model www.change-management-coach.com/Kurt-Lewin.html , 12/18/11

Robbins, S. (2003). “Organizational Behavior” 10^th edition Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ

Schein, E.H. (2003). “Kurt Lewin’s Change Theory in the Field and in the Classroom: Notes toward a model of Managed Learning” Reflections Vol.1 Issue No.1 www.forteza.sis.ucm.es/apto/alumu203.scheinlewin.pdf , 12/17/11

Senge, P. (1990). “The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization” Random House London