This presentation deals with management of change in academic institutions. It discusses the nature of academic institutions and the ways academic leaders can use to manage change effectively.

1. Management of Change in
Academic Institutions
Anup K Singh, PhD

2. Nature of Academic Institutions
• Knowledge organisations
• Faculty as knowledge workers and professionals
• Product cycle quite long, two years to five years
• Loosely coupled system
• Academic leader as first among equal
• Regulatory environment is quite tight
• External environment is relatively placid
• Measurement of success of change programme is difficult

3. Drivers of Change
• Regulatory environment
• Industry demands
• Poor student response
• New vision and goals
• Isomorphism with best schools
• Changes in technology

4. Regulatory Requirements
• Regulatory mandate
• Changes in programme architecture
• Changes in model curriculum
• Accreditation practices
• Government requirements

5. Industry Demands
• Industry as a distal client
• Changes in job profiles of recruits
• New streams of knowledge and skills
• Poor experience with recruits
• Emergence of new global competencies

6. Student Satisfaction
• Employment
• Employability
• Dissatisfaction with the curriculum and teaching-learning process
• Dissatisfaction with other academic inputs
• Feedback about the institution in relation to peer institutions
• Alumni engagement

7. New Vision and Goals
• New insights by the leader
• Benchmarking, international and national, by the institution
• Academic audit
• New leader challenging existing performance, outcomes and
processes
• The mandate by the Board of Governors
• Mobilisation of faculty and staff members by the leader
• Setting new goals and strategies

8. Characteristics of Academics
• The have high need for autonomy
• They expect support from the leader
• They want to participate in most decision making activities
• Their activities are individualistic
• They have their own reputation with students and clients
• Their organisational commitment is moderate and professional
commitment is higher
• They strongly believe in their professional wisdom and would take
time to accept views that contradict their beliefs

9. Salient Features of Change Management in
Academic Institutions
• Greater participation is needed in designing the change programme
• All relevant stakeholders must be involved in designing the change
programme
• During the change process, political activities are far greater in an
academic organisation compared to a business organisation
• Change czar (Vice Chancellor) and change agents (Deans) occupy positions
for a short period of time, while those affected by change are permanent
• The power base of change targets is reasonably high
• Political activists therefore need to be identified and be co-opted.
• The change czar needs to deploy several change agents, who represent
different interest groups in the institution
• Between delay and dissent, delay is preferable

10. Characteristics of Effective Change Agents in Academics
• Participative leadership
• Effective network management
• Consultation with different stakeholders
• Attention to details
• Reading undercurrents and coalition building
• Balancing competing priorities
• Effective monitoring
• Measuring outcomes
• Taking failures in strides