It's Not Just a Job Anymore: The Influence of Cultural Change on Student Services Staff in a Community College

NASPA Journal ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary G. Locke ◽  
Lucy M. Guglielmino
Keyword(s):  
Community College ◽  
Customer Service ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Student Services ◽  
Change Process ◽  
Educational Leaders ◽  
Planned Change ◽  
Change Initiative ◽  
Nuanced Understanding

Today’s colleges and universities operate in a complex environment characterized by rapid and unrelenting change, and nowhere do the challenges inherent in change more directly impact students than in the delivery of student services. The need to integrate new models of service delivery, data-driven approaches to enrollment management, greater accountability for student success, stronger emphasis on customer service, and provision of “anytime, anyplace” services through technology are readily evident. Yet, many institutions are finding that their internal cultures are unreceptive, even hostile, toward adopting needed changes. This qualitative case study focusing on a 4- year purposeful change initiative at a community college was conducted to provide higher educational leaders with a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the influence of cultural change on student services staff. The results of this study indicated that student services staff constituted a distinct subculture that perceived, experienced, responded to, and influenced planned change differently from other subcultural groups. Specifically, student services staff more demonstrably supported the purpose of the change initiative; identified empowerment, inclusion and involvement in college decision-making, and improved lines of communication as the most important impacts of the change process; and expressed strong confidence regarding the sustainability of the changes that had occurred. Student services staff also indicated that they found greater meaning and developed stronger commitment to their work as a result of the change process. As a result of these findings, implications and strategies that may be helpful in designing and implementing a successful planned change initiative involving student services personnel are presented.

HR strategy during culture change: Building change agency

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 741-754 ◽  
Author(s):  
Llandis Barratt-Pugh ◽  
Susanne Bahn
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Culture Change ◽  
Change Process ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Change Agency ◽  
Strategic Approach ◽  
Organisational Values

AbstractThis paper explores the role played by a Human Resources (HR) department orchestrating culture change during the merger of two large State departments with dissimilar cultures. A 2-year case study determined what HR strategies were having the greatest impact on embedding new organisational values to produce a more flexible culture and how these practices could be accelerated. This paper indicates how a more strategic approach by HR departments can support and develop relational managing capability that accelerates cultures change towards a more flexible work environment.This paper describes the context of the change process, the relevant literature, and outlines the research process. The findings from the phases of the data collection are summarised revealing the traumatic perceptions of the change process, but also the instrumental actions of some managers, working creatively with their teams to tackle new tasks and projects. The evidence suggests that these informal practices of task allocation were at the core of change agency in this case study and put the new flexible organisational values into action. The findings illustrate how the organisation moves from valuing managers for their technical competence to valuing managers for their relational competence.The paper then discusses what strategic HR actions were accelerating this process and illuminates the critical role of building managers as change agents. The paper concludes by confirming the need for a strategic approach by HR during organisational change. Building manager capability and supporting informal change agency practices is presented as a core focus for HR during such organisational cultural change programmes.

Insight in cultural change during organizational transformation: a case study

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wouter Smit
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Change Process ◽  
Longitudinal Research ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Organizational Transformation ◽  
Theoretical Assumption ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Desk Research

PurposeThe purpose of this case study is to gain insight into how a cultural change process develops as a result of organizational transformation.Design/methodology/approachThis case study employs an ethnographic and longitudinal research design. The transformation period of the organization is described by means of desk research and interviews with the management. Simultaneously, the cultural change process is described following four organizational mindset analyses.FindingsThis paper supports the theoretical assumption that culture changes as a reaction to transformation. However, in this case study, culture is also proven to be proactive, in that it emerged a year before the actual transformation was carried out. It is believed that the announcement of the new transformation caused a shift in the organizational mindset, enabling its members to deal with a situation of high uncertainty and stress. Whether the cultural change process in reaction to the transformation will evolve into a new sustainable cultural equilibrium could not yet be determined.Originality/valueThis study has contributed to comprehending the relationship between transformation and the process of cultural change. Cultural change is not solely a reaction to transformation. It can also be proactive in that it emerges before the transformation is carried out. That makes cultural change both proactive and reactive in relation to transformation, an insight that, as such, has not yet been discussed in the cultural theory.

scholarly journals A District’s Journey of Transformative Leadership: Moving Beyond Open Access to the Improvement, Inclusion, and Success of Students of Color in Advanced Placement

2021 ◽  
pp. 105268462199447
Author(s):  
Ed Cartagena ◽  
Charles L. Slater
Keyword(s):  
Advanced Placement ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
School Administrators ◽  
Educational Leaders ◽  
Transformative Leadership ◽  
District Leadership ◽  
Urban District ◽  
Critical Components

Leadership is a critical component of creating and sustaining a school culture that promotes the inclusion and success of students. The purpose of this study was to examine how school leaders helped to enact and sustain a reformed Advanced Placement (AP) culture designed to increase participation and success of students of color. Building on existing work of transformative leadership, this study describes the experience and challenges of educational leaders in understanding how leadership practices change the AP culture. The case study method examined one mid-sized urban district in Southern California that utilized transformative leadership. The methods included 15 open-ended interviews with educational leaders in a variety of capacities (i.e., district leadership, school administrators, counselors, and teacher leaders). The findings demonstrated critical components leading to deep and meaningful cultural change in AP. The analysis showed leaders in this district, who sought equity, were driven to create meaningful change, and were grounded in the community. Being grounded in the community had a great impact in promoting a transformed culture at the classroom, site, and district level.

A Community College HSI: The Effect of an HSI Designation on Organizational Identity

2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 360-381
Author(s):  
Todd L. Carter ◽  
Jean A. Patterson
Keyword(s):  
Community College ◽  
Hispanic Students ◽  
Transition Period ◽  
Qualitative Case Study ◽  
Planned Change ◽  
Individual Interviews ◽  
External Stakeholder ◽  
Hispanic Serving Institution ◽  
Hispanic Serving

Objective: Most community colleges receiving the Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) designation have no specific mission to serve Hispanic students. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how receiving an HSI designation affects the identity and practices of a community college. Method: Ten years of institutional documents covering the HSI transition period and 40 individual interviews were analyzed for common identity themes and indicators of a commitment to serving Hispanic students. Results: Participants attributed no meaning to the HSI designation; however, the identity labels did have meanings associated with being Hispanic-serving. A “serving all students” ideology combined with a color-blind approach and fear of external stakeholder reaction to the HSI designation were barriers to adopting an HSI identity. Contributions: Previous studies have relied on evidence of planned change as an indicator of an HSI identity. Unplanned change, however, has received very little attention. Our study demonstrates that unplanned changes in some practices and structures did result in movement toward being more Hispanic-serving as the college attempted to serve all students. As many HSIs have chosen not to address a formal change in identity, the unplanned change construct provides valuable data that might otherwise be overlooked.

Understanding the Importance of Community Practice for Christian Social Workers

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 6-15
Author(s):  
Kevin J. Brown ◽  
Gaynor Yancey
Keyword(s):  
Social Workers ◽  
Change Process ◽  
Sense Of Belonging ◽  
Planned Change ◽  
Community Practice ◽  
Work Skills ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Book Of Acts ◽  
Acts 2

The start of the early Christian church is recounted in the book of Acts.  In Acts 2 (NKJV) shares that after the outpouring of the Spirit of God, over 3,000 believers gather themselves together, where they “held everything in common, shared their resources, and that each person’s needs were met (Acts 2:42, The Message). The following article takes a bird’s eye view that assists us, as social workers, in understanding the importance of community practice. Community calls us to a sense of belonging and inclusion with a group of people.  Community also calls us to consider again our shared values and resources.  This article grounds us in the Biblical narrative, moves to our social work skills and knowledge base, and then concludes with thoughts that encourage us to address the “wicked problems” by being disruptive forces in the planned change process which is at the heart of community practice.

Opportunity costs associated with the provision of student services: a case study of web-based lecture technology

2013 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross H. Taplin ◽  
Rosemary Kerr ◽  
Alistair M. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Student Services ◽  
Opportunity Costs ◽  
Web Based

Contesting the dominant narrative: expanding the multistory cultural change approach

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-228
Author(s):  
Martijn van Ooijen ◽  
Antonie van Nistelrooij ◽  
Marcel Veenswijk
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Change Process ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Construction Safety ◽  
Change Processes ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Organizational Field ◽  
Content Type

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to expand the theory on multistory cultural change by showing how a dominant narrative on construction safety dynamically interrelates and is contested on multiple intertextual levels in an organizational field of organizations contributing to the recovery of houses in an earthquake region.Design/methodology/approachAn ethnoventionist research approach was adopted in which interpretation of data to find narratives and designing interventions went hand-in-hand.FindingsWe found four distinctive composite narratives besides the dominant narrative to which five actors refer in their accounts, thereby contributing to three types of story patterns. These narratives disclose the taken-for-granted ideas and beliefs that characterize the challenge of changing organizational culture. One intervention, which intended multiple stories to touch the surface, was highlighted as a multistory intervention.Research limitations/implicationsFurther research could extend the knowledge on other change interventions that contribute to multistory cultural change processes.Originality/valueAdopting an ethnoventionist approach to provide deep insights on an unfolding cultural change process for both scholars and practitioners.

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