Systemic Change in

Education Organisation

Objectives
By the end of this lecture, you should be able to:
1. Explain the effects of systematic change on
effective educational institutional management.
2. Discuss the conditions that are condusive to
change in educational institutions.
3. Suggest strategies for change for effective
institutional leadership.

Introduction
The present educational environment demands
educational leaders and managers to handle change,
which require them to make major changes in the
organisations, especially in schools.
A proposed change is either a top-down change or
initiated change. Even though change is expected to
bring positive results, it will still challenge the status quo
and may pose threatening situations to certain
individuals.
Razik and Swanson (2010) argue that in the current
turbulent environment, leaders have the responsibility
to maintain organisational stability despite the constant
change.

Change as defined
According to Razik and Swanson (2010), there
are three basic questions we need to ask about
change:
What is change?
What are the scenarios of current changes?
Why are changes necessary? We will now
explore systemic change and its effects on
effective educational institutional management.

Razik and Swanson (2010) have cited several

definitions of change given by scholars.
Scholar

Definition

The altering of behaviour, structures, procedures,

purposes, or outputs of some units within an
organisation.

Kanter, Stein and Jick A constant process of steering the organisational

direction.
(1992)

Any intentional shift in the way the organisation does

Smith (2002)
business
related to their competitors.
Based on the definitions
above, change is considered as

Hanson (1985)

the primary means for organisations to remain fit,

healthy, and able to cope with new and differing
demands (Razik and Swanson, 348).

Four types of change can happen in

educational organisations:
1.Enforced change
Change forced on organisations as a result of
identified requirements imposed by external
forces such as changes imposed by the
Ministry of Education. The teaching of science
and mathematics back to Bahasa Malaysia is
an example of enforced change in teaching
and learning.

2. Expedient change
Short-term change, which normally is reactive
in nature, implemented by the organisation to
meet immediate concerns. An alteration of
annual financial resources to finance the cost
for repairing a damaged roof due to storm is an
example of expedient change.

3. Essential change
Internally driven change initiated by the
organisation to monitor and to improve
performance. Updating the curriculum within
the appropriate time frame is an example of
essential change, aims to improve program
marketability.

4. Planned change
A deliberate and planned attempt to change,
aims to fulfil the achievement of predetermined
objectives and goals within the organisational
values. A strategic plan developed to achieve
certain specified objectives is an example of a
planned change.

Conditions conducive for effective change

Organisations that are successful in implementing
changes have conditions conducive for such changes to
happen. Researches have been conducted to identify the
conditions for successful change (Everard, Morris and
Wilson, 2004).
These conditions can be listed as follows:
Educational organisations must have clear purpose and
be goal directed - all should work towards the stated goals
and have a clear direction to perform their tasks.
The working structure must not hamper the creativity of
the members to perform their tasks.
Members should be given the opportunities to contribute
to the development and success of the organisation.

4. Members should be respected as individuals and

rewarded for outstanding performance.
5. The organisation should avoid negative practices and
get away from organisational politicking.
6. The organisation must have the ability to respond to
environmental changes and increased external
demands.
To sum up, organisational effectiveness depends on
two significant factors; organisational plan for
development and professional staff development
program because effective change in educational
organisations, according to Fullan (1982),cannot
occur without improvements to teachers working life.

Conditions conducive for change

Activity
Explain each of the six conditions in the above
figure.
_______________________________________________
_____________________

What strategies to follow?

The involvement and cooperation of the members
of the organisation are essential for the successful
implementation of change initiatives. A leader
cannot simply attempt to impose and implement
change single-handedly, but he or she must develop
or formulate strategies to introduce and implement
change.
We can summarise Razik and Swansons description
of strategies for change in the following table:

Strategy

Planned change

Rationalempirical

Normativereeducative

Power-coercive

Explanation
Identify changes and use forces to bring about change.
Leaders need to minimise those members who wish to
maintain status quo and increase those members who push
for change.

Authoritative and deterministic, and view changes as

deterministic. Assume that people are rational and will act in
their best interests when they know the benefits to them.

View change as needed and involves change agent to solve

perceived problems. Assume that people are social beings
and will subscribe to cultural and normal values.
Change is made on power base. Apply political, economic and
moral power to manipulate change. Assume that people are
compliant and will do what they are told to do.

Strategy

Environmentaladaptive

Attitude change

Transactional change

Action research model

for change

Explanation

Change is based on building a new organisation to

respond to external requirements. Assume people are
adaptive although they oppose change.

Change is based on desired consensus and reduction of

hostility. Members in the organisation should develop
positive attitude towards change and are willing to
sacrifice for the sake of change.

Change is made through a combination of efforts

between management and teams of change.
Management and the teams play a central role to
implement change.

Change is viewed as a cyclical process involving the

organisational members and organizational
development practitioners. Change is made based on
action research approach, emphasising data collection.

Activity
Assume that you have been appointed to give a 30minute presentation about change to your organisation.
Identify what area is in dire need of change and
determine what strategy you think is most appropriate
to implement such change.

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