Table of Contents

1.0
2.0

3.0
4.0
5.0

6.0
7.0
8.0

Introduction
1.1
Innovation Initiative definition
1.2
Change definition
Data collection method
2.1
Interview with the Headmaster
2.2
Interview with one of the staff
2.3
Interview with students
Discussion on the planning and implementation of the
change initiative
Discussion on the effectiveness of the changeinitiative
Discussion on the critical factors for the sustainability
of the initiative
5.1
Staff
5.2
Organization
5.3
Process
Ethical considerations
Conclusion
Reference

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1.0

Introduction
Any institution will undergo some changes and innovations for the sake of
improvement. However, more often than not people tend to consider a change as so
problematic. This is not caused by the nature of the change but because of the lack of
knowledge, skills and attitudes of those involved in the process of the change (Yan,
2008). Even if those who are involved had the desired capabilities and resources to
make the change possible, the thought of the unknown and the fear to venture into a
new working environment will keep them away from accelerating at full speed toward
the innovation. Innovation in educational institution involve many aspects like
teaching method, human resources, finance and lost potential. Change and innovation
is a difficult and long-term process. It may successful in short-term but as things
change over the years it may fail in long-term. Then, a new innovation will need to be
planned to cope with the new current condition.
1.1
InnovationInitiativedefinition
According to Carlopio (as cited in Yan, 2008), an "innovative initiative" is
defined as a unique and creative program or activity through an alteration of practices
that has the potential to substantially improve outcomes.
1.2
Change definition
According to Merriam-Webster online dictionary, change can be define as to
make different in some particular, to make radically, to give a different position or
course or direction, toreplace with another, to make a shift from one to another, to
exchange for an equivalent sum of money, to undergo a modification.

2.0

Data Collection Method

In this study, I rely on interviews and documents. I conducted 3 interviews
with the Headmaster, a staff and a focus group of year 6 students in Sekolah
Kebangsaan Sepagaya, Lahad Datu. Interviews took place during work hours and
averaged around 30 minutes. The interviews were professionally transcribed. The staff
that interviewed had more than 10 years of experience in his field and was free from
immediate work responsibilities. Both the quantitative and qualitative method of
interviewing were used in order to collect the data. The quantitative method that used
was based on the personal interview in which requires interviewer to meet face to face
with the respondents.
2.1
Interview Transcript with the Headmaster
Interviewer: Why is a change initiative necessary in an institution?

Headmaster: We cannot expect to do the same thing over and over again and
to expect different results. Especially if the results are no longer
relevant to the current condition of an institution. Thus, changes must
Interviewer:

be conducted for improvement purposes.

How to ensure the effectiveness of a change in an institution such as

this school?
Headmaster: There are three major parts in a school that must contribute to the
effectiveness of a change. They are the administration, the staff and the
pupils. First, I will say the most important role is played by the
administration. Especially the leader. In this case the
headmaster of the school. It is well known that many case studies
showed that most change initiative failed due to the lack of the
engagement of the leader.Leaders must be extremely vigilant in every
step of a change initiative because they most directly determine
whether it is successful or not. Their guidance and stewardship
throughout the process is more important than anything else.. Second,
the unwillingness from the staff to move from their zone of comfort to
try out new idea or way to do things. This is what I called staff
Interviewer:

resistance.
Even though people are clearly aware of the importance of change

initiative, why do people still resist change?

Headmaster: More often than not, it is the fear of the unknown or perhaps how the
change will impact them. When people dont know all the
answers they feel like they have lost control and that makes them feel
hopeless. Organizational leaders have the responsibility to manage
change efforts to minimize the negative impact on employees to
effectively manage change efforts. It is important to help
people understand what the change will be and the reasons
behind themodification. The more detailed the communication about
the vision for the change, the better employees understand the need and
the less resistant they will be to the modification.
Interviewer: What it meant to sustain an innovation? And how it is done?
Headmaster: At first, I personally really didnt understand what it meant to sustain
an innovation. But as time passed by, it became apparent that proper
diligence had to be combined with excellent systems to maintain the
change innovation. A key challenge is to dispel the notion that
2

sustainability can be addressed adequately after implementing a

change. We have learned that planning for sustainability is inseparable
from the process of designing, testing, and implementing a solution.
By building sustainability into the implementation process, we help
ensure that an improvement will achieve its goals over the long term.
A sustainable innovation will take root and have an enduring impact,
even after the initiative is no longer receiving special attention and
Interviewer:

extra resources.
Over the past decade many changes suggested by the Ministry of
Education to be conducted in educational institutions. Some of them
were still implemented but some of them were replaced with new

innovation. What is your opinion on this?

Headmaster: In my opinion, many innovations that introduced in our country is
somekind of modified policy that had been conducted in different
country. They may be appropriate in their origin but, considering that
different educational institution has their own culture, It certainly
unwise to sum up all the educationalinstitutions as in one same
condition. That is why our Ministry of Education keep on trying to find
the best innovation that suit majority of target.
Intervierwer: What kind changes that introduced in this school recently?
Headmaster: Changes or a innovation take a lot of time to be completed. Of course
most of long-term changes were made and introduced mostly by the
Ministry Education. For short-term changes that are within my limit of
authority usually about the respondsibility of teacher and staff apart
from doing their core business such as teaching. I usually instructed
them to do in area that in my opinion they do best and change it
accordingly to their current performance.

2.2
Interview Transcript with one of the staff
Interviewer: Tell me about a time when you are working on a new innovation as
part of a team and felt that you could achieve better or faster on your
Staff:

own. How did you handle it? What was the outcome?
As part of a team that has conducted many projects, sometime I do feel
like I could have done the job faster alone. But I understand what it
mean for being in a team. We must get the job done together. One
3

thing that is essential to team work in to get the team to pelan the
project early and get it going as soon as possible. So that when there is
Interviewer:

an error there are still plenty of time to get it right back on track.
describe a situation where a project did not go as well as planned due
to lack of teamwork. What did you attribute the lack of team the lack

Staff:

of teamwork to. What action did you take and what was the outcome?
Usually, well planned project failed because of lack of individual that
willing to make sacrifices in order to follow the plan. Sacrifices are
most about personal time outside working hours as well as financial
sacrifices. Of course we cannot force them to do the things that they
unwillingly to do but the best thing to do is to explain to them the
importance of the project and what benefits that the team will get to

Interviewer:

compensate of their sacrifices.

What do you think about ethical consideration that in important in a

Staff:

change process?
Everyone has their own superior to report to about their progress on
certain project. And of course their superior wanted to hear good
news from them. Sometimes, in order to meet the demanding
expectation from their superior teacher or even the staff may tempted

Interviewer:
Staff:

to alter the data in order to meet the expectation of their superior.

What do you think is the barrier to implement new innovation?
I think the main problem is when the head of department does take the
change seriously. It will take down the morale of the staff in
implementing the change. Furthermore, the head of department as in
this case the headmaster must always takes part in the process of
implementing the change. At least monitoring the progress on

changing.
2.3
Interview transcript with focus group (Pupils)
Interviewer: Good morning and thank you for coming.
Pupils:
Good morning teacher. Youre welcome teacher.
Interviewer: Okay, well I think we probably should start. Firstly, again thank youall
very much for coming. I really do appreciate it, your participation. Ive
got a number of questions Id like you to discuss among yourselves.
Anything you say will, of course, be totally confidential. Since my
writing is not as fast and as skilful as a professional transcriber, Ill be
recording this session.You may not answer any of my questions if you

do not want to but I hope you will take part in the discussion among
Pupils:
Interviewer:

your group. Do you have any questions before we begin?

No. Teacher
Do you know what is change or innovation in learning? How can it

Pupil 1:
Pupil 2:
Pupil 3:
Interviewer:
Pupils:
Interviewer :

improve the understanding and quality of learning among pupils?

change means new way of learning.
new way and more interesting.
by using computer and internet madam.
any other opinion?
[remain quiet]
It is true change means new ways of doing thing and some of them
require collaboration with the use of computer and the internet. Can

Pupil 1:
Pupil 4:
Interviewer:
Pupil 5:
Pupil 6;
Interviewer:

you say out one example of new way of learning?

Frog VLE madam.
I Think chart madam.
what is your opinion pupil 5 and 6?
I agree with them madam.
Me too.
Can you all explain a little bit in detail about learning through Frog

Pupil 1:

VLE?
We can access notes, exercises via internet anywhere and anytime we
connected to the internet. Even though we missed a class but we can
always refer back to the note posted online. We can also do online

Pupils 2:

forum among the pupils.

But many time the internet access is not really good at school and I
dont have internet connection in my house. So, it is very difficult for

Interviewer:

to use it.
Do you think that there is any other reason that this new way of

Pupils 1:

learning doesnt suitable for pupils in this school?

The problem with it is when the pupils doesnt have computer or any

Pupil 3:
Interviewer:
Pupils 5:

gadget to access the web.

The teachers do not update the web madam.
What do you think pupil 4, 5 and 6?
I also rarely use the Frog VLE because I dont have internet at home

Pupil 6:
Pupil 4:
Interviewer:

madam.
I prefer to read book and writing instead of typing madam.
Me too madam. I prefer the old ways of learning.
It is important that we know how to use the virtual learning
environment or VLE. As technology becoming more advance, we
should use them as much as possible to assist us in learning. Dont you

Pupil 2:

all think so?

I agree madam, but the school and parents must give full support to us.
5

Interview:

Just imagine that you have your own private computer and an internet
access, do you find that the VLE will help improve you study and does

Pupils:
3.0

it attract you interest.

Of course madam. It is very interesting.

Discussion on the planning and implementation of the change initiative

A successful institution under stands that doing things the same way will
produce the same result. Especially if the result is no longer preferable and that
sometimes changing things is needed to take an institution to the next level. So
whether it is transitioning to new policies and procedures, office change, change in an
employee such as staff reshuffling and even as simple as new software program
change needs to be manage to be successful. As written in an article by Lotich (2014),
there are 8 steps to be followed in order to implement change successfully.
The first step is the management has to show significant support for the
modification. It is crucial that management shows support for changes and
demonstrates that support when communicating and interacting with staff.
Employees develop a comfort level when they seethe administration supporting the
process.
The second step, the management or the leader muse show need reasons or in
another word case for change. Not everyone willing to change for change sake, so it is
important to create a case for change. A case for change can come from different
sources. It can be a result of data collected on defect rates, customer satisfaction
survey, employee satisfaction survey, customer comment cards,organization goals as a
consequenceof a strategic planning session or budget pressures. Using data is the best
way to identify areas that need to improve and change initiatives.
The third stepis to get the employee involvement. All change efforts should
involve employees at some level. Organizational change, whether large or small,
needs to be explained and communicated, specifically changes that affect how
employees perform their jobs. Whether it is changing a work process, improving
customer satisfaction or finding ways to reduce costs, employees have experiences
that can benefit the change planning and implementation process. Since employees
are typically closest to the process, it is important that they understand the why behind
a change and participate in creating the new process.
The fourth step is communicating the change. Communicating change should
be structured and systematic. Employees are at the mercy of management to inform
6

them of changes. When there isinadequate communication and the rumour mill starts
spreading rumours about change, it can create resistance to the modification. Being
proactive in communications can minimize resistance and make employees feel like
they are part of the process.
The fifth step is the implementation. Once a change is planned, it is important
to

have

good

communication

about

the

rollout

and

implementation

of

themodification. A timeline should be made for the applicationand should make

changes in the order that affect the process and the employees who manage the
process. An efficientschedule will allow for all new equipment, supplies or training to
take place before fully implemented. Applying without a logical order can create
frustration for those responsible for the work process.
The sixth step is the follow ups. Whenever a change is made it is
alwaysusefulto follow-up after implementation and assess how the change is working
and if the change delivered the results that were intended. Sometimes changes exceed
target expectations but there are occasions that changes just dont work as planned.
When this is the case, management should acknowledge that it didnt work and make
adjustments until the desired result is achieved.
The seventh step is removing barriers. Sometimes employees encounter
obstacleswhen implementing changes. Barriers can be with other employees, other
departments, inadequate training, lacking equipment or supply needs. Sometimes
management also needs to deal with resistant or difficult employees. It is
managements responsibility to ensure that employees can implement change without
obstacles and resistance. Unfortunately, sometimes employees need to move on in
order to successfully implement a needed change.
The last step is to celebrate. It is important to celebrate successes along the
way as changes are made. Celebrating the small changes and building momentum for
bigger changes are what makes employees want to participate in the process. When
employees understand why a change is made and are part of the process for planning
and implementing the change, it allows for a better chance for successful
implementation.
4.0

Discussion on the effectiveness of the change initiative

According to Leeman (2014), in his article mentioned many organizations that
undergo change initiative met their dead end as up to 70 percent of them failed to
meet their long-term goals. This statement raise a doubtful impression about the
7

effectiveness of the change. Having said that, it is not completely correct to say that
the change initiative in ineffective. This is because there are another 30 percent of
organizations that implemented the change initiative managed to succeed in their
implementation.
Since the pace of change in organizations is increasing daily, there is no better
time to understand how organizational change initiatives can become more effective.
The short answer is stronger leadership. According to leadership expert and author
John P. Kotter in his book Leading Change, there are eight common errors firms
make when implementing change.
First, allowing too much complacency. The biggest mistake people make when
trying to change organizations is to plunge ahead without establishing a high enough
sense of urgency in fellow managers and employees. This error is fatal because
transformations always fail to achieve their objectives when complacency are high.
Second, failing to create a sufficiently powerful guiding coalition. Major
change is often said to be impossible. Unless the head of the organization is an active
supporter. In an educational institution, in order to get successful transformations, the
head of an organization plus the senior assistants must have the commitment to
improve performance and work together as a team. As a weak committee will always
be less efficient.
Third, underestimating the power of vision. Vision play a main role in
producing useful change by helping to direct, align, and inspire actions on the part of
large numbers of people. Without a proper vision, a transformation effort can easily
dissolve into a list of confusing, incompatible and time-consuming projects that go in
the wrong direction or nowhere at all.
Fourth, under-communicating the vision. Major change is usually impossible
unless most of the staff are willing to cooperate, often to the point of making shortterm sacrifices. But people will not make sacrifices, even if they are unhappy with the
status quo, unless they think the potential benefits of change are attractive and unless
they are really believe that a transformation is possible. Without credible
communication and a lot of it, the helping hand from the staff will never be acquired.
Fifth, permitting obstacles to block the new vision. The implementation of any
kind of major change requires action from a large number of people. New initiates fail
far too often when employees, even though they embrace a new vision, feel
disempowered by huge obstacles in their paths. Occasionally, the roadblocks are only
peoples heads and challenge is to convince them that no external barriers exist. Even
though in many cases the blockers are very real.
8

Sixth, failing to create short term win. Real transformation takes time.
Complex efforts to change strategies or restructure businesses risk losing momentum
if there are no short-term goals to meet and celebrate. Most people wont go on the
long march unless the see compelling evidence within six to eighteen month that the
journey is producing expected results. Without short term wins, too many employees
give up or actively join the resistance.
Seventh, declaring victory too soon. After a few years of hard work, people
tempted to declare victory in a major change effort with first major performance
improvement. While celebrating a win is fine, any suggestion that the job is mostly
done generally a terrible mistake. Until changes sink down deeply into the culture,
which for an entire organization can take three to ten years, new approaches are
fragile and subject to regression.
Eight, neglecting to anchor changes firmly in the organization culture. Lastly,
change remain permanent only when it becomes the way of doing things around the
organization. Until the new behaviours are rooted in social norms and shared values,
they are always subject to degradation as soon as the pressures associated with a
change effort are removed.
As mentioned before, these are the eight obstacles that must be overcome in
order a change to become fully effective. Plus, the effectiveness of a certain change
also equals to the consistency of doing things. So, people that involved in the change
must do things according to the planning and it must be followed until it becomes a
second nature in the organization.

5.0

Discussion on the critical factors for the sustainability of the initiative

Sustainability is a crucial consideration when planning and implementing
innovations, because without sustainability we will find ourselves solving the same
problems over and over again. According to Minnier (2014), in her article,
summarize the factors that contribute to an innovation's sustainability, which
organized under the three most important categories of staff, organization, and
process.
5.1
Staff
Keep in mind that sustainable changes are not imposed but are done with staff
involvement. When designing the change, encourage staff to express their ideas, and
include their input in the plan. From the ideas generated and other observations,
conduct small-scale tests of change to fine-tune the innovation and encourage a sense
9

of staff ownership. Based on the test results, allow staff to determine whether the
change is truly an improvement over the current approach. Be sure to share the test
results, promote success stories, and offer recognition to staff members who
contribute to success.
An innovation may require substantial staff education and implementation
support to ensure that those involved understand what isneeded to achieve success.
Training should be an iterative process rather than a once and done exercise. In
addition to identifying and addressing gaps in knowledge and skill, be sure to
considerbehaviouraland cultural factors that could lead to resistance to change.
Education may involve a variety of learning opportunities, including regular staff
meetings, competency checks, online collaboration tools, and internal newsletters.
Obtaining support from one or more local leaders is a critical factor for
ensuring that an innovation will befruitfuland sustainable. An executive sponsor or
physician champion helps build commitment to achieve the defined goal, inspires
participants to get involved, and allows frontline personnel to devote the time needed
to create, monitor, and improve care processes. Leaders can approve the hiring of new
staff, secure the funding required to fully implement the innovation, lend support for
accountability systems that promote change, and promote public recognition of the
organization's successes. Finally, leaders can develop a succession plan that specifies
who will continue the innovation effort in the future.
5.2
Organization
Look for opportunities to implement structures,

technologies,

and

environmental factors that can hardwire the change by making it difficult or

impossible to revert to the old way of doing things. Seek to identify and change
unsuitable reward systems or other organizational barriers that may undermine the
innovation. Develop policies and procedures that support the new way of working,
build new requirements into job descriptions, put communication systems in place for
sustaining the improved process, and make sure your organization has enough trained
staff, facilities, and equipment to support the new process.
Any effort to implement change in a sustainable way needs to be based on an
understanding of the values embedded in various organizational cultures, such as
those that areuniqueto corporate leadership, business units, and clinical departments.
When considering whether an innovation fits in with the organization's overall
culture, ask whether the improvement goals are clear, contribute to overall aims, and
are shared across all levels. Here again, organizational leadership plays an important
10

role by offering support for a can do culture that values positive change. Finally,
individual employees play a crucial role in health care improvement by participating
in change, resisting it, orjustignoring it. It is important to involve key staff who
willingly embrace change, strive for success, and support continuous improvement.
5.3

Process
An organization's ability to adapt complicated processes is amainfactor in the

success of an innovation. Adaptation that supports change may involve changes in

overall organizational growth or changes in collateral processes. Above all, it is
essential to understand the workflow of the problem that you are trying to solve and
then to build the solution into the workflow. Quality improvement efforts often
involve asking staff to add extra steps to a process, walk to a different location to
obtain supplies, or do something else that is not part ofstandardworkflow. It is crucial
to provide compelling reasons for such changes and to incorporate them into
workflows in a way that will support the innovation.
Collecting quality improvement data is just as important as taking vital signs
in terms of contributing to better patient care. After implementing a change, constant
vigilance is crucial, because although the intensity of the intervention may be
gradually reduced, it is the basic to maintain ongoing assessment of the results. By
continually reviewing performance data, you can respond promptly to trends that
point to suboptimal performance, and, if necessary,reevaluate the processes involved
in the innovation. Be sure to review the data regularly with the primary stakeholders,
including project sponsors and the frontline staff who do the work.
Successful change hinges on knowing precisely how the change will benefit
your organization, and an innovation becomes sustainable only when it creates

In

defining why the innovation will matter to users, it is not sufficient to simply point to
objective evidence showing the value of thechange. It's important to consider exactly
how staff perceive the changeas better and to define its relative advantage in
comparison with the previous approach. You can explore the impact of the change by
encouraging staff to ask themselves, What else can I devote time and attention to that
I couldn't before?,What will I be able to stop doing? and How will my workday
be different?
Sustainable innovation requires attention to all of these factors, because if one
of them is not adequately addressed, a quality improvement effort may achieve only
short-term gains.
11

6.0

Ethical considerations
Generally, ethical considerations are issues that should be considered when
designing and conducting a change or an innovation initiative. The most important
issue to understand is that all intervention with individuals and organizations are
political. As they are political, they are ethical (Grieves, 2010). The failure to consider
ethical responsibility can turn what was intended as an innocent change strategy into a
complete failure.
Ethical considerations in a change are critical.
standards for conduct

Ethics are the norms or

that distinguish between right and wrong.

They help to

determine the difference between acceptable and unacceptable behaviours. Why are
ethical considerations so important in change? First, ethical standards prevent against
the fabrication or falsifying of information, findings and returns. Ethical behaviour is
also critical for collaborative work because it encourages an environment of trust,
accountability, and mutual respect among staff. This is especially important when
considering issues related to information sharing.People involved in the change must
also adhere to ethical standards in order for the public to support and believe in the
change. The public wants to be assured that involved in the change followed the
appropriate. The handling of these ethical issues greatly impact the integrity of the
change.
It is best to know that a change is doing well. Many institutions are reported
doing well in certain change that conducted but in reality the information given was
falsified in order to get good attention from more superior authority. In the end, the
main goal is jeopardize just to gain some wins in short-term.

12

7.0

Conclusion
In this case study, the student learning is the main focus for implementing
change initiative. However the success of the change initiative was not always end up
as planned. The whole change is very complicated as it involves the top management
as the head of an institution plays the most important part to explain the importance of
the change as well as the vision of the change while monitoring the change process in
long-term., it is also important for the staff and the student participated together to
move toward the change in order the change to succeed. If any of this part resists the
flow of change, then it surely will jeopardize the whole change process. The teachers
are the main role in the change, and the students learning is the main focus or the
centre of the change, while the school is the supporter. A change Initiative in
educational institution such as is this case study cannot be perfected without any of
them. Apart from that, ethical consideration also need to be taken into account while
undergo the change process.

13

8.0

References
Grieves, J. (2010). Organizational change: Themes & Issues. New York, USA:
Oxford University Press Inc. Retrieved from https://books.google.com.my
Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading change. Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business
Review Press. Retrieved from https://books.google.com.my
Leeman, R (2014, Sept 14). 70% of change initiative fail Really? Retrieved from:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140914031708-7145156-70-of-changemanagement-initiatives-fail-really
Lotich, P. (2014, August5). 8 steps to implementing successful organizational
change.

The

Thriving

Small

Business

(TSB).

Retrieved

from

http://thethrivingsmallbusiness.com/8-steps-to-implementing-successfulorganizational-change/http://www.nytimes.com
Minnier, T. E. (2014, April 23). How to Build Sustainability Into the Innovation
Process. Retrieved from https://innovations.ahrq.gov/perspectives/how-buildsustainability-innovation-process
Yan, X. S. (2008, August). The effect of changes and innovation on educational
improvement. Shi Jia Huang, China: He Bei University of Science and
Technology. Retrieved

from: http://www.ccsnet.org/journal.html

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