In the wake of the COVD-19 problem Lusaka Business and Technical, under the oversight of a robust team, successfully carried out all training activities for distance learners via a Learning Management System. Our team has now been given another mandate to manage the change to Blended Learning for full-time students. I wish to share insights on what may characterise this transition.
Switching to Blended Learning (or e-learning) is not a simple matter of merely telling lecturers to start using an e-learning platform. It is important to be aware that a college or university may even have the best learning management system and a great team of lecturers but yet fail to transition successfully. An important thing that seldomly gets considered when transitioning is the cultural context of a college. In this article I first want to discuss how culture can work for, or against , Change. Secondly I wish to share Lippitt’s Model of managing Change; the model consists of simple steps that can be followed to manage Change.
Culture
Organisational culture comprises the norms and values that characterise the behaviour of an organisation. Now, if culture is a “norm”, it is by definition the first stumbling block to Change, and it goes without saying that any Change programme that takes off without considering the cultural context of an environment will not be successful. However, it is interesting to note that one way to get around the culture stumbling block is to use it as an agent of Change! Aguirre and Post (2013) explains how this is achievable: “When companies tap into the energy and emotional commitment that are bound up in their cultures, change initiatives are far more sustainable”. Sadly, however, although it is critical to business success, and although many managers are aware of this, culture seems to occupy a background position in many organisations.
A survey done by Strategy plus Business indicated that culture is widely seen to be more important than companies’ strategies but yet only 35% of executives said their companies did an effective job of managing culture (Aguirre & Post, 2013). It is when culture is ignored, and all efforts focus only on change, that culture will be seen to be diametrically opposed to the desired change.
So, how exactly can culture be a tool of change? Well, culture resides in, and is sustained by, human beings - lecturers, IT support staff, administration staff etc - who work at a college. Thus, instead of only thinking about change in terms of transformations that will occur to methods of teaching, preparing schemes and lesson plans, focus should be on the human beings that are the real agents of change!
During change in business, the management team of a college, or the Human Resource role to be specific, should listen to concerns of lecturers and foster a two-way dialogue to move big changes forward (Khatri, 2016). The HR function can create a work-environment where employees become pro-change. Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter notes that “The most successful organizations develop a culture that just keeps moving all of the time” (cited in Khatri, 2016). Iljins et al (2015) suggests a method of motivating employees into adapting to change by implementing a reward system. Training and rewarding of employees during performance of tasks during the change programme can encourage them to do their best to target achievements of the organization and in the process that may influence them to enjoy the change. An important feature to add to the reward system is penalties for non-performance or wrong-performance of tasks. At LBTC, we devised a system which enforces a penalty of 5% off a person's remuneration for each omisssion of an item that was supposed to be uploaded onto the Learning Management System. People now work hard to ensure no penalties affect their earned reward points.
Change Programme
To effectively manage change, a suitable model should be selected. Some common models include Lewin’s Three-Step model and Lippitt’s model. Lewin’s model consists of unfreezing the status quo, effecting the change and freezing the new change.
Lippitt’s model builds on Lewin’s model through a detailed seven-step process (cited in Higgins & Bourne, 2018). The steps include:
Step 1: Diagnose the problem.
Step 3: Assess the resources and motivation of the change agent.
Step 4: Develop action plans and establish required strategies.
Step 5: The role of the change agents should be selected and clearly understood by all parties so that expectations are clear.
Step 6: Maintain the change. Communication, feedback and group coordination are essential elements in this step of the change process.
Step 7: Terminate from the helping relationship (gradually). The change agent should gradually withdraw from their role over time. This will occur when the change becomes part of the organizational culture.
Once a suitable change model is selected, there will be need to also choose the correct e-learning or blended model that your college wishes to implement. More on that in my next blog post.
