Leader of Change Experiences and Perceptions in Educational Institution

Introduction

Change is inevitable in an educational setting. Integrating change in educational institutions is very critical to achieving high-quality education. Nevertheless, achieving positive outcomes is not always guaranteed once a change is initiated; sometimes, negative results may emerge. Therefore, to achieve a successful change, it is important to understand all that it takes to facilitate this. For this purpose, I decided to have an interview conversation with a principal from XXX secondary school as an example of a leader in an educational institution. The principal has received a number of awards for the high performance of every secondary school he has been in charge of; indeed, sometimes, he is transferred to secondary schools that seem to be failing and manages to transform them from failures into performers. The principal was even listed as the principal of the year in his state in 2022. These achievements made me choose this secondary school principal for this interview. The interview was a face-to-face interview and happened in the principal’s office within the school where he is currently in charge. The interview lasted 50 minutes, beginning at 9 p.m. and ending at 9:50 p.m. Having an interview with this principle was indeed a brilliant experience for me, being associated with a performer and getting an opportunity to learn more from him on how I can implement a good change initiative in an institution I hope to lead in the future.

Summary

The interview was grounded in understanding the key elements that are necessary for change and trying to understand the principal’s experiences and perceptions of the success of a change initiative so that I may apply this knowledge in the future to change management in my leadership role and definitely get to understand what is required to achieve this success.

I focused on the following interview questions to build a foundation for understanding what is required to initiate a change initiative successfully.

1. How does the principal himself view and experience change?
2. Why is change important in the education system?
3. Who should be involved in the change process?
4. How do you build a change initiative culture?
5. What are some of the barriers to initiating a change?
6. How do we overcome the barriers to change?
7. How does the principal himself view and experience things?
8. What are the critical elements for change?
9. What causes most change initiatives to fail?
10. Do leaders take a leadership and management role in the change initiative process?

In response to these questions, the principal asserts that schools are full of cycles of continuous improvement with the primary goal of providing students with a quality education. In the context of who should be involved as a leader, the principal said that being a leader does not mean one should dictate a change and coordinate the implementation of changes but rather calls for tapping into other people’s ideas as well as guiding others through implementation and planning the change. It is also important to understand the need for change so as to initiate it. This was one way of building a culture within the change initiative process.

I learned that there are key elements that need to be considered prior to initiate any change within the educational institution. As leaders, it is important to integrate culture within all stakeholders before initiating the change and to involve everyone, including students. This is important because, according to the principal, initiating change without involving the other stakeholders may not be smooth, especially when some stakeholders, such as teachers, feel that the change does not favor them. They may resist at first, but once they are involved and believe they are in a position to make decisions, everything goes smoothly.

Other elements included identifying the necessary resources to facilitate change to avoid any stagnation and selecting some members within the group to lead the others through the process, accept the process, and ensure that there is good communication within the group so as to gather information, get feedback on the progress of the change process, and share ideas. Moreover, the principal made it clear to me that there is a difference between occupying the position of a change leader and managing. Leadership involves influencing and focusing on change, while management calls for coordinating and describing the process that needs to be followed to achieve the change.

My view on change initiative somehow differed from what the principal provided. I thought that the change leaders were particularly involved directly in the change initiative activities, but to my surprise, I learned that change leaders tap on others’ ideas. The most crucial thing here is for the leader to build culture, influence, and workers as overseers. Nevertheless, the concept of the need for change and building culture among the participants in the change initiative process met my understanding of change management. According to my understanding, without the backing of the stakeholder in a change initiative, it may be hard to implement change. This was made clear by the principal, who said that to avoid barriers such as resistance, it is important to ensure teachers are fully involved in sharing ideas and coming to an agreement. The thing that changed my view is that I used to think that change managers served the same role as change leaders, but now this viewpoint is wrong since managers may be well-liked but be unable to lead change.

Comparative Analysis

The principal’s comments and beliefs strongly agree with what is in the class and other relevant learning materials. For example, the principal asserts that in order to initiate a change, one must consider the need for the change and weigh potential outcomes (Purcell et al., 2019). This is affirmed by learning materials that say that change does not always guarantee positive results, so it is important to make this important consideration before initiating the change to avoid any long-lasting adverse impacts on educational institutions.

According to both the learning materials and the principal’s assertion, resistance to change is common in educational settings; the principal describes a scenario in which teachers will likely influence one another if the change does not benefit them, which explains why most change initiatives fail (Beketova et al., 2020). So, it is important for leaders to be creative to exert influence that makes them accept the change and implement it.

Another critical concept of the agreement was the concept of building a culture; the principal believes that without building a culture, change initiative is very difficult and will face resistance, for example, in cases where teachers believe that the change will not benefit them and will not support it, and the principal cannot establish change on his or her own (Harold et al., 2020). Similarly, the class readings agree that for any change to be implemented successfully, all stakeholders must be on the same page, feel included in decisions, and be able to influence change as a leader.

Also, both the principal and the learning material agree that communication is very crucial among stakeholders in a change initiative. Both too much communication and a lack of communication are undesirable because they both have the potential to sabotage efforts to effect change (El & Roehrig, 2020). It is possible that the change effort will not be successful in achieving its goals if there is the insufficient discourse in both directions or insufficient effective communication at all levels.

However, the principal comment about how to build a culture in a change initiative somehow differed from what we read in class. According to the principal, building a culture simply means making everyone feel included in all decisions being made; however, the description of building a culture for change is quite comprehensive; it calls for creating desired values and beliefs and aligning them with the change objective; then, based on this, the change leader should be bold to influence change (Folz, 2021).

Furthermore, according to how the change leader involvement is understood from the principal’s point of view, a leader is not heavily involved in the change initiative process but rather leaves most of the activities to the stakeholders by drawing on their substantial ideas. This differs from what was read in class because leaders are involved in various stages, such as creating a vision, establishing values, and ensuring that all stakeholders are moving in the right direction based on the change objectives (Kristensen et al., 2022).

Conclusion

According to what I learned from the interview, change is always needed in the educational system to improve educational quality. However, implementing a change may not be as easy as most people think. As a leader who should always anticipate challenges, particularly resistance from stakeholders such as teachers in an educational institution setting, a leader should be able to overcome these challenges by building a culture and ensuring the inclusivity of all stakeholders. Leaders may have different perceptions and experiences regarding leading a change initiative, but the most important thing is ensuring that they have the stakeholders’ support. Ultimately, the key elements for change include a cooperating culture, involving all stakeholders (teachers and students), accepting change, communication, and having key decision-makers within the change initiative process.

References

Kristensen, T. B., Saabye, H., & Edmondson, A. (2022). Becoming a learning organization while enhancing performance: the case of LEGO International Journal of Operations and Production Management, 42(13), 438–481. https://www.repamjournal.org/index.php/REPAM/article/view/33

Purcell, W. M., Henriksen, H., & Spengler, J. D. (2019). Universities as the engine of transformational sustainability toward delivering the sustainable development goals: “Living Labs” for sustainability International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 20(8), 1343–1357. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJSHE-02-2019-0103/full/html

El Nagdi, M., & Roehrig, G. (2020). Identity evolution of STEM teachers in Egyptian STEM schools in a time of transition: A case study 1-16 in International Journal of STEM Education, 7(1).https://stemeducationjournal.springeropen.com/articles/10.1186/s40594-020-00235-2

Beketova, E., Leontyeva, I., Zubanova, S., Gryaznukhin, A., & Movchun, V. (2020). RETRACTED ARTICLE: Creating an optimal environment for distance learning in higher education: discovering leadership issues 6(1), Palgrave Communications.https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-020-0456-x

Harold L. Sirkin, Perry Keenan, & Alan Jackson (2020, October 1). The hard side of change management Harvard Business Review https://hbr.org/2005/10/the-hard-side-of-change-management

Folz, C. (2021, July 7). How to change your organizational culture SHRM. https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/1016/pages/how-to-change-your-organizational-culture.aspx

Appendices

1. How does the principal himself view and experience change?
2. Why is change important in the education system?
3. Who should be involved in the change process?
4. How do you build a change initiative culture?
5. What are some of the barriers to initiating a change?
6. How do we overcome the barriers to change?
7. How does the principal himself view and experience things?
8. What are the critical elements for change?
9. What causes most change initiatives to fail?
10. Do leaders take a leadership and management role in the change initiative process?