ERIC Number: EJ1032252
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2014
Pages: 26
Abstractor: As Provided
Reference Count: 15
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0318-9090
Learning Is Change: Creating an Environment for Sustainable Organizational Change in Continuing and Higher Education
Schultz, Christie
Canadian Journal of University Continuing Education, v40 n1 Spr 2014
This article explores the ways in which learning itself is a form of organizational change and, as such, supports organizational readiness for change. The study considers a continuing education unit within a major Canadian university that managed to transform its decentralized and independent student records and administration system (student registration, student financials, student academic records) by merging into the university's central student management system. The technological implementation and transformation took place over 18 months and was enabled by a series of formal committees and working groups, involving a wide range of members across the university's communities and within the continuing education unit. The empirical data consist of responses given during in-depth interviews with a set of participants involved in the change initiative and technology implementation. Managers' reactions to and reflections on organizational change figure prominently in the research findings and discussion. The article aims to show that creating an environment for sustainable organizational change in higher education, and perhaps more generally, is supported by recognizing that learning itself is change, and that workplace learning may therefore help to create organizational readiness for change.
Descriptors: Organizational Change, Sustainability, Continuing Education, Higher Education, Foreign Countries, College Students, Readiness, Workplace Learning, Semi Structured Interviews, Qualitative Research
Canadian Association for University Continuing Education. c/o CAUCE Secretariat at Centre for Continuing and Distance Education, 475 Williams Building, 221 Cumberland Avenue North, Saskatoon, SK S7N 1M3, Canada. Tel: 306-966-5582; Fax: 306-966-5590; e-mail: cauce.secretariat@usask.ca; Web site: http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/cjuce-rcepu
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research; Tests/Questionnaires
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers: Canada

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