Lessons from the HE Sector (Pennington 2003)
Pennington notes that, as a general rule, professionals and technical staff will tend to resist changes which are perceived to threaten their core values and practices, and which have a negative impact on individuals and which diminish group autonomy. Pennington suggests that managing change in higher education also has to take account of cultural features such as:
- The sector's general commitment to collegiality.
- Fuzzy lines of accountability, particularly for academic staff.
- A general lack of extrinsic rewards to shape behaviour.
- Well developed subject sub-cultures.
- Rotating management/leadership responsibilities (in some contexts).
Certain implications for the management of change in HE arise from these features, namely:
- The ability to influence is as important as the authority to control.
- Managing tends to be by consent and incrementalism.
- Decisions tend to be committee-based and generally consensual.
- The status of potential change agents is often derived from personal credibility and their standing in a subject community.
- A high value is placed on dialogue and the legitimacy of critique.
