Initiating and leading a grassroots process of organizational change to advance a university mission

ABSTRACT

This study presents a collaborative, grassroots-led initiative for organizational change within a values-focused university. These informal change efforts represent a theory-to-practice leadership application in which a small group of faculty and staff members self-organized to enhance the university’s full range of leadership education, development, training, and assessment. The volunteer collaborators sought to better articulate the university’s longstanding commitment to educating and developing ‘principled leaders’ Their efforts also aimed at refining the university community’s dialogue about leadership and addressing certain conceptual gaps. The collaborators developed into a team of change agents who identified and advanced a values-based conceptual framework for educating and developing principled leaders. Their collaborative efforts reflect a recognizable process of organizational change. Understanding how an informal, bottom-up initiative can succeed becomes particularly important considering that even formal, top-down change initiatives often fail. This study follows Lewin’s Action Research methodology of sequential planning, action, and results, as analyzed across iterative cycles of active learning. It applies the stages of a recognized 4-phase organizational change process. The analysis yields key insights drawn from direct experience in this grassroots-led change initiative. Implications and recommendations for practitioners arise directly from this experience in leading emergent change within a higher education context.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Benjamin P. Dean

Benjamin P. Dean, Ph.D., serves as Head of the Management and Entrepreneurship Department and is an associate professor in the Tommy and Victoria Baker School of Business at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. He is a former department head of The Citadel’s Department of Leadership Studies. He also is a licensed attorney and holds senior professional certifications in human resources management. He has published on organizations, change management, leadership theory, business law and ethics, and online education. Additional research interests include developing team ambidexterity and organizational dynamic capabilities.

Tracey H. Sigler

Tracey H. Sigler, Ph.D., serves as Head of the Department of Leadership Studies and is an associate professor at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. She previously served as an associate journal editor for the Management Teaching Review. She teaches and writes on organizational behavior, leadership education and development and assessment, teams and teamwork, and organizational change. Other research interests include women in leadership and service-learning in education.

Arpit Sharma

Arpit Sharma, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the Management and Entrepreneurship Department of the Tommy and Victoria Baker School of Business at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. His publications have focused on technological transformations and innovative technologies in healthcare, especially for understanding patient perspectives and access. His research interests include analytics and technologies applied in leadership and healthcare.