ERIC Number: ED651949
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2024
Pages: 142
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: 979-8-3823-0731-2
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Managing Organizational Change in Career Services Units
David Merry
ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Northeastern University
This study examines how leaders of career services units manage organizational change to meet the evolving needs of their internal and external stakeholders. These leaders are increasingly required to spearhead significant changes within their teams and across their institutions to adapt to rapid changes in the higher education sector and the workforce. One-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 leaders of career services units at 4-year institutions in the United States who had recently managed an organizational change process. General Inductive Analysis was used to code transcripts of these interviews and identify major themes and associated subthemes. The five major themes found in the data were: 1) identifying the motivations for organizational change, 2) gaining buy-in from internal stakeholders, 3) developing and communicating a vision for change, 4) supporting direct reports through the change process, and 5) defining and measuring success. This study suggests that career service leaders are productively employing change management strategies to secure support from senior leadership, generate buy-in from faculty, and manage the experiences of their direct reports. The findings also indicate that these leaders are aware of the importance of a strong vision and a data management strategy for organizational change, but that they often had difficulty enacting these to their fullest potential. The study closes with recommendations for how career services leaders can benefit from learning more about the field of change management and applying its tenets to their organizational change efforts. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
Descriptors: Organizational Change, Career Counseling, Stakeholders, Needs, Higher Education, Labor Force, Attitudes
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Publication Type: Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A