Change Management in Higher Education Institution

Everything in this world is always changing. Change for the better or change for the worse. What doesn't change, of course, is change itself. Organizational change is always happening, whether we realize it or not. Organizations can only survive if they can make changes. Change management in the organization will be successful if there is a change in the behavior of individuals, groups, and organizations by the goals of the change itself.

Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Several conditions deserve attention before changes are implemented.

First, Readiness of Human Resources. In organizational change, Human resource is a key factor in the success of the change. They are both the subject and the object of action for change. Comfort in the status quo often hinders change programs. Mapping the readiness of Human Resources to accept change is important. This of course will determine the strategy of communicating the desired change. Commitment to change is also a prerequisite that must be met.

Second, Readiness of Infrastructure. Facilities and infrastructure that support change must be conditioned from the start before the change initiative is carried out. The quality and quantity of the faculty's infrastructure are well analyzed.

Third, Readiness of Finance. Change of management needs financial support. The size of the funds required is highly dependent on the complexity of the change itself.

Fourth, Readiness of Changing Strategy. Change can be gradual and radical. Gradual means changes are made slowly and gradually, while radical means drastic changes. Whatever the choice, the change strategy must be prepared carefully. The clarity of the stages of change is a determinant of the success of change management.

Fifth, Mutual Commitment. All the changes that have been made lead to an increase in organizational effectiveness to improve the organization's ability to adapt to environmental changes and changes in the behavior of organizational members. Organizational change can be carried out on the structure that includes strategy and systems, technology, physical arrangement, and human resources.

As a consequence of a system, the organization will always be dynamic. Changes that occur in the external and internal environment cause the organization to always be adaptive and responsive to reach a new equilibrium point. Every organization must respond to the needs of its customers or clients, political and regulatory barriers, changing economic and technological conditions. These external challenges have an impact on the metamorphosis process of mechanistic design organizational design to organic design which tends to be innovative, flat, lean, flexible jobs enrichment, self-managed team, continuous training, and development performance-based pay, employee involvement.

Organizational design transformation affects the adjustment of organizational strategy. If competition through innovation is a company strategy, then an organic structure will be preferred because it is easier for employees to share knowledge and be creative. On the other hand, if the strategy is a low-cost option, then the mechanic structure is more suitable because it is efficiency-oriented and maximizes production.

The choice of organizational strategy is also determined by the phase of the organizational life cycle according to the development of the organization. The organizational life cycle consists of the stages of introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. At each stage of the organization's management has its own strategy by the challenges faced in each phase. Organizational transformation/renewal strategies are often used when an organization is in the maturity stage if it does not want to enter a decline phase.

Global competition in the political, economic, cultural, social, and other fields today requires every organization to carry out various adaptive and proactive change strategies to maintain its existence. The strategic environment of the organization, both profit-oriented and non-profit, is always undergoing dynamic changes and continues to grow. Opportunities and threats that come from the external environment (external environment), will have a direct or indirect impact on the internal environment (internal environment). These changes require the organization to be responsive so that it is not crushed by the demands of the change itself, including in this case higher education institutions.

Higher education institutions are established organized and maintained to fulfill the needs of the community, nation, and state for quality higher education, useful research, and the development of science, art, and culture that can increase the dignity, worth, degree, and welfare of the community, nation, and state. Based on the nature of higher education, the management of higher education is not only directed at maintaining the existence of the university - survival - but at the same time being directed to be able to produce everything that is needed by the community and present it to the community as well as possible. Universities must be managed so that they can process to produce outputs to meet the needs of the community.

The faculty as a sub-system of the higher education organization moves dynamically. The dynamics of the faculty organization need serious attention from the dean. Kal is elected, the dean of course carries a work program for one period. The work program that is carried out can continue the work program of the previous dean which is deemed necessary to be continued. Others, new work programs.

When the dean carries out a work program that demands organizational change, it is not as easy as continuing the previous work program. This means it takes the ability of the dean to manage change well. Don't expect a miracle that the change will go smoothly. Various prerequisites and stages should be carefully considered. Not infrequently change initiatives have a setback for the faculty.

A simple example is when the dean wants to implement the paperless program in correspondence activities. Take into account the support for ICT infrastructure. It also calculates the readiness of various human resources, both age, educational background, and experience. When is the right time to socialize? Who and which work unit will be the pilot project.