CONVERSATIONS THAT MATTERED: DURING A DECADE OF REFORM OF NEW ZEALAND TERTIARY INSITITUTIONS

Dr Jo HowseDepartment of Education

UnitecSeptember 2010

THE PROBINE-FARGHER REPORTMARCH, 1987

Issues: equity, management autonomy, co-ordination in service delivery

THE PROBINE-FARGHER REPORTMARCH, 1987

Issues: equity, management autonomy, co-ordination in service delivery

THE TERTIARY REVIEWFEBRUARY, 1988

Issues: equity, management autonomy, funding, student grants & loans, community links, competitive tertiary environment,

THE TERTIARY REVIEWFEBRUARY, 1988

Issues: equity, management autonomy, funding, student grants & loans, community links, competitive tertiary environment,

THE HAWKE REPORTJULY, 1988

Issues: equity, management autonomy, funding, community links, accountability, governance

THE HAWKE REPORTJULY, 1988

Issues: equity, management autonomy, funding, community links, accountability, governance

TODD REPORTMAY, 1994

Issues: funding, student grants & loans, community links, competitive tertiary environment

TODD REPORTMAY, 1994

Issues: funding, student grants & loans, community links, competitive tertiary environment

LEARNING FOR LIFE: ONE - FEBRUARY, 1988LEARNING FOR LIFE: TWO - AUGUST, 1989

Issues: equity, management autonomy, funding, national qualifications framework

LEARNING FOR LIFE: ONE - FEBRUARY, 1988LEARNING FOR LIFE: TWO - AUGUST, 1989

Issues: equity, management autonomy, funding, national qualifications framework

Chronology of Reviews of Tertiary Education & Training

(Commissioned by Various New Zealand Governments)

“High levels of generic skills are going to become more important than ever before. And people are going to have to up-skill and re-skill constantly to keep abreast of the needs of industry. They are going to have to become accustomed to changing career paths several times throughout their lives.”

The Honourable Lockwood Smith

Minister of Education 1990 - 1996

Multi-method researchQuantitative & qualitative methodsoFive in-depth case studies of key NZ tertiary

institutions using an interpretative approach oQuestionnaire survey of 337 stakeholders in 19 NZ

tertiary institutions; oAn initial conceptual frameworkoAn extended conceptual frameworkoHighly representative sample with high response rate

making for reliable and in-depth findings.

How have New Zealand Polytechnics managed institutional changes in the decade from 1990 to 1999?

What forms of educational leadership have been evident during the changes in New Zealand Polytechnics in the 1990s?

Major Strategic Management Changes Identified During the Restructuring of Five New Zealand Tertiary Institutions

Strategic Changes •Kowhai Pohutukawa Rimu Kauri Rata

Restructuring the OrganisationClarifying the Relationship between Management and GovernanceImproving Leadership at Middle and Senior Management LevelsIntroducing Financial Management SystemsStrategic PlanningIntroducing Academic Quality Management SystemsIntroducing Academic Co-operation Between PolytechnicsRecognising Prior Learning Experience of StudentsDeveloping Bi-cultural Initiatives

Strategic Changes •Kowhai Pohutukawa Rimu Kauri Rata

Responding to Community Needs/IndustryResponding to Student NeedsDeveloping Marketing StrategiesDeveloping International MarketingPromoting Professional DevelopmentAdvancing Technology / CommunicationDeveloping External FundingDeveloping ResearchDeveloping Buildings / Environment

Major Strategic Management Changes Identified During the Restructuring of Five New Zealand Tertiary

Institutions – cont’d

Eighteen strategic management changes

•Clarifying the relationship, management and governance

•Strategic planning

• Introducing financial management

•Developing marketing strategies

•Developing international marketing

•Develop external funding

• Improving leadership at middle and senior management levels

•Promoting professional development

•Restructuring the organisation

•Developing bicultural initiatives

•Advancing technology and communications

• Introducing academic cooperation between polytechnics

• Introducing academic quality management systems

•Responding to student needs

•Recognition of prior learning

•Responding to community needs/industry

•Developing buildings/ environment

•Developing research

Process Leadership Organisation Culture/Values

Differences in the Responses to the Strategic Management Practices Questionnaire Using the Kruskal-Wallis Test

Question Agree DisagreeStatistical

Significance

2Academic quality management systems have been adopted

M P<.01

3 Advisory committees provide community input C S P<.01

4There is a good working relationship between Council and Senior Management

C S P<.01

5A new management structure has been adopted at Executive level

C S P<.01

6 The financial management system has improved C S P<.01

8 Marketing strategies have been adopted C S P<.01

9Strategic alliance (s) have been developed with other Polytechnics

S P<.01

10 The leadership at Executive level has improved C S P<.01

11New strategic planning processes have been introduced

S P<.01

Key C CouncilM Senior ManagementS Staff

Administrative staff member comment “the management team worked really hard informing staff through emails and the in-house newsletter. The CEO updated staff regularly on the ‘big picture’ at staff meetings during the restructuring process.”

Senior lecturer comment “that change could be managed on collegial grounds with budgetary constraints, if you take staff into your confidence, explain the situation and work through these issues together, you will have everybody on-side.”

Programme leader “we are so busy changing that there is this sort of momentum happening, that maybe we have lost the ability at any level to stop and say no, we don’t actually agree with this change.”

A council secretary referred to the “domino pattern of change when most staff accepted change after change.”

A director noted “that successful change management could be attributed to the encouragement of staff to engage in emergent processes when they would negotiate, talk, argue and the best way would emerge from that process.”

The same director noted “that the successful change management could be attributed to the CEO’s communication skills and values-vision for the organisation.”

A director of another tertiary institution commented that “as the institute got bigger … everything was getting too complicated … you could not consult everybody on everything … it was harder for the institute to get all the symbols, motifs, messages anecdotes and stories that added meaning to what was going on conveyed to staff across the institute.”

“We should not wait until change is forced upon us, us individuals or as organisations because change is then hurried, unpleasant and often beyond out control” (Gronn, 1983 & Handy, 1993).

The challenge for managers is to harness the differences [between various groups in the organisation] to allow the organisation to continue to develop and not to disintegrate (Handy, 1993).

“Neglect of the phenomenology of change is at the heart of the

spectacular lack of success of most social reforms” (Fullan, 1991).

“Successful transformation of organisations is heavily dependent on the transformation of culture” and “must be intimately interfaced with management of change processes and human resource management strategies” (Cranston, 1993).

Organisations are not machines” but “communities of people” who “compete amongst themselves for power and resources” with “differences of opinion and of values, conflicts of priorities and of goals” (Handy, 1993).