Alternative Identification:

The Search for Stability

in the Context of Change

By Ashley Sokia

EMT

• Environment of Change

• Role of identification during change

• “Retroactive” and “Unrequited” ID

• Implications of new identity

• Recommendations

Levels of Change

• National

• Institutional

• Divisional

U.S. Demographic Changes

“Knocking at the College Door.” Boulder: Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, 2013. Web. 16 July 2014.

U.S. Demographic Changes

“Knocking at the College Door.” Boulder: Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, 2013. Web. 16 July 2014.

U.S. Demographic Changes

“Undergraduate enrollment at private colleges increased 38% over the past eight years…

…Over the next eight years it will increase only 10%.”

“Trends for 2014.” Eden Prairie. The Lawlor Group, 2014. Web. 16 July 2014.

Alternative Identification

The college has established stability through

“retroactive” identification with past

leadership, structure, and culture and

“unrequited” identification with enrollment

goals.

• Identity offers stability during change

• Change/stability dialectic

• Staff’s identification to the College

• Cliques and resistance

Identification/Identity Theory

“Retroactive” Identification

• “Old School” Bureaucracy

• Post-Traumatic Leadership Disorder

(PTLD)

• Effect of PTLD on team

“Unrequited” Identification

• Enrollment goals=numbers

• Common ground in uncertainty

• Inherit ambiguity

• Reinforced by institution

Implications of New Identities

• Focus on mission, not vision

• False unity within the team

• Lack of interpersonal relationships

Recommendations

• Purpose of change

• Collaborative vision

• Team narrative