| This dissertation contributes to the literature on strategic change in higher education by examining the meso-level social structures and cultural system components and their mechanisms as they were activated during a strategic curriculum modularization initiative at a college in Alberta, Canada. The question guiding the study is: How does the interplay between departmental contexts, organizational structures, and cultures affect the implementation of a strategic change initiative?;The study examines the unique causal configurations comprising the contextual elements and the structural and cultural mechanisms that led to differing agential engagement and subsequent outcomes amongst three departments at the college. In addition, the study explores the temporal nature of the interaction of the structural and cultural powers and mechanisms throughout the three-year implementation timeline.;The data were collected through semi-structured, open-ended interviews with departmental leaders followed by a reflective writing exercise, a validation questionnaire, and a focus group. The data were analyzed using an adaptation of the "context, mechanism, outcome" framework of Ray Pawson and Nick Tilley and using the notions of cultural components and social structures acting and interacting over time, inspired by the work of Margaret Archer.;The data reveal that each department had a complex and unique causal configuration. The social structural powers and cultural system powers operated through mechanisms that manifested in particular ways in their interplay with each other. The "mini" cases of each of the three departments contrast sharply and resulted in widely differing outcomes of high, moderate, and low engagement with the strategic change activity of modularization and digitization of college curriculum.;The data support the growing evidence that organizational change initiatives need to take into account the contextual elements of the collectivities involved in the change. In higher education, institutional change implementation strategies must be open and fluid to accommodate the specific nature of departmental structures and cultures. Implementation of strategic change must take into account the structural and cultural causal configurations of departments and recognize that the flow of the change processes locally is complex. Top-down change strategies, targets, and timelines must be negotiated with departments and remain fluid to take into account the emergent nature of reality as organizational strategic change efforts proceed. |
