| American higher education finds itself in a veritable upheaval as it attempts to respond to shifting social, economic, and political times. Raising tuition, cutting or consolidating programs, furloughing staff and faculty, drawing down endowments, and capping enrollments are common responses by public and private institutions. This qualitative phenomenological study examined the lived experiences of an executive leadership team that orchestrated a significant organizational change at a post-secondary institution in two distinct phases: an entrepreneurial phase from late 2003 to mid-2008 and a corporate phase from late-2008 to the present. The specific research problem was to determine the essences of leading and managing the organizational change for an executive leadership team as it navigated external environmental factors, internal and external pressures from stakeholders, consumers, and technology, and markets and competition while creating a hybrid institution in keeping with the institution's original mission. Participants in the research included 13 select executive-level leaders who orchestrated the change; they were each interviewed using a standardized interview protocol to gather data relevant to fulfilling the purpose of the study. Their lived experiences were triangulated to describe the essences of leading and managing the change. Results indicated that the essences of leading and managing change at the focus institution---urgency, strong leader/vision, collaboration, communication, technology/systems, implementation processes, people, and enculturation---were aligned with the eight steps of Kotter's organizational change model. Results indicated that decision-making processes were dependent on the type of decision (tactical or directional), customer need (student, faculty, or staff), and the effect on overall institutional strategy. Finally, results indicated that while change management tended to reflect implementation and leadership tended to reflect orchestration, they were dependent upon one another to drive a successful organizational change process. Although some evidence exists regarding elements of transformational leadership in the behavior of some members of the executive leadership team, it is limited. Recommendations for future research include a study comparing the organizational change that occurred at the focus institution with organizational change at other post-secondary institutions to confirm and replicate the applicability of Kotter's change model to non-business environments such as those in higher education. |
