What is Organizational Change?

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Organizational change is entwined in an organization’s culture in order to maintain a competitive advantage. Organizations have to continually adapt to stay abreast of societal demands and changes and meet the needs of its customers. Educationally, schools must continually evolve to meet the growing demands and needs of its students. Lichtenstein (2000) noted that the need for change induces a high level of stress. However, stress and discomfort can be a catalyst for organizational change. In education, the stress can come from a number of accountability measures.
The ability to manage change and adapt to a globally competitive environment are intensifying (Cao and McHugh, 2005). The paradigmatic structure of leading effective schools is constantly evolving in response to societal changes. Essentially, educational change can be categorized into two distinct categories: piecemeal change, which involves making adjustments to the current educational model, and systemic change, which involves transforming the current model ( ). The effort to leading change takes a systematic approach to promote collaborative problem solving that includes reviewing data to determine existence, scope and magnitude of the problem (Senge,1990)
Senge’s The Fifth Discipline
Senge (1990) characterized the learning organization as one where “people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free and where people are continually learning how to learn together”.
Senge developed five essential discipline of learning organizations by helping its members learn. The five disciplines are essential to leading organizational...

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... and promoting collaborative inquiry.

Works Cited

Senge, P.M. (1990). The Fifth Discipline: the Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday.
Senge, P. M. (2000). Schools that learn: A fifth discipline fieldbook for educators, parents, and everyone who cares about education. New York: Doubleday.
Quinn, R. E., Spreitzer, G. M., & Brown, M. V. (2000). Changing others through changing ourselves. Journal of Management Inquiry, 9(2), 147-164.
Raven, Bertram H. "Power, Six Bases of." Encyclopedia of Leadership. Ed. . Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 2004. 1242-49. SAGE Reference Online. Web. 30 Jan. 2012.
Owens, R. (1998). Organizational behavior in education. Boston: Alyn & Bacon. Sixth Edition
Cao, G., and M. McHugh. 2005. “A systemic view of change management and its conceptual underpinnings”. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 18(5), 475-490.

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