This post will explain the various factors related to change. In particular, we will look at the scope, level, and intentionality of change.
Scope of Change
The scope of change relates to the amount of disruption change will cause. The scope of change can fall along a continuum with two main categories: incremental change and transformational change. Incremental change involves making minor adjustments to an existing organization or school. For example, a university might adjust the attendance policy to be consistent across departments.
Transformational change involves change that has a more significant influence on the function of the institution. An example that many educators are familiar with over the last few years was the sudden shift to online learning. This has had a tremendous influence on all stakeholders involved in an educational institution.
Although not related directly to scope, strategic change is a type of change that helps an institution align its tasks with the mission and objectives of the institution. For example, when schools moved online (transformational change), they had to continue providing quality education. AS such a strategic change might provide training to faculty to deal with the change to online learning while also providing a quality experience.
Level of Change
Another factor in the change process is the level of change. Level change is another way of saying how many people are affected by the change. The level of change moves along a continuum of three levels: individual, group, and organization. These levels are primarily self-explanatory, but individual change involves helping individuals make changes to rectify a weakness or boost performance. For example, a teacher struggling with classroom management may work with administrators to develop strategies for dealing with students.
Group-level change focuses on helping people work together and involve team-building activities and or training as examples. For example, the English department at a high school may put together training on classroom management for all teachers and not just individual teachers.
Finally, organizational change is change across the entire institution. For example, many schools have some sort of training or announcement of new policies at the beginning of a school year. This often indicates changes that impact almost every one involves in the school.
Intentionality
Intentionality relates to the fact that the changes brought, regardless of scope or level, were either planned or unplanned. Planned change is thought out in advance and implemented at the discretion of the individuals involved. For example, an institution develops a new attendance system to improve efficiency. Such a change helps to achieve the specific goals of the institution. Naturally, this is the preferred way of doing things for most institutions.
Unplanned change is a change that is ad hoc or in response to an emergency. Generally, this type of change may not necessarily help an institution to achieve various goals and objectives that it may have. For example, moving online was an unplanned change. Few schools were dreaming of such a move, and it had a considerable impact on achieving the goals and objectives of providing education for students.
Conclusion
Change is a significant factor of life that impacts the world in various levels of breadth and depth and whether it was planned or not. Leaders need to be aware of these multiple factors that shape the change experience their institutions may have.