Premium
Building a change adaptive university: A system of composite indicators to measure and facilitate pervasive changes
Author(s) -
Tafere Gedifew Matebe,
Shimelis Muluneh Girma
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
higher education quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.976
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1468-2273
pISSN - 0951-5224
DOI - 10.1111/hequ.12279
Subject(s) - vision , argument (complex analysis) , adaptive capacity , sample (material) , adaptation (eye) , capacity building , pragmatism , complex adaptive system , intervention (counseling) , conceptual model , measure (data warehouse) , business , computer science , public relations , process management , knowledge management , sociology , political science , psychology , climate change , medicine , artificial intelligence , psychiatry , philosophy , database , anthropology , law , ecology , chemistry , biology , epistemology , chromatography , neuroscience
Organizations including universities are operating in an increasingly volatile environment and they are in a state of constant change. To survive and thrive in this ever‐changing environment, building the capacity to adapt is essential. The basic purpose of this research was to identify and propose basic dimensions that help to envisage the adaptive capacity of public universities. To study universities as complex adaptive systems, complexity theory and pragmatism were used complimentarily. In doing so, mixed research design (in particular, the sequential explanatory approach) was employed. Data were collected using questionnaire and interview from three sample universities' academic staff, support staff and leaders. Meanwhile, the capacity of universities for institutional change was measured by employing composite indicators methodology supported by PLS‐PM analysis. Based on the conceptual model, the adaptive capacity of universities to change initiatives was found to be low, which limits their success in realising their visions through change. Consequently, the identified gaps and challenges in the studied universities strengthen the argument for the need to systematically assess universities’ adaptive capacity using a model and make appropriate intervention before struggling to introduce any change initiative.