This study examines how leaders of career services units manage organizational change to meet the evolving needs of their internal and external stakeholders. These leaders are increasingly required to spearhead significant changes within their teams and across their institutions to adapt to rapid changes in the higher education sector and the…

Higher education culture is steeped in institutional identity and ties to history. But what happens when that history is challenged, and an institution must change its name? While a merger was not initially intended for Kearney State College, merging into the University of Nebraska system was the only way to reflect the change and growth that…

The purpose of study was to examine how frontline employees make sense of a planned organizational change. The voices of frontline employees, the group of employees responsible for making the product or delivering the service, have frequently been ignored or neglected during planned change efforts. In this study, attention was focused on the…

With the increasing demographic diversity and critical focus on social justice in the United States, leaders are under significant pressure to integrate diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) strategies into their core operations and organizational culture. Challenged to think more critically about how to better prepare and support…

The number of mergers among higher education institutions in the United States has reached an unprecedented level. But unfortunately, the failure rates of these higher education institutions are no different. Increasing financial demands, population changes, and a deteriorating perception of postsecondary education are all contributing to the…

There is limited understanding of the connections between community engagement and racial DEI at colleges and universities working to institutionalize engagement. Community engagement is not being institutionalized within an educational system that is a blank slate, nor does it operate within a vacuum. Community engagement operates within a…

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to understand the key factors of K-12 administrators' emotional intelligence as they lead their staff through creating sustainable systems as they navigate organizational change. The theoretical framework used was Daniel Goleman's theory on Emotional Intelligence and how EQ impacts administrators as…

Drawing upon a framework rooted in cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) that understands organizational change as a form of collective learning, this qualitative case study explores interorganizational work of three organizations involved in a project to create as shared data dashboard to be used as a tool for program improvement: a…

This study aimed to investigate and improve the experience for mid-level female leaders moving into leadership positions at a comprehensive community college in a medium size city in the Northwest of the United States. The retirements of the baby boomer generation have created labor shortages across all industry sectors. Higher education is not…

Churches must be able to navigate forced changes like those brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Restrictions related to the pandemic impacted churches' abilities to provide needed support services to the African American community, including African American women, who shoulder tremendous challenges. Few studies report the views of African…

A rise in higher education institution closures prompts creative mergers and acquisitions solutions, resulting in over one hundred higher education institutional mergers in the U.S. this century. The problem addressed in this study is that mergers in higher education are susceptible to higher turnover rates post-merger than pre-merger, as mergers…

Mergers among public HEI's in the United States are occurring with regular frequency, but with little research to understand the impact that mergers have on value outcomes at the micro, meso, and macro level. Previous research suggests that there needs to be a more robust way of assessing merger outcomes both quantitatively and longitudinally…

This qualitative case study examined changes resulting from implementing a democratic strategic planning process and leadership characteristics that influence organizational change. The study's research questions are explored through the lens of Kotter's (2019) 8 Accelerators and 4 Change Principles. Purposeful sampling was used to select the case…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how subordinates describe their leader's political skill and their organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) during a merger in the airline industry in Arizona. This study aimed to provide further exploration on leader political skill relating to mergers in the airline industry and…

This narrative study examined the experiences of senior leaders as they described their involvement in a successful merger within higher education. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six senior leaders from merging colleges in the Midwest. This study utilized efficiency theory as the theoretical framework. Transcripts and research data…