Purpose: This paper aims to contribute to the literature on distributed sensemaking by studying how the police establish and develop their new position as police contacts during the police reform. Design/methodology/approach: The authors studied how the position of police contact, a cornerstone of the recent Norwegian police reform, was…

Academic staff hold multiple identities by relating to the organization and to their profession. Merging higher education institutions involves organizational changes which may impact identities of academic staff. This paper studies potential impacts on staff perceptions of their organizational and academic identities through a 2-year in-depth…

This paper investigates the emergence and early institutionalization of competition in higher education (HE), specifically in business schools. First, building on key contributions from economics, management studies, sociology, and HE research, we develop propositions on competition in HE and formulate our theoretical framework. Second, we apply…

Purpose: The purpose of the study detailed here was to engage with Directors of Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs) during the first year of their new Centres to form a snapshot view of the nature and type of training that was being incorporated and how this might affect the wider institution -- in this case the university. Using an…

Purpose: This article aims at reframing organizational change from a processual perspective to transcend the polarized tensions between planned and emergent approaches to change and to better align with the lived reality of practitioners. It informs the field of learning and development with fresh insights on how to broaden sensemaking repertoires…

In professional learning, just as in architecture, form follows function. Although professional learning designs are vitally important, they cannot be where we begin in our planning. Purpose -- our why -- must be our starting point in designing any professional learning experience. Educators who begin by attending to the questions, "What do…

The landscape of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work is currently undergoing a critical evaluation and facing attacks, revealing the limitations of performative initiatives entrenched in colonial frameworks. These initiatives often fail to acknowledge and address the erasure of Indigenous and queer identities, alongside the need for…

Research of the main university stakeholders has only been of a cross-sectional or short-term nature thereby limiting our understanding of how universities have evolved as a result of stakeholder influence. Indeed, neglect of stakeholders in strategic planning may result in both companies and universities becoming less successful and less…

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…

This white paper is based on a two-day symposium held in 2023. Several experts volunteered their time for a focus group-style event in which we discussed critical issues that manifest through workplace bullying. The report includes a cost analysis of the PASSHE system and the emergent themes from the (IRB approved) focus group. The white paper…

Mergers in higher education are large-scale, complex organisational change processes seeking to integrate former independent institutions into a new organisational entity. Mergers are often justified by reference to broad overarching goals such as quality, relevance, and efficiency. In practice, mergers entail attempts at organisational…

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…

In this critical case study, we had the opportunity to observe how institutional forces and human agency represented by organisational actors' shared perception of identity negotiate their differences over their definitions of quality in higher education. In other words, we examined how the organisational identity of a research university…