Publish at October 09 2017 Updated February 10 2022
Technological changes are bringing new priorities to institutions and organizations. Technological and educational needs, constantly renewed by an effervescent market, stimulate the acquisition of products that require specific knowledge and learning capacity in virtual environments.
Staff need to adjust their technology skills to be ready when the changes are implemented. Resistance to these changes is evident among staff, especially among those who have an important role to play. How can we develop a learning culture and facilitate the transition to skills development?
Significant technological changes can generate resistance, disorientation, anxiety, and confusion among staff, whether they are employees, managers, teachers, or professionals.
As a natural response to a stressful situation, resilience is routinely observed but its management is a constant challenge. When technological support resources are limited, the individual is left free to embrace change. However, if the skill map is large enough, the lack of resources increases the confusion and the individual will tend to become more and more isolated. This isolation can impact an individual and even a group and cause imbalance in a department or organization.
The consequences of this imbalance are:
Communicating and Tracking Change
While some people may adopt a pro-change behavior, their buy-in is not necessarily forthcoming. In order to get buy-in from staff and to give them the best chance of making the change happen, communicating each step of the change process to the individual is essential. In an institution where the staff has not yet embraced technology, communicating the value of change can be difficult.
Each department can take care of:
Each department can take care of
It may be tempting to let faculty in some of the more conventional disciplines choose whether or not to initiate technological change, since these members déThey have a certain freedom of action in their responsibilities and an often independent personality, so they may not see the value of change for their professional needs. However, collective buy-in is necessary for all members of the organization.
Any person who is very resistant to change, regardless of his or her position in the institution, needs more support and verbalization to facilitate buy-in. These methods can help reach them:
The technology team is taking on increasing responsibilities. Their need to be informed of new developments and receive new training is constant in order to keep up to date; advise others and help develop their skills.
Managerial leadership feedback is crucial in all stages of change. Its involvement in projects; its communication to all members; the availability of its resources for projects; its staff; the technologies offered; the deployment of its learning culture; and the support between departments will make a big difference in the success of projects.
Conclusion
An organizational culture focused on a culture of learning is a mobilizing force for sharing skills. If the latter is not pervasive in the educational institution, it will be more difficult to sustain technological change.
Such a learning culture may seem to impose a heavy workload on departments, but once the skills development plan is drafted by the human resources department, it can be adapted to the needs of the departments and become a shared responsibility routine. Eventually, some responsibilities can be shifted to other people and the plan can be reviewed at later periods.
This guide outlines various options that institutions can use to create sustainable and healthy change, but since each institution has its own unique organizational culture, they can choose the ones that work best for them or develop new ones.
Audibert, O. Resistance to Change (December 7, 2009).
www.psychologuedutravail.com/psychologie-du-travail/la-resistance-au-changement/
Bédard, I. To Better Experience Change (November 10, 2015).
http://www.portailrh.org/expert/ficheSA.aspx?f=107892
Émond, M-F. To initiate change in a mobilizing way (26 September 2017).
http://www.portailrh.org/expert/ficheSA.aspx?p=678063
Teasdale, C. Accepting technological change : why and how? (February 3, 2001).
http://www.portailrh.org/votre_emploi/fiche_lapresse.aspx?f=10888
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