Perspectives on instituting change management in large organisations - vol. 52 - paper 2

Oct 15, 2026

Australian universities are undergoing deep change to their funding models linked to federal social development and research agendas, driving system-wide adjustments across academic operations. The paper examines how these changes disrupt established practices, generating institutional difficulties and staff uncertainty, and argues for more effective, efficient, and transparent change management. It surveys prominent change management theories, discusses Lewin’s three-phase model, and considers the relevance of theory to the Australian higher-education context, including organisational learning as a key element.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages6

Reading Time15 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

The notion of change management

Lewin’s model of change

Unfreezing the current system

Instituting change

Freezing attitudes and practices

A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W Perspectives on instituting change management in large organisations Alan Lawler & James Sillitoe Institute for Professional and Organisational Learning, University of Ballarat, Victoria Australian universities are currently undergoing significant and deep-seated change to their funding models through their relationship to Federal government social development and research agendas. Consequently, changes are being instituted at all levels of university activity. Such changes are often accompanied by considerable disruption to traditional and accepted practices. This has had the effect of introducing unanticipated institutional difficulties and is causing some significant levels of personal uncertainty for staff. We suggest that such difficulties might be mitigated by more effective, efficient and transparent change management strategies. Introduction Contemporary organisations must not only function efficiently and effectively at a given point in time they are also required to constantly negotiate their way in an environment that is constantly changing, often in ways that have been largely unforeseen. This dual problem of continuing to provide a service or perform necessary tasks in a competitive environment while at the same time engaging in activities requiring management of changes to traditional ways of working or reporting, often at deep structural levels, is a significant problem that has not adequately been addressed at many organisational levels. Without suitable strategies and procedures, there is risk of diminution of production or function, considerable economic loss and employee disruption, which can have long-term effects on an organisation’s employee relations. This problem has been realised for some time: the concept of change management has a long lineage and has been responsible for an extensive body of literature. The intention of this paper is to provide a brief summary of the most recognised and useful attempts to provide a theoretical basis for those working within the change management area and to comment on the applicability of those theories to the current Australian university context. In addition, there are some comments on the related concept of ‘a learning organisation’, since it is proposed here that organisational learning is a key element of successful change management. The notion of change management The concept of change management involves various attempts to examine systematically ways of minimising disruption to the conduct of existing institutions while vol. 52, no. 2, 2010 Perspectives on instituting change management in large organisations, Alan Lawler & James Sillitoe 43 A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W introducing deep-seated alterations to traditional ways of working. In the context of this debate, the notion of ‘change’ implies an intended material difference of circumstance so that the system undergoing change is to become distinctly different from its previous state rather than having undergone a simple alteration that has substantially preserved its former identity. It is this notion of significant change that is at the heart of change management practice and it is the nature of this ‘distinctly different state’, which causes intractable problems for change managers. What follows is a brief survey of several change management theories that have made useful contributions to the development of the current state of the change management debate. It is hoped that this description might provide a suitable platform for launching more efficient and effective approaches to changes in higher education in the future. Lewin’s model of change Kurt Lewin’s (1947) model of change has been ‘profoundly influential’(Analoui, 2007) in informing the development of debate in this area. This model of change is seen as consisting of three distinct steps or phases: 1. Unfreezing the current w

FAQs

Why does the paper argue that change management is needed in Australian universities?

Because funding-model changes linked to government agendas trigger adjustments at all levels, often disrupting established practices and creating institutional difficulties and staff uncertainty.

What are the three phases in Lewin’s model of change described in the paper?

Unfreezing current work processes or organisational culture, instituting change by moving to a new system, and freezing attitudes and practices at the new system level.

How does organisational learning relate to successful change management in the paper?

The paper proposes organisational learning as a key element of successful change management and includes related discussion alongside change management theories.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Well Done