Moral Purpose, Understanding Change, Relationship Building, knowledge creation and sharing and Coherence Making are the 5 elements of model of change raised by Fullan(2001). These components can systematically explain the leading change in an organisation. I'd like to make use of my undergraduate college as an organisation to analysis.
Moral purpose
A moral purpose is a value that, when articulated, appeals to the innate sense held by some individuals of what is right and what is worthwhile. When it comes to my college, the moral purpose of leadership is an anlytical framework for diagnostic review and problem solving prescribtion, with the aim of making management of an organization successful. People in the school who adopt leadership practice would have ownership in the decision making process, leading to higher responsibility of making their best effort, therefore the moral purpose of leaders plays an important roles in empowering and motivating staffs in the school. However, moral purpose sometimes also lead to adverse effect as it may brings conflict in priorities and targets. Therefore there's need for more communication, interaction, and mediation between leaders and staffs. Which in turn futher strengthen the role of moral purpose, as an anlytical framework, to study about management effectiveness.
Understanding change
Nothing remains the same - even organizations must change. Organizations need to acknowledge that changes are happening and must adapt to them. I have witnessed change in my middle school: membership fluctuations, increases or decreases in ICT implementation, and new projects reflecting new needs of the members. If the organization does not respond to change, it will fall behind other schools. But of course, when some changes happen, it cost time for teachers and students to adapt the change. Change in the school is influenced by two opposing forces: One that drives for change and one that resists.
Relationship building
Relationship building is very important in my college. I was told that schools are defined by the relationships between staff and students. Relationship-building is essential but difficult. One reason is that leaders, teachers and students often come from such different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds that they lack the language, confidence and strategies to address differences. School relationships are especially challenging for these teachers and leaders. But as the school has a great leadership and good teachers in this area. The teachers in school were generally respected and trusted by the school leadership.
(In this video,Professional Development trainer, Wes Hall, shares success strategies with teachers and para-professionals in the Omaha Public School District. "Relationship building is the key element in the teacher/student learning paradigm," says Hall. Hall is traveling the country speaking to teachers and faculty about the importance of relationship building and hope. More information is available at www.studentemp.org)
Knowledge creation and sharing
My college have invested heavily in technology and possibly training, but hardly at all in knowledge sharing and creation. And when it do attempt to share and use new knowledge, it find it enormously difficult. Take the seemingly obvious notion of sharing best practices within the school. Identifying the practices usually goes reasonably well, but when it comes to transferring and using the knowledge, the school often flounders. In my college, there was no compulsory staff development program on new knowledge building, yet many staff acquired knowledge often through informal channels built by themselves. A self-learning package on
foreign languages input was developed by a teacher. The package was widely used in the school and in classrooms.
Coherence making
Michael Fullan talks about coherence making in "Leading in a Culture of Change." According to Fullan, the complexity found in the challenges facing public education also provide opportunity for creativity. However, if chaos is too severe, staff can become overwhelmed. Balancing chaos and coherence is a key characteristic of successful leaders. In my college, the leaders recognize that they do not have the control leaders may have had in the past. Besides, leaders are successful when they create conditions so staff take the vision of the school as their own. When staff collaborate to work through the ambiguities and challenges of difficult-to-solve problems, they are best able to meet the challenges facing schools today.
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