Faculty development for organizational change

Abstract

There seems to be a widely held assumption that the long-term outcomes of most faculty development initiatives will include some degree of organizational change. In many cases they do; most people engaged in faculty development have observed change at the institutional level after faculty development interventions. However, not all these interventions lead to change. Some organizational changes take place without much faculty development taking place at all. In this chapter, we will explore the mechanisms and strategies that can be used to promote or assist in organizational change, in the form of ‘strategies for success’, for faculty developers, organizational leaders, and those participating in development. Faculty development for organizational change requires attention to the educational and institutional milieu, the workforce, and the organization itself. Most of the time, change will be slow, and also affected by external factors. But faculty development, astutely deployed, can make a significant contribution to that change.