Page 14 - Jurnal Kurikulum BPK 2018

Discussion on the Planning and Implementation of the Change Initiative

The planning and implementation of the change initiative were as follows. There were
three lecturers and two students involved in the study. The lecturers and students were not
researchers but the respondents for this study. Out of the three lecturers, two of them set up their
own WhatsApp group. The other lecturer asked his own student subject coordinator to set up the
group at the beginning of the semester after he had entered the class and got to know the students.
As for the two student interviewees, these were the monitor and the subject coordinator of
the Language Description class (of which the researcher is the participatory observer) as
mentioned earlier. The rest of the students in the class were informed about the change initiative.
The logo and the name of the group were then chosen. These students were informed about the
purpose and utility of the WhatsApp group, that it was basically for study matters relating to the
use of the subject only.
As the utility of the WhatsApp group was a change initiative, understanding change
management is a necessity. This is the discipline that “guides how we prepare, equip and support
individuals to successfully adopt change in order to drive organizational success and outcomes”
(Prosci Inc., 2018). Undoubtedly changes are unique as all individuals are also unique, however
research has shown that actions can be taken to influence individuals’ personal transitions. Change
management provides a structured approach to support individuals in any organization to progress
from their current states to their own future positions (Prosci Inc., 2018). The focus is to help
people change how they do their jobs… Change management is to drive adoption and usage so
that initiatives deliver results and outcomes that are expected. When applied effectively on a
project, change management increases the success rate significantly (Prosci Inc., 2018). In this
study, the individuals referred to are the five respondents and the various classes of students
involved in the use of the WhatsApp group. If the change initiative is managed effectively by
supporting the individuals to adopt the change, the success rate of the effort will increase
significantly.
There are three levels of change management, according to the article (Prosci Inc., 2018),
namely: individual change management, organizational or initiative change management and
enterprise change management capability. As only the first two levels are related to this research,
the discussion will therefore focus on these two. It is a natural tendency for humans to resist
change, however when provided support, they can actually adapt well and succeed. Change
management at the individual level requires understanding how people experience change and
their needs to change successfully. It is also essential to know what will help people change
successfully for instance regarding what and who will inform these people, the optimal time to
teach a person a new skill, how to coach people new behaviours, and what makes the person apply
the changes permanently in his or her work. Therefore individual change management relies on
psychology and neuroscience to help individuals change (Prosci Inc., 2018). Therefore to help the
individuals involved in this initiative change, it was important for the lecturers concerned to have
a good grasp of psychology and neuroscience to bring about effective change.
However such individual change on a person-by-person basis is often unmanageable for
any project team. Hence the solution is organizational or initiative change management. This
provides the measures that can be taken at the project level to support the numerous individuals
impacted by the project. Organizational change management involves identifying the groups of
people who have to change, and in what ways they need to change as a result of the project. It
involves creating a customized plan for ensuring the people affected receive the necessary
awareness, leadership, coaching, and training to change successfully. Thus in organizational or

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