Strategic management for

change in higher education

Jean-Franois Denef
Honorary vice-rector for the medical affairs
Universit Catholique de Louvain
Belgium

Overview
Why to change?
Contextual elements
Internal elements

Change for better universities but

What is a successful university ?

The usual functional organization of universities
Different possible changes
Who is concerned by change management ?

How to manage change ?

The change process
Key points to make a success
Crucial role of leaders
Communication

Some examples from Belgium or literature

Final questions and comments

Why to change ? Contextual elements

The world is rapidly changing
Students change
The numeric student
Increase of the number of students in higher education

Science is advancing :

new concepts
old statements turn out to be wrong

Increased social accountability

Increased and more specific demands of the society
New technologies
Turbulent changes of the environment
3

Why to change ? Internal elements

9 Size of the institutions
9 Work load despite more efficient tools
9
(shift in function.)
9 Functional complexity
9 Increased needs
9 Decreased ratio between means and needs
9 Expectations of internal stakeholders
9
4

Change is not an objective

per se
1. To increase the quality
2. To increase effectiveness
In education, in research, in management,

3. To meet the everyones expectations

(financial or other )

To make our university a successful university

Whats a successful university ?

Successful universities are successful because of

their teaching and research,
not because of their management.
But good management can over time
provide the conditions in which
teaching and research can flourish
M. Shattock. Managing successful universities, 2003
6

Whats quality or success?

Quality is a key element allowing
universities to respond to the needs
related to the evolution of their
environment.
European University association (EUA)
Forum on quality assurance (Munich, 2006)

Future success of universities

depends on academics capacity to
respond energetically to change
Ramsden, 2002
7

Which criteria to define

a successful university
Size?

Number of students
Number of workers
Ratio workers/students

Productivity

Number of diplomas
Number of scientific publications
Success rate of students

Autonomy
Legal
Financial

Performances of facilities

Libraries
Research facilities
Access to global information
Ratio between size and means
Quality of management

Real fit with social demands

Prospective strategic view
Financing
8

 But should also be taken into account

Satisfaction of the stakeholders
Historical context
The Halo effect
The experts are not just wrong, but deluded !*

Rosenzweig P, 2007

How to increase success in universities

Increased attractivity

of scientists
of good students (for example Ph.D.)
of managers or staff
of funding
.

Broadening of the boundaries

New and more adapted programs

New research themes
Increased autonomy
Networking of universities, from collaboration to merger

In fact building an offer which is better adapted to

the higher education market

Changes in the internal context : organization, collegiality, leadership

And thus change in management and management of change
10

Some specific aspects of

universities as social organizations
Academic freedom
Strong collegial culture
Academics interest more focused on their
own disciplines than on institution
Absence of objective workload measure
Different rewarding mechanisms for
research, teaching or management

Adapted from Paewai et al., 2007
11

Two extreme functional organization types

Decentralized holdings
Each entity has its own objectives
Each one receives the means to reach them
Each one can choose the ways to do it.

Process centred approaches

All common and transversal functions are identified

They are removed from entities and grouped
By this way, cost reductions are important
An enhanced professionalism can be introduced
12

Models for
university
governance

Policy definition
Loose

A : Collegium

B : Bureaucracy

Loose

Tight

Control of
implementation
D : Corporation

C : Enterprise

Tight

Adapted from Ramsden, 2002

13

How to manage change

Initial conditions needed to start a change
When to change
The change process
Curve of change
Phases of change

Key role of the leaders in change

Communication during change
14

Who is concerned in
strategic management for change?

Society
University
The key role of leaders
Faculty
Department

must be considered
at each level

Teams
Individuals
15

How is anyone concerned by

change ?

Getting anyone working both

with brain and hands
16

17

What kind of change

Pedagogical (programs, evaluation, )
Functional (relations between )
Financial
Reporting, accountability

Structural
Internal (larger entities, )
External (cooperation, association, consortium, merger,)

Regulatory
Legal status
Size and role of authorities

18

Conditions required to implement changes

Leadership
Evaluation of the social consequences
Process for consulting stakeholders and to
reach a consensus
More transparency, more involvement of all
groups in the management and decision for
change
Need for the stakeholders to understand which
are the gain of the change in term of quality
and equity
Experton W., Mondial bank CUD 2009

19

Definition
Strategic management is the art and the
science of formulating, implementing and
evaluating cross functional decisions
which enable an institution to fulfil its
decisions.

David FR, Strategic management, 1996

20

When to change
us
o
u
n
ti
Con ing and
n
lear al
w
e
n
e
r

Performance

Anticipatory
change

Crisis
Change

Reactive
Change

Time
Failure
Adapted from Lane et al., 2009

21

Phasing the change process

To create o favorable environment
Vision
Adhesion

Starting
position

Transition phase

Progress phase

Implementation
Evaluation of progress
Perennisation

22
22

Enthusiasm and commitment to change

The curve of change

Planification
and
communication

Inadequate
organization

Project of
change

Success

Positive
Results

Decision

Lenvie
de changer
atteint la
masse
critique

Stagnation

Preparation

Implementation

Adapted from J. Duck , Boston Consulting Group, 2001

Monitoring

Failure

Time

23

Key role of the leaders

in change management

24

Manager or leader ?
Task

Manager

Leader

To build up a project

Planning and budget

Defines a vision

To develop human
relations

Task forces
Task distributions

Gets consensus from

groups and individuals

To implement the
project

Control of process
Problem solving

Motivates staff
Gives senses to his
action

Rsults

To build up a
structure

To make a change

Ramsden, p. 110
25

Motivation :
A leader must be able to animate
Present new ideas, manage debates and reflexion,

In latin word : anima = the soul

To animate = to give a soul

Equilibrium between
listening from peoples ideas and needs
(bottom-up)
And

giving new orientations

(top-down)
Colloque IP3S, Marrakech 2008

27

To give a meaning for change

Success for changes depends on

Will of the leaders
X
level of people acceptance
Key opinion leaders (KOL)

28

Deans school (International conference)

Academic governance :
Values, vision, objectives
Strategy

Academic
missions :
Specificity
Recruitment
Evaluation

Academic
communication:
Motivation
Interpersonal
relations

Leader

Academic management :
Administration, daily management
Distribution of tasks
29

Adapted from Ramsden, 1998

Effectiveness of a leader
Am I able to define what is good for my institution?
Am I able to run efficient meetings
Do I speak as we
What should I do ?

Now?

What should I do by myself

What should I delegate ?
What makes an effective executive
30
Harvard Business review, 2004

Lets make a personal test !

Fundamental missions of a leader in high education

To help my collaborators to do better work

in teaching, research or service

To promote conception, planification or implementation of

strategic plans in the university

To better understand how and why new projects or technologies

can improve the effectiveness
of my work or that of my collaborators
31

None

Poor
2

Signif.
3

High
5

Meetings at rectorate
Administrative meetings
Meetings in faculty
Meetings in departments
Appointments
Paper work
Telephone calls
Social events
Travels
Others
32

Model of governance

Pol itical
Ad ministrative
Ex cutive

Boards and councils

Faculty administration

Teachers, students

33

Functional organization

The ideal model

What individuals
might think about their
own position
34

Functional organization

Whats happening in many cases

In higher education

Whats happening when change

and negotiations are not well conducted

35

 From an leader I expect the following

personal capacities :

Courage
Wisdom
Equity
Humaneness
Severeness

Sun Tsu

37

To survive, you need a sanctuary

where you can
reflect on the previous days journey,
renew your emotional resources and
recalibrate your moral compass

A survival guide for leaders, HBR, 2002

38

A leader is a dealer of hope

(Bonaparte)

39

Key role of communication

Do not confound
information and communication

40

What do you see ?

41
41

Why do people resist to change?

Loss of control
To much uncertainty
Surprise
Loss of his personal self confidence
Fear of the future
Rebound effects
Work overload
Personal attachment to the past
Contamination problems
42

Obstacles for change and progress

43
43

Ractions facing change

Good Idea
Lets try !

Why not ?

Early
majority
supporters

It will never
work !

Late
majority
OMDBG

Supporters: They like to take risks, are impatient, put pressure on

other people
Early majority : are in favor of change as soon as they understand
the objectives
Late majority : ask for early results and first consider all the
possible negative consequences of change

Over My Dead Body Group : they are pessisitic and will be claiming
44
against change if any trouble
44

va
tiv
e
er
ns

pe
o

pl
e
i
n
U

ed
t
es
r
e
nt

ir ty
o
aj

Co

en
ts
nd
sp
o
re

Ea
rl y

es
tiv
va
no
In

% of adhesion to the project

To keep staff motivated

pp
O

e
n
o

s
t
n

Implementation of the project

European center for strategic management of universities (esmu), 2008
45

Motivation process can be understood

by both ways

Institutional leaders

Academic staff
Bottom up

Institutional leaders

Academic staff

Top down
46

The ignorance iceberg

Percent of problems known by

47
47

The bottom up
Relations between field actors and leaders
Keep your leader informed about your initiatives
Understand each other about mutual expectations
Goals and objectives
Pressures
Strengths, weaknesses, blind spots

Find the preferred work style between your boss

and yourself
Identify his work style
Selectively use your bosss time and resources

Managing your boss, Harvard Business Review, june 1993

48

The top down

Basic soft skills expected from a dean

Patience during management

To be open to different points of vue

Capacity to take and implement decisions

Ability to give the Pride of working well

to his collaborators

Academic Medicine, 1998

49

Analyse

Dcide
implement

Evaluate

50

Some examples from

Belgium and the literature

51

52

Mergers of universities
What can be drawn for the English literature
Basic reasoning for merger close to that of
commercial and business enterprises
Increased competitivity
Eliminating overlaps
Marketing and administration
Stronger balance sheet to be able to innovate
Larger scale facilities to decrease costs
(minimal size ?)

53

Mergers of universities
What can be learned from previous
experiences
Pressure for merger is often external > internal
Well accepted by top management, much less
by academic staffs
(universities are strong bottom-up organizations)

Difference between merger and take over

Strategy needs measurable targets for the staffs
Incentives ?
Long term is needed to measure the effective
results
Adapted from Shattock, 2003

54

Examples from China

In China : 494 mergers between 1990 and 2005

Example of Schichuan and Chengdu (1994) followed by Huaxi Med

center (2000) -> the largest university of China
Pre merger connexion (1950s)
Geographical proximity
Program complementarities

External pressure :
Cost-effectiveness and scales economy
Governmental Program 211

Selects 100 universities

Concentrates in them financial support to reach excellence
Introduces of competition among institutions
6 or 7 must be world class universities
In summary : To make the rich richer

Wan and Peterson, 2007

55

Mergers of universities
Recommendation checklist
1.
2.
3.
4.

Which rationale : academic or strategic?

Which clear added value for every stakeholder?
Allow time for negotiation
Be aware that optimism and commitment will colour the evaluation
process
5. Decide the type of governance which will follow the merger
6. Be generous with staff development costs (incentives)
7. Integration of the operation systems will be lengthy and costly
8. Do not underestimate difficulties about property
9. Allow for increased workload upon managers (before, during and
years after) the merger
10. After 2 years, conduct a wide-ranging post-audit
Adapted from Rowley et al., 1997

56

An experience from hospitals

(focused on outcomes)
Has the merged hospital increased its ability the meet
the needs and the demands of the population
Has the merged hospital increased its professional
competence to satisfy rare and complex needs
(specialisation)?
Is the waiting time for patients the same regardless his
or her pace of location (accessibility)?
Has the quality of the services increased
Has the level of health increased in the region?
Has the cost/efficiency increased?
Adapted from Ahren et al., 2008

57

The Begian example

Concept of academies (law Bologna 2004)
9 universities 3 clusters Academies
Common management of the third cycle - doctoral schools
Common financing for common projects

High schools

More professional than universities

3- or 5-year programs (short long)
Almost no research
By-passes for students between H.S. and Universities
End of first professional cycles to second academic cycles
Long HS program to Ph. D. thesis

Bologna (2004)

Bachelors and Masters

Agency for evaluation
Intra- and inter curriculum mobility (?)
Employability ?

58

Merger of universities
Made in 2009 : Integration of stand-alone large
faculties into universities
Facult polytechnique (FPMS) and University of
Mons-Hainaut UMONS
Gembloux (Agronomy) et Lige
Academy Wallonie Europe

Planned for 2010 :

4 French-speaking catholic universities of the
CFB to form UCLOUVAIN

2007 : 9 universities
2009 : 7 universities
2010 : 4 universities
59

Birth of the UCLOUVAIN

First step : Acadmie Louvain
ACADMIE LOUVAIN

60

Future size of the UCLOUVAIN

ucl
ETP
Nbre
(Ulg : 398 EFT, ULB 507 EFT)
ETP
P scientifique (2007)
Nbre
( Ulg : 674 EFT, ULB 415 EFT)
ETP
PATO (2007)
Nbre
(Ulg : 814 EFT, ULB 1085 EFT)
ETP
hors-cadre
( Ulg : 1783 EFT, ULB 1377 EFT)
total personnel
(info Ulg : 3669 EFT, ULB 3384 EFT)
P acadmique (2007)

Nbre
Etudiants(2006-2007)
(Ulg : 15745, ULB 20816 EFT)

fundp

fusl

fucam

AL

augm total CfB AL ds CfB

% UCL
1.880
819
44%
43,56%
1.696
43%

567
1.184

155
257

56
167

41
88

440
536

177
263

30
61

25
30

672
890

53%
66%

1.955

34,37%

1.174
1.433

285
337

47
58

53
60

1.559
1.888

33%
32%

3.851

40,48%

1.566

291

28

23

1.908

22%

5.555

34,35%

3.747

908

161

142

4.958

32%

13.241

37,44%

20.218

4.808

2.032

1.187 28.245

40%

68.239

41,39%

Is it an optimal size for an university??

61

Birth of the UCLOUVAIN

Process
Declaration of intention (2004)
Begin of the discussions at the level of rectors
Poor efficiency
Numerous disagreements (about the date of fusion)

Identification of the non negotiable items (2006) for

each partner
Agreement by the 4 boards of governors

Decision to merge (2007)

Dead line September 2010

62

Birth of the UCLOUVAIN (2)

Basic documents :
Vision, missions, values (Chart)

Activities involved in the fusion

Education
Research
Student animation
Regional positions
Culture
International relations

63

Birth of the UCLOUVAIN (3)

Support fields

Governance
Informatics
Human resources
Finances
Buildings and investments
Communication

A leading comity : the strategic group

An executive coordination comity
Several task forces
64

Acadmie Universitaire Louvain

Schma directeur du rapprochement
Groupe stratgique - Document de synthse

02 octobre 2008

Structural changes inside of the UCL

Specific management for teaching and research
Faculties are replaced by schools and research
institutes

Different phases
Diagnosis
Internal and external if needed

Vision and strategic keys

Swot analysis
Definition of strategic keys
Possible scenarios for the future

Strategies
Objectives
Initiatives
66

Management of the process

Delayed by at least 2 years
Still under the process of implementation
New rectoral team proposed to postpone the
project
How this internal structural change will persist in
the new UCLOUVAIN remains to be discussed
Agreement about what? but not about how?
Difficult coordination between different plans
67

Examples from the field of

medical education
External evaluation/accreditation largely under
development
Projects in the international conference of
French speaking deans : strategy for change
Evaluation council
Seminars about next steps after evaluation
Seminars school of deans

Task forces about

Professionalism and ethics
Social accountability of medical schools
Do our physicians respond to the social demand? 68

Examples from Academic hospitals

Sometimes larger than their mother university
Much closer to an entrepreneurial approach
Real concern about market competition
Major concerns about quality and continuing care
Closer to corporate governance
Board assessment, mentoring and training, risk
management

More frequent use of external consultants

Much more prone to innovation
Team building, cockpit management, lean thinking,
Six sigma,
Medical faculties depend on two different ministries:
Education and Health
69

Example of functional change

increasing quality of processes :
lean thinking
How to generate efficient fluxes in processes
Begin by the end (push approach)
(if the in flux > out flux : problem)

Increase inter service cooperation

Standardize other formal procedures
Analyse cycles of processes (clusters)
Make the responsibilities of everyone more clear (no
ambiguities)
Increase the respect for each individuals
= Objectives of LEAN 6 SIGMA
70
70

Final comments and questions

71

How to combine vision and reality

Vision

Quality of teaching, research

and service is our most
important goal!

Reality

The only important figures are

those related to money !

72

Keys for change

Change is life
Any change may pass through a feeling of loss
La rsistance is related to the attachment to the past
Resistance is normal, natural and even necessary
Resistance will increase with pressure
Pressure induce compliance, not adhesion
Participation generates adhesion
Anyone should find his own advantage in change
Adhesion to change is in fact an individual choice
73

Two ways looking at quality

in higher education
Quality assurance : Does the entity respond
to rules, good practices, standards (ISO)
Quality enhancement : how to build up
progress from the actual situation of staff or
entities?
Filippakou and Tapper, 2008

74

 Part of the budget devoted to change policy?

Place of the stakeholders?
Role of renewal of the authorities?
Quality of indicators : internal or external criteria?
How to regulate the top down and the bottom up

Motivation (?)
How to manage people against the project
Level of autonomy (?)
Level of change management (?)
75

Management of change

Which kind of power needed for change ?

Legal power
Administrative power
Financial power
Academic power
Moral power

And mainly Power at the service for the community

To be an authority in the university

= is most probably an honour
= Is now a real job which needs specific skills
76

 The implementation phase is critical

(2/3 of projects fail during the implementation phase!)

Major role of the communication

Should not be restricted to information

Universities are not only teaching institutions but

are also learning communities
Learning by doing
How to animate the project?
Lets share our positive and negative experiences

77

78

The real challenge for a modern academic leader

is to be able to associate
Innovation and tradition,
Excellence and accessibility
Discipline and independence
Entrepreneurial spirit and individual autonomy
Leadership and management
Man and tasks
New technologies and inter personal relations
79

Are we active for change ?

You must be the change you want implement
Start changing in yourself what you want to
change in others

Gandhi

Thank you for your attention

80