Managing Innovation and Change Strategies

Innovation and change will happen from time to time. The ultimate goal is to contribute
to organizational change, growth and development. In the context of education, each unit or
individuals in the organization must be willing to make a move and make changes in order to
improve the quality of education. Among the strategy of change in an organization is, power
strategy, persuasion strategy, re-education strategy and facilitation strategy.

Firstly, in term of power strategy. The administration will use formal authority and
control to force the members to comply with all rules and regulations. For example, the
enforcement of working time. Various methods are used such as punch cards or fingerprints
(thumb print). To ensure that this rule is followed, the concept of reward and discipline is
practiced. Another strategy is persuasion strategy. In implementing this strategy, a leader
should own an interpersonal skills to convince the members of the organization. Any changes
you want to do must be planned carefully and be accepted by them. For example, the practice
of paper or electricity conservation in the organization. There is no obligation to do so. So, the
success of the practice is highly depending on how the leader as an agent of change could
influence the subordinates.

Next, re-education strategy. As a leader, he should encourage the group to do

reflection on the success and failure of the actions taken. For example, we take the same as
above. Members of the group should create a culture of reflection about the implications of
the paper or electricity savings to the organization. Does it bring more benefits or not? Lastly,
facilitation strategy. In this case, the target group will determine their plans and the agent of
change will provide the necessary resources. This action is to ensure that there is no
impediment to the target group to continue the planned changes. For example, teachers in
special education classes for the visually impaired students choose to use computer in
teaching writing composition; then the school should strive to get the facility.

One of the example of managing change in educational context is the transformation

in teacher education. In the context of teaching education, the combination of strategies were
used in succeeding the changes from the Teachers College to Teacher Education Institute.
The changes can be seen when in 2004, 27 colleges and 1 English Language Teaching
Centre was changed to Teacher Education Institute after upgraded. In 2005 the Cabinet
approved the 27 Teacher Training Colleges upgraded to Institut Pendidikan Guru (IPG) that
confer a Bachelor of Education and B.Ed. on 13 July, 2005. In 2006, the declaration that
upgrades Teachers College to Teacher Education Institute. This declaration allows IPG
Graduate Teachers Programme as Graduate Programme Primary School (PGSR), pre-
service training to primary school teachers through the Teacher Training Course SPM
( KPLSM ) such as the Bachelor of Teaching ( PISMP ) and B.Ed TESL . In 2009 the Honorable
Minister of Education , Dato ' Hishammuddin Tun Hussein has officially declared all teacher
training institution in Malaysia to be known as the Malaysian Institute of Teacher Education
(IPGMs). By looking into the changes in the teacher education, it can be seen that the policy
established by the Ministry of Education is a type of power strategy where every related
individuals and organization is bind to the policy. In term of re-education strategy, the content
of learning is changed in order to embraces the transformation in the education. Nevertheless,
facilitation strategy is implemented where the teaching and learning in the system is
continuously guided and facilitated in order to ensure that the changes and transformation in
teacher education can be carried out successfully.