This booklet is an introduction to “change management” for mid-level (i.e. HEW 5 – 7) research managers and administrators. But it will also provide an important platform for the development of skills and competencies that will support this target group in their transition to higher levels (i.e. HEW 8 - 9) and then onto senior research management positions within their respective organisations.
This work is an expansion on the content of a Professional Development Workshop presented by the authors at the Australasian Research Management Society Conference in 2005. This expansion has been encouraged by the positive feedback received from the workshop participants and supported by the ARMS Professional Development Committee.
This booklet is intended to be used as a “ready reckoner” or “user guide” when research managers/administrators are planning, implementing, or evaluating change processes within their own work environments. As such, this is a tool that needs to be a close companion for those with the following learning objectives;
§How to challenge yourself to create real change (See Chapter 8).
§How to gain a shared language and understanding about change within your workplace (See Chapter 3).
§How to understand the current challenges to change processes in your workplace (e.g. people and change – See Chapter 6).
§How to develop methods for managing these challenges to change (See Chapter 6).
§How to plan to take change in different directions (e.g. strategy/tactics) for change (See Chapter 7).
§How to understand the impact of governance, stakeholders, and relationships on change processes (See Chapter 3).
§How to prepare organisations for change (See Chapter 5 & 6).
§How to develop tactics for getting people on board to support a change process (See Chapter 6).
§How to be able to manage the concurrent “layers of change” within a workplace (See Chapter 7).
§How to be able to make change meaningful for people - translating what is being asked for into practical reality (e.g. RQF – See Chapter 6).
§How to be able to put ideas into action (See Chapter 5).
§How to be a self-sustaining change agent in the face of organisational resistance to change (See Chapter 7).
Whilst the authors acknowledge that the imminent introduction of the RQF by the Australian Government will be a key driver for change within the Australasian Innovation System, we are not here to justify it. We just see it a core intervention tool being employed by the Australian Government to “drive positive research behaviours, encouraging researchers and research organisations to focus on the quality and impact of their research”. This means that the organisations affected by this intervention will have to manage change – we hope that this booklet will help those research managers that are charged with the responsibility to manage these change processes.
Notwithstanding the above, the authors do share a vision of a desired “future state” for the Australasian Innovation System as being something like the following;
Australia and New Zealand have become a home for value creation by possessing all of the elements of a vibrant innovation system – capital, skills, ideas, technologies, business experience, risk taking culture, confidence, access to cutting edge end users. Australia and New Zealand have created the critical mass from a base of excellent technical education and R&D, to which have been added enterprise skills and rewards for risk that is an economic structure that has attracted venture capital from around the world”.
Significant change must be managed at many concurrent levels within the Australian Innovation System to achieve this vision. There is a big job ahead of us and we all have a lot of work to do.
“Steering the Wheels of Change”
Measuring Research Quality & Impact – A Driver for Change in the Australasian Research Management Model
By Ms Anna Bounds & Dr Lewe Atkinson – Workshop Faciliators – ARMS’05 Professional Development Session – Managing Change
Table of Contents
Preface:
Who is the target audience for this book?
Chapter 1:
Why, How, and What use is this book to Research Managers?
Chapter 2:
What is the Australasian Innovation System?
Chapter 3:
What is research management? What is the research management model? A possible way forward - the research manager as a relational network manager?
Chapter 4:
Why is measuring research quality & impact a driver for change in the Australasian research management model?
Chapter 5:
What are the key ingredients for a successful change management journey?
Chapter 6:
How can I analyse my workplace to help select the right change management process for us? How can I communicate & lead this change?
Chapter 7:
How to sustain the change manager? How will I know when I get there?
Chapter 8:
Final words of wisdom from Hugh Mackay –“ The Good Listener”
Epilogue:
The Traditional Gaelic Blessing – A family tradition
This survey tool is designed to help people work out both their preferred working culture as well as the prevailing culture of the place where they are currently working.
The Handy Cultural Diagnostic tool is based on a Harvard Business Review paper by Harrison, R (1972): Reference – Understanding your organisations character - Harvard Business Review, pp. 119-128, 1972
You can also follow this link to find a working paper by MonashUniversity – Faculty of Business and Economics (2002) which shows how the tool as been used with a sample of 370 MBA candidates:
