Leadership Fostering Organizational Change in K-12 Distance Education.docVIP

Leadership: Fostering Organizational Change in K-12 Distance Education By Richard John Giroday MDDE 620, Activity K (30 mark paper) (word count 1366) Student Id 2245597 July 22, 2005 Leadership: Fostering Organizational Change in K-12 Distance Education Introduction Delivery of education in postsecondary, the workplace, k-12, adult education, and distance education, has rapidly evolved over the past 20 years (Bates, 1997; Keegan, 2001; Rosenberg, 2001; Shale, 1988; Stahmer, 1995). Various political, social, economical, and technological factors shape a rapidly changing educational landscape. Distance education (DE) schools serving k-12 in British Columbia, are undergoing deep organizational changes as new DE schools are formed; old DE schools amalgamate with existing institutions; and new technologies, pedagogies, and innovations are implemented by all (Anderson Elloumi, (n.d.); Fahy, 2001; Giroday, 2003). Organizational change is a certainty for educators in today’s k-12 DE schools. Strong leadership is required to guide schools through the mine fields of technological and organizational change. This paper compares two definitions of leadership, exploring them in relationship to the concept of change agents, and speaks to the leadership necessary to foster successful organizational change facing today’s k-12 distance education schools. Leadership Although many think the two are synonymous, leadership is not management. Leadership is the catalyst for change, while the focus of management is predictability and order (Kotter, 1996). Kotter provides a valuable comparison of leadership and management (see Table 1) and estimates that successful transformation of an organization undergoing change “is 70 to 90 percent leadership and only 10 to 30 percent management” (p.26). The implication herein is that leadership is the primary criteria for successful organizational change. Fahy (2005, p.215), discussing roles in the change process of DE organizations, pres