Leading changes through adaptive design

Purpose Universities are making changes to fulfill their education, research and community service responsibilities. However, the effectiveness of change initiatives is always in questions because changes especially in developing nations are carried out under multidimensional pressures. Exacerbated by limited experience of systemic change management approaches, most change initiatives fail to address institutional problems. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to propose adaptive design as a promising approach to create adaptive changes in universities. Guided by pragmatic philosophical viewpoint, this research followed a practice theory to understand actions and decisions related to changes. Staffs and students were made to reflect their perception for the principles and tactics extracted from adaptive design and their implementation in the university. In addition, the study tried to identify major challenges to create adaptive changes. In doing so, the research used mixed method–sequential explanatory approach. Survey and interviews were made to gather relevant data. The finding of this research confirm that adaptive design is an excellent alternative approach to create adaptive changes in universities. This may prove the significance of the approach if accepted and scaled up as an alternative change management theory. However, in the target university, leaders and change agents rarely used a change management approach that resembles adaptive design, which in turn may be the reason for failing to bring adaptive changes (deep and pervasive). Consequently, it was reflected that business as usual do not suffice, and hence, universities have to continually update themselves with up-to-date change management approaches like adaptive design. Besides, it was outlined that institutions should revisit why and how they are introducing changes. Design/methodology/approach The study followed mixed research–sequential explanatory approach. Multistage stratified random sampling was used to select respondents which included staffs and students. Questionnaire for 219 respondents and in-depth interviews with purposely selected six relevant interviewees were employed. One sample t-test, ANOVA and content analysis techniques were used to analyze data. Findings The finding of this paper reflected that tenets of adaptive design, its principles and tactics are important tools to lead and institutionalize change initiatives. This may prove the significance of the approach if accepted and scaled up as an alternative change management theory. However, in the target university, leaders and change agents rarely used a change management approach that resembles adaptive design, which, in turn, may be the reason for failing to bring adaptive changes (deep and pervasive) in the institution. Consequently, it was reflected that business as usual does not suffice, and hence, universities have to continually update themselves with up-to-date change management approaches like adaptive design. Besides, it was outlined that institutions should revisit why and how they are introducing changes. Research limitations/implications The basic limitation of this study is the problem of supporting literature evidence from other similar research findings, since the authors hardly find similar research outputs. Besides, this research might probably have a problem of transferability to other organizations, because the samples of this study were too limited given the huge number of staffs, which may not represent the whole population besides the interview was made only with volunteers. Moreover, it was conducted only in universities. For this reason, care must be taken to deduce any of the results to other population. Practical implications The research reflected that the university has to work to build change adaptive culture. In doing so, developing deep investigation and open discussions of challenges are necessary to understand adaptive problems. Besides, the university has to try to use adaptive design as an alternative change management tool, collaborative thinking for creative solutions, using group change strategies, and creating clear communication systems on the types and impacts of changes (meaning making), as well as acquainting staffs with the necessary skills to do adaptive works are among the practical implications forwarded as recommendations. Social implications This research has reflected on the change management approaches of higher education institutions. The social value of universities are determined by their contribution as a result of efforts made to upgrade themselves via various reform initiatives. To enhance the reform/change process, universities are investing huge resources to adopt and implement innovative approaches. However, the change efforts need to be guided by a systemic approach and by introducing adaptive design might contribute a lot for universities to enhance their social contribution. Lessons from adaptive design have implications to overcome challenges associated with human elements like resistance, collaboration, owning and implementing changes, etc. Originality/value This research is originally conducted extracting valuable lessons from adaptive design introduced by Bernstein and Linsky (2016). This investigation has tried to study adaptive design in one of the universities in a developing nation with a major purpose of supporting or refuting the approach. This study tried to capture staffs’ perception for adaptive design approach. Besides, an attempt was made to find out systems that resemble adaptive design in the university’s change management process. Moreover, the common challenges to create adaptive changes were traced. Studying the case in the university and common challenges helped to recommend the need of adaptive design confidently.