impact of presidential cognition on institutional change, The

Community College Enterprise, The, Spring 2004 by Eddy, Pamela L

Organizational change is the watchword at community colleges across the nation, with college presidents leading these initiatives. It is imperative to understand the cognitive orientation of leaders as they select strategies for the direction of change at their institutions. Enhanced knowledge of the underpinnings of leader cognition can lead to better development of potential leaders.

Introduction

Despite calls for leadership throughout the institution, college presidents still fill the most critical leadership position on campus and act as drivers for institutional change. Research on organizational change highlights the role of the college president in successful change initiatives (American Council on Education, 1998; American Council on Education, 1999), with the impetus for change initiated by external factors, campus crises, or college leaders (Astin &. Astin, 2000). While the role the president plays is acknowledged as important in change initiatives, it is less known what contributes to ways the president cognitively formulates change.

The current study continues the line of inquiry of Neumann (1995), Kezar and Eckel (2001), and others investigating leaders' roles in understanding organizational change. Community colleges provide relevant foci for investigation of the impact of leaders' thinking on change initiatives since the threeprong mission of two-year colleges-preparing college students for transfer to four-year baccalaureate institutions, providing vocational training, and meeting community needs - presents an ever-changing, uncertain environment (Cohen &. Brawer, 2003). Community colleges are poised to make rapid changes in their curricula in order to meet changing business and community needs. They must now also address the larger educational issues of assessment, learning styles, and operating with constrained resources. Hence, how community college presidents present change to their campus communities affords an opportunity to understand better the influence of leader cognition on change.

The link between cognition and presidential choices regarding change became apparent while conducting other research on institutional initiatives at two community colleges. It was possible to envision the same presidents establishing similar goals and employing the same strategies to obtain those goals if they were relocated to another campus. As a result of the finding, the research data was reexamined to learn more about leader cognition and its influence on both the focus of change and the chosen strategies to fulfill the goals of change. The author is specifically interested in the elements of cognition that aided the presidents in choosing change initiatives and the means they employed to achieve the identified goals.

How presidents present change initiatives to campus members depends on how they understand the situation themselves (Fairhurst &. Sarr, 1996). Leader cognition involves an initial level of self-understanding by the college president. In turn, how leaders make meaning for themselves influences the meaning they make for the rest of the campus (Amcy, 1992; Eddy 2003). Neumann (1995), using constructivist theory of reality, found that ways in which leaders frame a situation result in different meanings for campus members. Framing involves the choice of one set of mcaning(s) over another by the president (Fairhurst &. Sarr, 1996). More recently, Kezar and Eckel (2001) studied institutions undergoing transformational change and noted that leaders facilitated perceptions of campus members through a variety of communication forums. Leaders' perceptions establish a mechanism for interpretation of new events or situations by campus members. The research question for the current study explores the link between presidential cognition and the ultimate framing of organizational change on campus. The author is particularly interested in identifying factors that contribute to leaders' cognition.

Theoretical framework

In investigating how community college presidents use their cognitive orientation to present change initiatives on campuses, the author considered the influence of culture and sensemaking. Culture provides the medium for the creation and sustainability of organizational reality (Birnbaum, 1991; Morgan, 1997), while sensemuking serves as the mechanism that guides individuals through times of change and ambiguous situations (Gioia, Thomas, Clark, &. Chittipeddi, 1994; Weick, 1995).

In situations of uncertainty, campus members turn to their leaders for direction. Leaders, as "sense-givers" (Thayer, 1988), serve as interpreters of ambiguity in the organization. "The actions and utterances of leaders frame and shape the context of action in such a way that the members of that context are able to use the meaning thus created as a point of reference for their own action and understanding of the situation" (Smircich &. Morgan, 1982, p. 261). Thus, how the campus leader directs change efforts influences how college members make sense of the change.