Orginizational Change in Complex Organizations

"It’s no wonder that innovation is so difficult for established firms. They employ highly capable people—and then set them to work within processes and business models that doom them to failure. But there are ways out of this dilemma." (Christensen and Overdorf 2000)  This quote describes the situation many large school boards face when looking at the challenges of curriculum redesign and cultivating innovation.  It can be difficult to cultivate creativity and innovation in well established organizational structures.  Furthermore, there are strong organizational culture that must adapt in order to have these changes not only take place, but flourish to meet the organizational values that are often strong in the educational organizations.  Students come first is a well established mantra that most teachers, schools, boards and districts hold in common.  This strong value is what boards should build from in order to enact organizational change.  

Along with the theory of leadership of complex organizations (Kowch, 2010), Christensen and Overdorf bring a very proactive approach to using a current value system that already exists in many school boards.  Where they struggle in their leadership is setting up effective processes that cultivate this change.  Under most current organizational structures leadership and/or management is set up in very hierarchal designs which helps manage  mass amounts of people.  However, this structure often prevents innovation and change within the organization. Under the Fitting the Tools to the Task matrix Christensen and Overdorf suggest that in order to cultivate change in a shared value system the organization needs to change the processes which the organization is currently using.  In addition, Kowch's leadership of complex organizations suggests using a network organization for cultivating this change process.  Within the organization, under a shared value system the organization can shift it's processes structure where it can share ideas in a network of leadership the organization is more likely not only to move in positive directions and implement innovation, but this could have a profound affect on the 21 century learners experience.  This meets with the value system that is well established within most educational organizations and can create positive affects for all stakeholders.

Ed. Tech in Leadership

Leadership is the new black or at least it's the new vernacular when it comes to referring to educational administrators.  When looking at the latest trends in organizational theory one thing has changed and that is that we don't necessarily manage static cogs in a machine, we now lead innovation and change within the organization.  In Eugene Kowch's article "Wither Thee, Educational Technology?" (Kowch, 2013) he uses a sort of dichotomy to contrast managing's transition to leading.  One of the ways in which this is shown is using the complicated versus complex systems to show how organizations have now become complex organic organisms or ecosystems which are in a constant state of flux.  Organizations are always shifting, changing and demanding that the leaders that operate them not only understand the management aspect of the organization, but through the shift to a leadership paradigm these leaders now need to have a intimate knowledge of technology.  Leading through technological innovation has become necessary for the modern organization.

Furthermore, Kowch makes reference to leading complex organizations and states that "Tension can be good." (pg. 31, 2013)  Tension, as Kowch refers to it in this article has a great use for organizations as they develop their networks to innovate through.  This means that in a complex organization there really is no status quo to settle on.  An organization must be continuously adjusting to anticipate the next trend that will help them get an edge and stay current, if not ahead of the curve.  In education, this means that our leaders must not only have the ability to lead but must also have the ability to have a vision around technology integration to lead effectively.  An educational leader is also an educational technologist that have their foot in both arenas.  This will allow for the most effective educational opportunities to be provided to the student.