Faculty of Education - Theses
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ItemThe use of program clarification to support policy development and implementation( 2000)Program development through program clarification is an emerging field for evaluators committed to developing responsive and clear program designs. In this study, the use of program clarification approaches, designed to assist implementation of a major policy change, was explored at a policy and service level of an organisation. A new service delivery program (SDP) was the focus of program clarification, which was conducted in two phases. In Phase I (policy level), the main aim was to make the essential features of the SDP explicit to those responsible for system level change. This was achieved through evaluability assessment, during which document analyses, 12 semi-structured interviews with senior managers, and a group interview with service site managers were conducted. This resulted in the development of a clear, policy level, program logic model. Phase I revealed a need for the policy level program to be translated at the service sites. Phase II (service level) was conducted to assist managers at one service site in the development of a SDP implementation and monitoring plan, through the use of program logic and participatory approaches. Reflective practice and a small-scale study conducted by the researcher revealed that the program clarification approaches were useful, especially at the service site level where a high degree of stakeholder participation was achieved. This study focused on one organisation and one service site, thus, its findings cannot be generalised. Nonetheless, this study is one of very few which has attempted to apply program clarification techniques at both system and delivery levels, and to link the findings at these levels.
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ItemCreating useful knowledge: a case study of policy development in e-learning at Chulalongkorn University Language Institute( 2004)This study develops and analyses a process related to online policy development in E-learning at Chulalongkorn University Language Institute. The study involved three identifiable phases. Firstly, phase one involved the preparation of a synthesis paper. It was designed to develop an evidence-based policy. This paper was developed from interviews of online experts as well as from a synthesis of related literature. In addition, change strategies and English language teaching approaches were explored. From the aforementioned, a list of benchmarks of best practice was compiled. Phase two involved the development of a policy. paper. It was designed to tailor a policy to meet the needs of Chulalongkorn University Language Institute, the organization and the staff that were responsible for implementing it. The benchmark findings from phase one were used as the basis for developing guidelines for the policy paper. The policy paper was also. designed to assist in gaining the commitment of administrators towards implementing the policy. In order to gain this commitment, Chulalongkorn University Language Institute , administrators were interviewed to find how they would implement the phase one benchmarks. Phase three involved the linkage of policy and implementation. It addressed the implementation of the policy in the teaching and learning managed by Chulalongkorn University Language Institute teaching staff. Chulalongkorn University Language Institute ajarns who had been involved in developing online courses were interviewed. One experienced ajarn was selected for an in-depth interview to probe the extent to which the benchmarks had been applied in existing Chulalongkorn University Language Institute online courses. The thesis describes and analyses an-innovatory process, a way to initiate and implement � policy in an organization. This,innovatory process provides a `rational' way of initiating policy in an organization. As a means of providing advice to those interested in effective policy development, the thesis provides a critical reflection on the process.
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ItemReconstruction of leadership in a situation of significant organizational change( 2006)Leadership and Change are two diverse and yet intertwined complex fields. Leaders in many organizations continually undergo, lead and introduce change to their workplace. These individuals and others reconstruct their leadership differently according to the situation and the group of which they are a part. Some organizations are changing their leadership practices to include managing teams in remote locations using a virtual organization model rather than a face to face approach. This change invites organizational leadership to develop new perspectives to meet new challenges. This thesis is concerned with this question, "How do middle and senior managers implementing this kind of change reconstruct their leadership as they manage their roles, departments and the transition?" The research investigated the above question in relation to eight middle/senior managers at an Australian national public health provider going through a major restructure process. Some survived the restructure and stayed in the organization. Others did not survive and had to leave the organization because they no longer identified with the new organization or the people in the organizational leadership. The study was an interpretivist inquiry that documented the perceptions, meanings and interpretations of the changing organizational situation by the participants through two semi-structured interviews conducted with each manager about ten months apart. Significant changes were experienced by the participants in this study. These changes were at organizational, relational and personal levels. The middle managers reported feeling a great deal of pressure. Their organizational relationships were changed, disrupted and to some of them were damaged. The participants rethought their skills, roles, functions and their emotional investment in the organization due to the change process. The length of the transitional period became burdensome. A matrix of interaction between six research factors identified from the literature and seven emergent themes was constructed and tested against the empirical data. The matrix successfully accommodated the data categories of the study, establishing its validity as an informative and useful Change Management Framework. The Framework was used to compare and contrast the perceptions, feelings, and ideas of the different individuals to understand how they reconstructed their leadership in a change situation. Furthermore, a model for the reconstruction of leadership in a significant organizational change was developed based on the grounded research. The researcher believes that the work presented in this thesis adds to the richness of the tapestry of perspectives in the arena of leadership and change research. It is also hoped that the framework and model developed in this study will contribute to the practice of change leaders in many circumstances.