Impact of Organisational Change on Employee Behavior in Education

This dissertation examines the impact of organisational change on employee behavior within the educational sector, focusing on primary schools, high schools, and universities in the UK. The research, based on qualitative data collected from 15 interviewees, investigates how changes in organizational structure, technology, and procedures affect employee engagement, teaching styles, and overall performance. The study explores the significance of change management, strategies to mitigate negative impacts, and methods to maintain positive employee behavior. The dissertation includes literature review, methodology, data analysis of case studies from Monkfield Park Primary School, Stamford High School, and Manchester Metropolitan University, and recommendations for educational institutions to adapt to and manage organizational changes effectively. The findings highlight the critical role of organizational change in shaping employee behavior and its implications for the success of educational institutions.

ORGANISATIONAL
CHANGE
DISSERTATION

ABSTRACT
Education is the important part of the universe as this sector plays a vital role in the
literacy rate of a country and gaining knowledge and skills to compete in the global workforce.
Good education facilitates quality learning of all ages and is the process of achieving life skills,
values, beliefs and moral habits. Education is facing various changes. Educational methods are
evolving at a rapid pace. Teaching and learning must keep up with the growing demands of this
century. This research focuses on investigating the organisational change and its unique impact
on the behaviour of employees in the educational sector.
Through a qualitative research using a sample of educators from primary school, high
school and university primary data was collected from 15 interviewees. Consequently This study
benefits, organisations that are able to adopt, develop, engage and retain change will have
sustainability as compared to the others that neglect such attention to the change management.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all, I would like to immeasurably thank my best supervisor Dr Sebastian Okafor,
who guided me all the way in this journey of a dissertation as source of motivation and helped
me in completing this project on time. Apart from this, he was also a source of learning who
provided me with various recommendations and positive criticism which will always be
remembered. His knowledge of dissertation, research methods, the process of data analysis were
incredibly beneficial for my study. While studying this project, I obtained an opportunity to
know him better as well as appreciate him as my instructor. Many Thanks to you Sir for making
this research project a pleasant learning experience.
Secondly, I would like to thank all my Lecturers of Claude Littner Business School at
University of West London who provided me a great academic guidance with all kind of
required resources throughout my studies that have also helped me to finish this project on time.
It was God’s blessing for me to pursue MBA degree at UWL, being one of the top universities of
UK.
Thirdly, I would also like to acknowledge the sacrifice and support of all the participants
without whom this study would have definitely not been completed. I whole-heartedly appreciate
their time of participation in this dissertation throughout the interview process.
Last but not the least, I am so grateful to my husband Eresha Sale and my mother Gowri
Madam who were very supportive throughout this course in sharing all the stress and sacrifices
that came along the way.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................2
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT...............................................................................................................3
TABLE OF CONTENTS.................................................................................................................4
CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................1
1.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................1
1.2 Overview................................................................................................................................1
1.2.1 Project target participants.........................................................................................3
1.2.2 Background of the organisations..............................................................................3
1.3 Research problem...................................................................................................................3
1.4 Rationale of the research........................................................................................................4
1.5 Aims.......................................................................................................................................4
1.6 Research Objectives...............................................................................................................4
1.7 Research Questions................................................................................................................5
1.8 Significance of the research...................................................................................................5
1.9 Summary................................................................................................................................5
1.10 Dissertation Structure...........................................................................................................6
CHAPTER 2- LITERATURE REVIEW.........................................................................................7
2.0 Overview................................................................................................................................7
2.1 Organizational change...........................................................................................................7
2.2 Factors for organisational changes in education sector.........................................................7
2.3 Impact of organisational change on behaviour of employee.................................................9
2.4 Impact of organisational change on employee's engagement..............................................10
2.5 Models and concepts of Organisational change...................................................................12
2.5.1 Lewin’s 3 step change model.................................................................................12
2.52 Kotter’s 8 step change model..................................................................................13
2.6 Strategies to reduce negative impact of organisational change...........................................14
2.7 Ways to maintain positive behaviour within organisation...................................................15
2.8 Comparison of previous empirical studies...........................................................................16
2.9 Summary..............................................................................................................................17
CHAPTER 3- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...........................................................................18

3.0 Overview..............................................................................................................................18
3.1 Brief methodology...............................................................................................................18
3.2 Research Philosophy............................................................................................................19
3.3 Research Design...................................................................................................................20
3.2 Research Method.................................................................................................................21
3.3 Cost Required.......................................................................................................................22
3.4 Research Approach..............................................................................................................22
3.5 Research strategy.................................................................................................................23
3.6 Research Sampling...............................................................................................................23
3.7 Data collection.....................................................................................................................24
3.8 Data Analysis.......................................................................................................................25
3.9 Ethical Considerations.........................................................................................................26
3.10 Research Limitations.........................................................................................................27
3.11 Summary............................................................................................................................28
CHAPTER 4- DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS....................................29
4.0 Overview..............................................................................................................................29
4.1 Monkfield park primary school...........................................................................................29
4.2 Stamford High School..........................................................................................................32
4.3 Manchester Metropolitan University...................................................................................35
CHAPTER 5- CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS...................................................39
3.1 Conclusion...........................................................................................................................39
3.2 Recommendations................................................................................................................41
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................42

CHAPTER 1- INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
This research investigates the unique impact of organisational change on the behaviour of
employees in the Educational sector. This research will be cased on Case studies of the
University, Secondary school and Primary school in the UK.
1.2 Overview
The educational sector holds a unique position both within developed and developing
countries. It not only plays a crucial role in the overall literacy rate of the nation, but it is a
source of social justice by decreasing poverty and inequality while providing the economy with
an educated workforce (Abeysekera and Dawson, 2015). It not only plays a vital role in the
country’s economy, also plays a crucial role in overall literacy rate of the nation. This sector can
be broadly categorised into three groups: schools (including pre-primary, primary and secondary
schools and colleges), universities and training institutions such as industry/job-oriented
education (Hatch, Morrison and Secker, 2017). It is very essential for the overall growth of the
country, there are various government rules, regulations and guidelines that are important for
each and every school and university to adhere. These guidelines include various teaching
techniques, course materials which are necessary and used to be taught to the students by the
universities and schools, because the students are the ones who will be learning and gaining
knowledge from these organisations. All countries have different kind of educational structure
depending or according to their government guidelines, based on this they have defined their
own educational framework (Van der Voet and Vermeeren, 2017).
All the organisations within the educational sector have different level of structure that
increases their flexibility (O'Brien and Pipkin, 2017). It further helps the organisation to maintain
a positive culture within their university or school. This positive culture helps the individuals in
gaining required information or knowledge so that students can learn in an efficient and effective
manner. However, this positive culture and gaining of knowledge completely depends upon the
employees so called- professors and teachers of the organisation (Alharbi and et.al., 2019). Any
changes within the structure of the organisation will impact on its positive culture which will
further directly or indirectly impact on the behaviour of all the employees especially in education
sector. This change in structure or technology etc. can have a huge impact on overall
1

performance of the employees, their work engagement within the organisation, their behaviour
towards their colleagues, towards the way of teaching etc (Denis, ferlie and van gestel, 2015).
Organisational change can be defined as a change in organisation’s culture, structure,
procedures, processes and technology (Budd, 2017). These changes within the company directly
will impact the overall performance of the organisation. These organisational changes are quite
important to be observed and maintained, especially in the educational sector, as impact of such
changes can be either positive or negative. These changes could further impact on the behaviour
of the employees of any university or schools and also can have effect on the way of their
teaching style. Success and failure of an organisation are the main reasons of organisational
change that impacts on the overall performance of the employees (Arokiasamy and et.al., 2016).
The result of failure or success in the organisation's strategies, technologies, systems etc can
either increase the flexibility of the organisation or can decrease their work efficiency. Thereby,
positive culture within the universities or schools will either increase or decrease.
These changes are mostly seen and are required in universities, colleges or schools so that
their knowledge level can be increased by bringing some changes within the employees of the
schools and university. It is important to be noticed that these changes can impact an
organisation both positively and negatively which completely depends upon the type of changes
that has been done. So, all the changes are brought within the organisation should be verified
before implementing as it can reduce the overall efficiency of an employee, can negatively
impact their behaviour and might not be able to cope up with those changes (Denis, Ferlie and
Van Gestel, 2015). Verification of such changes can be measured by implementing several
strategies and measuring their impact on the organisation, implementing mitigation strategies etc.
In educational sector these changes can influence overall level of education within the
organisation, enhance or degrade work performance of the employees in order to attain higher
goals and objectives and if changes are not implemented correctly it can make it much difficult
for the organisation to attain and achieve their goals, objectives or targets that can bring changes
in leadership or in roles, due to which the external support will also be impacted. As a result,
complexity within the organisation will either decrease or increase (Avidov-Ungar, 2015). So, in
order to increase employee engagement, enhance their performance, bring positive changes
within their behaviour, for which it is important to know the factors due to which organisational
changes are brought and impacts they have on the organisation’s performance.
2

1.2.1 Project target participants
In this research overall there are 15 participants from all the chosen universities, primary
school and secondary school i.e. 5 employees of Monkfield Park Primary School, 5 employees of
Stamford High School and 5 employees from Manchester Metropolitan University. There are
five teachers to be chosen from each of the mentioned organisation. All the participants are
involved within the research study on their free-will in order to study the impact of
organisational change on the behaviour of the employees within their educational sector.
1.2.2 Background of the organisations
There are three organisations that have been chosen for this research project they are: the
primary school, the high school and the university.
 Monkfield Park Primary School: is a primary school in Cambourne, a place in
Cambridgeshire in England. It was the first school that was built in great Cambourne.
They take classes for the students from year 1st to year 6th. They provide various kinds of
facilities such as breakfast, lunch, games, safety etc. Researcher has chosen this
organization because it is one of the best primary school.
 Stamford High School: is a UK high school of english girls situated in market town of
Stamford, build in 1877 (Boiko and et.al., 2015). They provide various kinds of
extracurricular activities for students such as early college studies, athletics, 24 different
variety of sports etc.
 Manchester Metropolitan University: is a public university that is located in
Manchester, England, UK. This university was established in 1843. it is one of the most
famous university that also have an affiliation with Association of Commonwealth
Universities, NWUA, University Alliance and various others (Jenkins, 2017). Their first
College, Manchester school of Design was established in 1843. As per the overall rating
of the Universities within UK it has been ranked on 57th in number. According to the QS
global ranking it has been ranked 801 out of 1000 universities. This university has been
chosen as it is one of the oldest University situated in England.
1.3 Research problem
The main research problem that is required to be addressed is that there are many
organizational changes within educational sector which affects the overall behaviour of the
3

employees. It is one of the main research problem which is required to be addressed as it further
affects the overall engagement of employees. This study has also helped the researcher to
understand the reasons and the changes due to which their employee’s behaviour is changed or
affected, their way of teaching and teaching style is impacted (Abeysekera and Dawson, 2015).
1.4 Rationale of the research
It is important to know the reason due to which the research has been conducted (Buckley
and et.al., 2019). There are various reasons due to which the researcher has chosen this topic for
the research such as: Research wants to focus and study on all the changes within organisations
of educational sector so that they can study all the reasons which affects an organisation's
employees behaviours, their teaching style etc. This research will lay emphasis on three different
levels of educational industry organisations which are primary school, secondary school and
university level. Three different levels have been considered because organizational changes
implemented within all the three levels are adopted in different manner. This complete study has
also helped the researcher to understand all the factors or changes due to which engagement of
employees is affected. In other words, this complete dissertation research has helped the
researcher to understand organisational changes within education sector and its results and
impacts on various parts of the organisations such as their employees. As per this rationale of
this research dissertation this project is quite beneficial and helpful for the researcher as they
were able to understand complete framework, organisational structure and how and when
changes are brought as per the requirements within the organisation (Canato and Ravasi, 2015).
It has also helped them to understand ways of employees of organisations are affected and
changes their behaviour as well as their teaching method as both positively and negatively.
1.5 Aims
Aim of this research project is: “To analyse the impact of organisational change on the
behaviour of employees in the Educational sector: Case study on the Universities, Secondary
schools and Primary Schools in the UK”.
1.6 Research Objectives
Research objectives of this research dissertation are as follows:
 To examine the factors for organisational changes in the educational sector.
 To analyse the impact of organisational changes on the behaviour of the teaching staff.
4

 To recommend how negative impact due to the organisational change can be mitigated by
using the effective strategies.
1.7 Research Questions
Research questions of this research dissertation are as follows:
 What are the factors for organisational changes in education sector?
 What is the impact of organisational change on the behaviour of the teaching staff?
 How is employee’s engagement affected by organisational change?
1.8 Significance of the research
This study contributes to the knowledge of phenomena around change management in
educational institutions in the UK. It will also benefit of this research study will be for the
educational sector organisations as well as to all the employees who work for these organisations
(Cathcart and Esland, 2017). This study will help them to understand the impact of all the
organisational changes that happen within the organisations and the impact that they have on the
organisation’s business, so that they can focus on the effects of the changes that impacts their
employee’s performance. This research assists the researcher to understand how organisations
within educational sector works, their structure and how changes within the organisation can
result both positively and negatively and impact on organisation’s business, their employees,
their teaching ability as well as on their behaviour. The research will also help the researcher to
understand different ways of which engagement of employees is impacted and changed. Due to
this Universities and schools in education sector can understand ways that can fulfil their needs
and how they should implement those changes within the organisation so that it affects their
school or university positively and enhance their employees’ skills, ability, engagement etc.
1.9 Summary
From the above chapter it has been summarised that Education sector is one of the most
important part as it assists in increasing both economy and literacy rate of the country. Every
institution within the education sector is divided into a levelled structure which helps in
increasing the overall flexibility of the organisation. If any changes within the organisation takes
place, then it impacts the behaviour of employees in many ways. This chapter has given an
overview of the research topic, its aims and objectives and brief background of the organisations
has been discussed. Therefore, in the following research the study of both a positive and negative
impact of the organisational change on the employees will be described.
5

1.10 Dissertation Structure
Structure of this research dissertation consist of 5 chapters:
 Chapter 1: Introduction
This chapter provides overview of the study, project target participants, background of
organisations, research aim, research objectives, research questions, hypothesis, significance of
the research, rationale of the research, dissertation structure, etc.
 Chapter 2: Literature Review
Through discussion and analysis of several articles, current and relevant research papers
and survey report, this chapter helps in understanding the existing knowledge of the research
topic.
 Chapter 3: Research Methodology
This chapter discusses the research philosophy, research approach and design as well as
data collection and analysis methods are used for the project. It further addresses data validity
and reliability, limitations and ethical issues.
 Chapter 4: Analysis and discussion of findings
This chapter presents the findings and discusses the results with links to the literature
reviewed in chapter two.
 Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations
This chapter draws conclusion of the research project, provides recommendations based
on the data analysis and identifies the limitations of this study to offer suggestions for future
research.
6

CHAPTER 2- LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Overview
In literature review existing theories, hypothesis, and viewpoints will be acknowledged,
then reason and justification for research is given and lastly previous studies based on the
research, articles and many more is done. This literature review relating to organisational change
and the impact on employee behaviour is organised using six themes: Factors for organisational
changes in education sector, Impact of organisational change in employee's behaviour, Impact of
organisational change on employee's engagement, Models and concepts of Organisational
change, Recommendations to reduce negative impact of organisational change using various
strategies and lastly Ways to maintain positive behaviour within organisation. All the themes
mentioned will be explained using previous research studies which has helped in understanding
the overall impact of organisational changes on the behaviour of the employees in education
sector particularly.
2.1 Organizational change
According to Chu and et.al., (2016) Organizational change can be defined as a process
through which changes within an organization's processes, strategies, technologies, procedures,
cultures and technologies are affected, such changes are known as organizational changes. These
changes can be small as well as big, private or public, business or non-business organizational
changes (Fläckman and et.al., 2015).
2.2 Factors for organisational changes in education sector
As per the views of Van der Voet and Vermeeren (2017), there may be many factors
which have resulted into change in education sector that have a huge impact on the performance
of the educational business (Van der Voet and Vermeeren, 2017). The processes in the education
sector keep on continuously evolving which could bring changes within this sector. The major
factor for the change is the ‘Structure of the Education sector’. Because, Education sector is
divided into two main categories such as primary and secondary levels. Both of these levels
follow the different structure in their institutions.
Also, the structure may be developed based on the level of education to be proved as in,
the structure of the universities may be complex whereas it is more simplified in the colleges and
schools. Whenever there is any modification within in the structure of the teaching system, it
results as the change within the education sector (Day, Gu and Sammons, 2016). For e.g.
7