Communicating change in academic environment

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FEDERAL STATE AUTONOMOUS EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

FOR HIGHER PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

NATIONAL RESEARCH UNIVERSITY HIGHER SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS

Faculty of Humanities

BACHELOR'S PROJECT

Field of study: Linguistics 45.03.02

Degree programme: Foreign Languages and Intercultural Communication

Communicating Change in Academic Environment

Gretsky Ivan Eduardovich

Moscow, 2020



Introduction

Higher education is a complex system that evolves over time facing a never-ending process of change on different levels and of various kinds. Among an outstanding quantity of reasons for this, there are two which are resembling the operations within the big scale profit-oriented corporations.

The first of them is the strive to remain competitive among the rest organizations in the same field. When the businesses compete for the clients and contracts, the universities compete for the attention of the enrolees and the collaboration opportunities with other educational organizations. The correlation here is especially visible when seen from the following perspective. The ones to operate more efficiently will be the most demanded.

Second, is the necessity to keep up with the emerging techniques in order to boost up the overall efficiency. This reason is rather controversial, per se it is the processes of globalization and digitalization. Universities are provided with a wide range of opportunities and resources to prosper. Yet, it has become much more challenging to introduce the change since this process is quite complex and time-consuming. Hence, there has to be a particular outline or strategy that would allow bringing in the newness the way that would consume the least amount of time and resources possible.

Since the process of introducing change is aimed towards the stakeholders of the organization, it indicates that the criteria for measuring the success and effectiveness of it are attitude-based. If the subjects of change grasp the reasons for transformation and its outline, their attitude to it would be more positive.

Hence, the educational institutions confront the necessity to either devise the techniques to introduce change effectively or to use existing models and methods and learn from the example of others. There is another positive influence of the globalization worth mentioning. The nature of it as a process puts the information in easy access and makes the practices of other universities transparent enough to ensure that the operations are up to date or notice when a change is due.

Another significant effect of globalization on society is enhanced interconnectedness. Undoubtedly, there is an increased collaboration between the universities and the share of best practices is as cultivated as it ever was. Yet, fundamentally, the sources of insight are not limited by the field for a particular organization. For example, a university is not restricted by the methods used solely by other universities. The insight may come from any sphere.

Some may argue that the resemblance of the business environment and academic environment is controversial as some universities remain in demand even being held way back comparing to their competitors technical-wise while the businesses fall apart when put in the same circumstances. Ultimately, such point of view is inconsistent in terms of this paper since the ultimate goal of any university is to provide the best education possibilities for its students and which as much as essential, to become superior in doing so. Some educational organizations, with more advanced corporate culture, even state it in their declarations of values. Hence, rather than operating in another field of activity, the business environment provides a profound base of techniques to bring in the change since it is the very staff of life there.

For the reasons described above the academic community faces a whole magnitude of problems based on the necessity of transformation and the possible lack of structure or some template for conducting it properly.

Thus, the substantial aim of this study is to conduct a theoretical analysis of HSE academic environment, measure the extent to which students are prepared to change, and to find out if there is an existent correlation between awareness about change and students' academic performance. This is necessary to see if a contemporary university environment is prepared for transformation or outline certain recommendations for improvement of universities' productivity and efficiency concerning the ability to bring up the required change.

The scope of this research is formed by the effect which the models of introducing change have on the attitude towards the transition of the academic environment and students' academic performance.

This study analyses the response to change of the HSE students who currently receive a bachelor's degree and therefore deal with academic change on all possible levels.

The ultimate object of this study is the process of introducing change in the academic environment of the HSE and its student community. It explores the preliminary attitude markers towards transformation and outlines the features of the business models used to introduce it and then, exposes to the analysis the correlation between the efficient change communication and the academic performance of university students.

For the cause of this research, the following questions were formulated:

1. How academic environment can be defined and how change affects its segments?

2. What preexistent attitude towards change is formed among the students of the HSE?

3. Can the correlation between the awareness of change and the academic performance of students be proven?

4. What methodological recommendations may be drawn to reinforce the communication structure of a modern university?

The concepts of the academic environment, communication, and change, which are key for this research were studied in detail across a long period of time. That provides a profound ground for this research. Yet, there seems to be few studies of the change introduction in the academic environment particularly, which only adds to the relevance of this research.

Hence, this research provides an initial theoretical understanding of the problem and outlines possible points of growth for academic corporate culture and further research on this topic as well. In terms of practical orientation, the outcomes of this work will find wide use in the academic environment and especially, for the management staff of the universities as a means to enhance and strengthen the corporate culture and boost up productivity.

The limitations of this study are dictated by the limited sampling and its scope. The applicability of its outcome may not be strong for the universities with weak academic culture or less digitalized than the HSE university. However, the insight and overall recommendations may find use in communication network development and reflect the attitude of a median respondent.

This paper examines the data on the various notions used for the research of the academic environment (academic culture, digitalization, global trends, etc.) and combines these with an in-depth analysis of the most popular business models for change and transition management to result in a complex description of the academic culture as a communication network and change introduction ambient. Observing and analyzing its current state, this paper tests a modern university's capacity to transform on the example of HSE student community.

The research is conducted with the use of a concurrent mixed-method approach. It may seem unpopular and time-consuming, yet, provides a better understanding of a research problem and allows its comprehensive analysis of both quantitative and qualitative methods.

As for the methods for data collection in this paper participant reservation, expert interview, and survey are utilized.

The qualitative part of this research is conducted with the use of qualitative content analysis since it allows perceiving the attitude of the respondents in a way that is comprehensive and shows the percentage ratio of the positive and negative feedback.

The quantitative part of this research engages the use of linear regression. This examines the problem from the perspective of statistics and shows if there is a correlation between the awareness of change and students' academic performance or not. The result of each part is reconsidered and brought to the final complex interpretation that provides a concluding answer for the research questions.

For better coherence, this work is divided into sections: an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion, and a list of references.



Chapter I. Theoretical framework

1.1 Academic environment as a communication system and its segments

The notion of an academic environment is a fundamental one for this paper since the research is conducted in the university setting and the subject of it being the scholarly community. To create a precise definition of the term it is better to first define both terms individually.

One of the definitions of the term academic provided by the Cambridge Dictionary (n.d.) specifies its meaning as: “relating to schools, colleges, and universities, or connected with studying and thinking, not with practical skills". Hence, we may consider as academic anything that is corresponding to the education as a process and the institutions which aim is teaching as well.

At the same time, the notion of the environment is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary (n.d.) as: “the conditions that you live or work in and the way that they influence how you feel or how effectively you can work". The emphasis here is made on the fact that the environment is a set of specific conditions that affect the efficiency of a member of this environment. Therefore, it does not seem inappropriate to state that this influence ultimately impacts the operation of the whole organization.

If we combine these two definitions, we may reconstruct the vocabulary meaning of the academic environment as: “a set of conditions that affect the productivity of the members of the scholarly community and as a result, the university, school or a college which they are members of”. Although this definition provides nothing more but a notional understanding of the phenomenon, it is still a close one to the one used in this research.

Another vital term that forms the basis of this research is culture. In particular, here it is addressed as a part of the academic environment. Cambridge Dictionary (n.d.) interprets it the following way: “the ideas and ways of working that are typical for an organization, and that affect how it does business and how its employees behave". The importance of culture as a part of a particular environment is hard to overestimate. It fosters the process of learning and competence building and works as a glue between the people and an organization they belong to (Freiling & Fichtner, 2010).

Aiming to grasp the operational understanding of the term the rest of the paragraph is devoted to an in-depth investigation and analysis of the existing interpretations of the academic environment in the research of other scholars.

In their research of the faculty views on academic environment, Hartnett and Centra (1974) define a university environment as “a common, mutually perceived set of conditions that influence the members of the academic community”. This definition is the closest one to the dictionary meaning, yet, contains an important feature of being commonly shared and accepted by the members of the community. This addition indicates that these common rules have to be passed on within the community to be operational. Otherwise, nobody would know of their existence.

It is crucial to denote the complexity of a university structure. A modern university consists of various departments and involves a wide array of activities. In their paper Ermilova & Mashtakova (2016) enlist the most common spheres of the academic culture: education and research-related practices, academic writing and communications, professional training, academic management, supervision, student governments, unions, etc.

Therefore, the anatomy of a campus essentially involves the interaction of three major parties: students, management staff and the professors. Each of the three possesses a particular mission in terms of the academic environment. For students, it is to learn and to complete their tasks in time and with sufficient quality and in accord with the outline. For the professors, it is to supervise the educational process and to adjust the curriculum so that the learning objectives are achieved. However, the management's task is far more complex. Among other aspects, it includes issue and renewal of the syllabi, education means, and methods (Ermilova & Mashtakova, 2016).

The described sides of the educational process communicate via an established system. In that sense, students and professors obtain a new value as the representatives of the subculture. They may be addressed as the carriers of the university's academic culture core or a dynamic potential for its accumulation, transfer, and realization. (Oganyan and Khloptsov, 2018). However, again, the process of establishment, management, monitoring, and transformation is almost completely management's competency.

Another feature of the academic culture is as a means to reinforce the acknowledgement and status of the university. That affects by major account the ranking position of the organization. In modern world a higher rating directly affects the level attention of enrolees. The article “Quality in Contemporary University Environment” by the researches Markulik, Solc and Sutoova (2014) suggests that the student's perception of quality is formed by the following aspects of the educational process:

1. The acquisition of skills and knowledge at the present state of knowledge in the industry and thus the possibility of immediate employment of the graduates on the labor market.

2. Curriculum.

3. Learning processes.

4. Availability of teachers and information.

5. Administration and organization (study department, etc.)

6. Environment (classrooms, ergonomics).

Although, the academic environment is not a part of this list all of these items are parts of the academic culture of the university. Therefore, it is indispensable for the competitiveness of an organization.

Another vital characteristic of the academic environment to be examined in this chapter is the impulse to bring up the change. In the contemporary ambiance, the main driver of transformation is the process of globalization. According to the Cambridge Dictionary (n.d.) globalization is “the development of closer economic, cultural, and political relations among all the countries of the world as a result of travel and communication becoming easy”.

The connection between the university ambiance and globalization has been thoroughly researched by scholars. Globalization has posed challenges of a hitherto unknown nature to nation-states, and much of the seemingly recent, never-ending change in education is a corollary of these challenges (Singh & Papa, 2010). On the one hand, creating the obstacles for the educational system, globalization has led to the increased connection and cooperation between the universities providing them with the unlimited possibilities for development. Besides, it has led to the magnified interdisciplinarity and pushed the organizations to find solutions outside their niche. Another researcher of this subject, G. Moodie (2007) has addressed the globalization of economics as a driver for change in higher education. Globalization changes how universities operate and create more effective, efficient and accountable institutions (Meyer et al., 2011). For the factors described above, the transformation of the academic environment becomes a requirement that allows an organization not only to remain competitive but also to push it to development and prosperity.

Another rationale for an increasing amount of change communication uprise is due to the process of digitalization. In her article Tatiana Kuznetsova (2019) addressees the problem of digitalization of higher education. She reasons that it is a marker of digital society and digital culture's genesis. This argument may be easily observed in the example of HSE environment. A lot of digital resources are utilized there and are aimed at the optimization of the processes (LMS, ELK, etc.). For example, the recent transition to online due to the quarantine situation has shown that the universities who are flexible and obtain a certain capacity for mobility did not suffer the decay in productivity. An article written by Liudmila Mezentseva (2020) suggests that high-quality online courses can no longer be considered a mediocre instruction method. They advance students' skills and knowledge in the same way as in-person classes.

Because this study is conducted particularly on the example of the HSE university it seems necessary to characterize it before applying the business strategies of change introduction. An attempt to systematically classify the universities was presented by Dopson and McNay (1996). In their work dedicated to the academic culture, they have based the categorization on two major factors: policy definition and the control of implementation. The representation of a trait was estimated as either loose or tight. Basing on this framework, the research there were distinguished four types of academic cultures:

1. Collegium.Loose definition, loose control. Individuals have an influence on the proposals of change. Consensus-based (Pielmus, 2016).

2. Bureaucracy.Tight definition, loose control. Not necessarily based on clear-cut policies but rather on practical precedents. Consensus-based, yet, formalized (Pielmus, 2016).

3. Corporation.Loose definition, tight control. It provides better managerial control and efficiency. Working teams based (Pielmus, 2016).

4. Enterprise.Tight definition, tight control. The main aim is the balance between the practice and policies. Commercial goals oriented (Pielmus, 2016).

This classification depicts the importance of the academic culture in change introduction (CI). In its light, it becomes quite obvious that the means by which this process is carried out are to be shaped by the particular organizational framework to which the organization sticks. This research examines the HSE university which could be described as an enterprise.

Therefore, an academic environment as a terrain of change introduction is a complex notion. It implicitly involves various aspects of university operations, such as management, curriculum, learning process, professional training. Essentially, all of these notions may become objects of change. Furthermore, the stakeholders become the ultimate subjects of change because the organizational culture acts as the ideological glue connecting the stakeholders and the organization itself. Hence, a highly developed culture amplifies the competitiveness of the organization. The class of the university also seems to be important in the process of driving change since the initial incentives of the organization affect its structure. Taking into consideration all the above it becomes clear that modern realities dictate the constant urge for development in all the spheres of social life and education is no exception to the rule. While placing new challenges and creating certain obstacles, the global processes also provide higher education institutions with new possibilities for development and enhance collaboration both within the niche and outside it.

1.2 Understanding change and transition

The notion of change is central to this research. In the global context, this process is inevitable for any environment. Yet, usually, talking about change, people touch upon different things. To avoid any confusion, it is vital to separate the terms “change” and “transition”.

The fundamental distinction here lies in the fact that change is an external process. It focuses on structure, practices, schedules, technical details, etc. At the same time transition is an internal process. It is all about people. It is essentially a “psychological reorientation” that people go through in the process of accepting change (Bridges & Mitchell, 2000). The process of introducing change includes both the processes of change and transition.

Fortunately, both of these processes have been researched in-depth for many years now. This chapter aims to review existent knowledge on this subject aiming to get an objective understanding of the ways it may be approached.

The Cambridge Dictionary (n.d.) gives the following definition of change: “to make or become different”. However, this definition does not carry sufficient information that would allow understanding change.

The notion of change may be addressed as a creative act which “brings into existence processes that have not existed before” (Berman, 2017). Such an approach proposes to view the process of change introduction as something that requires a certain degree of creativity and is not bound by some fixed methodology. On the contrary, Kim Berman (2017) argues that change possesses certain “aesthetic” qualities which essentially turn its management into a creative activity.

It is important to mark here that the theory only suggests that there is no universal approach that would work in any circumstances. Therefore, the creative act here lies in adopting existent techniques, so they become applicable in particular circumstances.

In the academic setting, the reasons for bringing up change are dictated by various factors. Among others, the main drivers of change for a contemporary university are globalization, technology explosion, enrollment ascent, international competition, financial problems, and pressure for accountability (Nick, 2013). These challenges come from various spheres of social life and, therefore, shall be addressed accordingly. Some of them may be predicted and allow to prepare in advance while the rest not. Hence change may be segregated into several specific categories concerning its nature.

There are various types of change. It may be transitional, directional, fundamental, total, planned, happened, transformational, revolutionary, strategic, anticipatory or reactionary (Harigopal, 2006). The type of change depends on the circumstances in which it is brought. Yet, there is another variation that was proposed by Chandler and Chandler's (2013) -- an unpredictable change. The main distinctive point of it from all others is its circumstantial nature -- it is triggered by an emergent situation or crisis (Akinbode & Al Shuhumi, 2018). The proposed typology suggests that there are various sources for change to come from. The academic setting which is examined this particular paper by major account deals with the strategic, planned, reactionary, and unpredictable change.

Change introduction is an extremely complex procedure. The major challenge of creating an operating organizational change management model is due to the absence of a universal framework that would be applicable in any circumstances. However, essentially, the process of change introduction may be reduced to several key elements, which almost every model possesses -- the start of implementation, monitoring, and the final evaluation (Anyieni et al., 2016).

Therefore, the essence of the change manager's work is to find a framework or frameworks that would cover all the elements above and be applicable to the particular environment. This need for relevance in a particular environment creates a certain necessity for a preliminary study of a community towards which change is aimed.

Besides the structural complexity of change, it is also sophisticated in terms of human resources. The transformation process involves various groups: management, specialist departments (planning, organization design, data processing), and project groups (task forces, consulting). Each of the groups has a particular role in driving change (Gabele et al., 1981).

The names of the groups vary depending on the organization, but the essential roles remain the same. On the example of the HSE, the circle of transformational communication may be viewed in the following way. Management would include the visionaries who create the vision of change, specialist departments would be the ones who transmit the vision to its recipients (in most cases -- students), and the project groups would be the student councils who reflect the feedback on change from the students back to its managers.

The notion of leadership plays a significant role in change management. Administrators are agents of academic change, though they are not as frequently advocates of change as they are providers of an impetus to the reexamination of the academic program and the negotiators of compromises between interest groups (Conrad, 1978).

That means that the process of successful change introduction must not be based on a one-way communication model. Simple presentation of innovation as a fact which can only be accepted as given does not yield a desirable result. Conversations, interactions, discussions at meetings, the language used, the meanings conveyed through the language, and the emotions invested in the meanings are part of the context of the organization with continually changing dynamics (Taylor, 2018). Therefore, change managers have to foster and support feedback and open discussion in order to achieve their terminal goal which is successful CI.

One of the most important questions in organizational change management is to understand the circumstances under which the OCM model may be considered successful.

In contemporary research, it is a hot topic. The following advice may be suggested: “The OCM Model should be a formalized, well-defined and a high-priority part of overall transformation” (Riposo et al., 2013).

Another researcher of change management, Robert E. Levasseur (2010) outlines among others the following reasons why OCMs fail to achieve their goal:

1. Lack of top management support.

2. Failure to gain user commitment.

3. No process for controlling the change.

4. Failure to manage end-user expectations.

This advice plays a significant role in the process of evaluation of the current change management mechanism in an organization. It allows to observe and correct a model at the development stage to ensure its design is thorough and to exclude possible mistakes in the process of transition. In terms of this paper, it is a crucial intel that allows shaping data collection in a way that allows proper evaluation of the current state of HSE change management.

Considering all the above, change is an external and creative process that is aimed at bringing into existence practices that did not exist before. This process is inevitable and desired in any contemporary organization (Nick, 2013), including both business and education spheres. However, it includes transition, these two terms are quite often confused. The essential distinction between these lies in the fact that change happens to the organization and transition is the “psychological reorientation” of stakeholders (Bridges & Mitchell, 2000). There are various approaches to change management and due to its structural complexity and diverse typology, the essence of CM's work is to find or create an appropriate model that would be operable in particular circumstances. Moreover, communication and leadership play a paramount role in the introduction's success.

The problem of finding or creating a model that would be suitable for the particular circumstances in of paramount importance for any CM who intend to bring up change. This section aims to review the most popular change models in chronological order and to find ones that could be utilized in the academic environment.

The research of change communication may only be called a relatively new field. However, the challenges that demanded organizational transformation are not recently emerged. As was mentioned in the previous section, the model selection by major account depends on the particular type of change that has to be introduced. For example, the introduction of planned change is more likely to be carried out with Lewin's three-stage model (1951). This one is also considered a classic and fundamental approach to managing change (Cummings et al., 2016). Lewin described transformation basing it on the following steps:

1. Unfreezing current behavior (Anyieni et al., 2016).

2. Moving to the new behavior (Anyieni et al., 2016).

3. Refreezing the new behavior (Anyieni et al., 2016).

According to this model, the first stage involves planning, support building, motivation, preparing, and concern management. The second stage presupposes communication, action, and people's involvement. The third and the last stage suggests change implementation and its facilitation in the corporate culture. This model does not involve many steps, yet, each of them implies various subtasks and therefore is hard to comprehend and manage in comparison to the newer variations.

A more recent model is proposed by Bullock & Batten (1985). This model finds its use in various change types (Burnes, 1996). In their research change introduction addressed as a four-step process that involves:

1. Exploration.Search, contracting and awareness building.

2. Planning.Diagnosis, design and decision.

3. Action.Implementation and evaluation.

4. Integration.Stabilization, diffusion and renewal.

There is visible conformity with Lewin's model. However, the key contribution provided by this model is the division of the “Unfreezing” step into two separate stages. Thus, this model proposes that certain research is necessary before the action. Hence, it eliminates confusion between change phases and their associated processes (Burnes, 1996).

At this moment of investigation becomes clear a certain pattern towards the complexity of change models as they developed through time. The model devised by J. Kotter (1996) suggests the following eight-step process of introducing change:

1. Establishing a sense of urgency.

2. Creating a guiding coalition.

3. Developing a vision and strategy.

4. Communicating the change vision.

5. Empowering employees for broad-based action.

6. Generating short term wins.

7. Consolidating gains and producing more change.

8. Anchoring new approaches in the culture.

The initial operating mechanism of Kotter's model is the same as it was in Lewin's and Bullock & Batten's. In the research conducted by Appelbaum et al. (2012) the empirical grounds of Kotter's research became questioned. Having conducted research they concluded that in fact most of the steps have proved their use in practice. However, some particular limitations of the model were outlined as well. The model turned out to do not apply to any type of change (Apelbaum et al., 2012). Although, the detailed description and enhanced clarity of this model seem to provide a better capacity for control and universality which has a positive influence on its handling. These reasons justify the outstanding practical popularity of this model despite a certain degree of criticism.

There are also particular models created for better transition handling. Fortunately, this area is well-researched and provides a wide array of instruments for proper communication support of change introduction.

Fig. 1. Dr. Kьbler-Ross's change model.

The first model worth mentioning here is Dr. Kьbler-Ross's change curve presented by Dr. Kьbler-Ross's in her book “On Death and Dying” (1969). For visualization purposes, it is presented in figure 1.

In the research conducted by Daugrid and Spencer (1996) they denote that this theory was not devised in the organizational context, yet, many people started to see its applicability for change introduction (Kerney & Hyle, 2003). The change curve is designed to display the emotional stages that people pass in the process of accepting change. Almost corresponding with previously described Kotter's model, Kьbler-Ross's curve introduces seven stages of acceptance: shock, denial, frustration, depression, experiment, decision, integration; as may be visible from figure 1.

A research conducted by Kerney and Hyle (2003) has proven that grief reactions were clearly found for both the employees who had experienced change and those who anticipated it. Moreover, they justified its applicability for change management by the fact that “it points to what may be an important factor in understanding individual's resistance to change -- that of individual emotion” (Kerney & Hyle, 2003). Therefore, for a CM it is key to find a way to reinforce people's devotion to change in the moment of extreme depression and to find a suitable solution that would allow passing decay point as fast as possible.

The most likely way to ameliorate people's attitude towards change is through communication channeling. There are various communication models in contemporary research. However, one of the most popular is the Escalator Model proposed by Bill Quirke (2008). His research suggests that employees demand a certain degree of involvement and interaction. Therefore, a particular process or communication stage must correspond with the channel of communication that addresses specific objectives. Thereby, Quirke outlines five major degrees of intended change within an organization (fig. 2): awareness, understanding, support, involvement, and commitment. (Quirke, 2008). The principal idea behind the theory is to utilize more personal communication channels to create greater involvement of staff in the process of change communication. It reinforces the idea that leaders can focus on the team's individual cognitive and emotional dimensions of perceiving information (Opoku, 2016). Another important research in that field, conducted by Lashunda (2010). It considers various levels on which change occurs in an organization: individual change, change of organizational structures, direct change of the organizational climate (Anyieni et al., 2016). Such classification is also relevant in the process of the search for a suitable change model.

The last problem to be examined in this section is the applicability of business models in the academic environment. The reviewed models seem all be applicable for the use in the academic environment. However, the model, devised by J. Kotter (2008) seems to be most relevant to stick to in terms of this paper for two reasons.



Fig. 2. Bill Quirke's escalator model.

First, the results of a study conducted by Kang et. al. (2020) has shown that Kotter's eight steps function in higher education settings paves the way for greater engagement of both researchers and practitioners in settings that depend on stakeholders who possess high autonomy. The research also reviews several cases of successful change introduction with Kotter's model (Wentworth et al., 2018; Guzmбn et al. 2011). Second, as was explained above, this model is comprehensible and easy to control. Therefore, among change introduction models, Kotter's is the most applicable for the purpose of this research.

Concerning the models of leading transition, this research utilizes described models of Dr. Kьbler-Ross (1969) and Bill Quirke's escalator (2008) in combination to achieve a desirable quality of communication and to monitor the attitude along with the transformation.

Summing up all the above, the literature reviewed in this chapter provides a sufficient basis for the practical part of the research. The analysis of the literature outlines particular features of the academic environment and change communication as well as the major trends of its development.

The first observation considers the notion of the academic environment. In terms of this research, it may be defined as “the ideas and ways of working that are typical for an organization, and that affect how it does business and how its employees behave". Moreover, a student's perception of the education quality consists of their views on the separate aspects of the academic culture. There are two main impulses for transformation -- globalization, and digitalization. Overall, the educational institutions may be classified basing on two factors: policy definition and control of implementation that may be either tight or loose.

The second observation touches upon the notions of change and transition. It is important that these are two different processes. Transition is a psychological process, whereas change affects practices and structures. There are various types of change. The most common are strategic, planned, and unpredicted. Furthermore, change introduction is a complex process both in terms of human resources and operations. On the whole, communication plays a significant role in the process of change implementation and the job of a change manager is to select or create a model that will be successful.

The last observation covers the models for change introduction. All of the reviewed models share the feature of recurrence. It was found that the criteria that reflect the success of a model are opinion-based. Overall, all of the analyzed models were found applicable to the academic environment.



Chapter 2. Research methodology and analysis of the results

2.1 Methodology and research design

The methodological frame of this research is based on three major theories. One of them which has to be considered when analyzing the data in the quantitative part of the research is the critical theory by Jьrgen Habermas. The essential idea behind this theory is that the reality we live in is filled with hidden meanings since there is no way to prove that what a person says is unjustifiable. In other words, norms are justified rather than simply adopted (Gottlieb, 1981). This theory allows interpreting the answers of the respondents basing on the subtext meaning and the probable reasoning behind their answers.

The two other theories form the grounds for the qualitative part of the research. One of these is the theory of methodological individualism. Since this work operates on the data from the online poll, each particular respondent's answer has to be addressed separately. The reason for this is the presupposition that there is no such thing as a collective personality, or actor (Udehn, 2002). This idea is reinforced by the last theory by Douglas North (1993). His rational choice theory suggests that “if individuals have different theories to explain the world around them, they will make different `rational' choices”. This proposition also shapes the way a qualitative approach to data analysis is carried out in this paper. Essentially, if the majority of the group acts in a particular way that means that the supremacy of individuals within this group believes that it is in their interest, or, in terms of this paper, that it is true or false.

Therefore, the methodological frame of this research may be divided into two parts. The quantitative part of the study is shaped by the theory of methodological individualism by Jьrgen Habermas (Udehn, 2002). The qualitative part is framed by rational choice and methodological individualism theories of Douglas North (1993). Overall, the answers of the respondents are addressed as a combination of separate responds and it is implied that the generalized interpretation is based on the summary of these individual response.

This research is rather small-scaled. It is based on the online survey conducted among the NRU HSE student community with random sampling. The spread of the research was natural and was mostly aimed at the students of the School of Foreign Languages. However, there is no authentic information considering the fact if the respondents were only students of SoFL. It is so, since the link could be shared to the other faculties' students of HSE university.

Hence, it could be a probable limitation of the research's outcome applicability since the attitude towards change as the practices of its introduction may vary among different faculties.

Another possible limitation could appear due to the fact that a third of the questions offered to students in the questionnaire were True/False based. The reason there could be a certain degree of error is that some of these questions did not provide an example which could be a reference for the respondent. That could have affected the percentage of the respondents who have chosen the variant “not sure”. Nevertheless, these answers were analyzed as well. Hence, it is rather controversial if the presence of this option affected the precision in a positive or a negative way.

This paper aims to gather data about HSE students' attitudes towards change communication in the academic setting. Among that, it seeks to find out if there is an existent correlation between students' awareness about change and their academic performance. A mixed approach is chosen because the paper concentrates on both attitude-based evaluation of the current communication model used in NRU HSE to introduce change and on statistical research of change awareness importance for the academic performance of the students. The strategy of approach was chosen to be concurrent since there is no practical goal to explain the findings of the qualitative part with these of the quantitative part or vice versa.

The aim of the quantitative part is to find out if there is a correlation between the overall awareness about the upcoming change and student's academic performance. To execute this a linear regression analysis was chosen. As an independent variable (x1) was taken from the question 24 of the poll where students were asked to select their overall degree of awareness concerning the upcoming change. As a dependent variable (y) the GPA of the student was taken from the poll's question 4. The control variable (x2) is also necessary since it adds to the accuracy of the model. For the aim of the research, it was decided that the level of attendance may affect both the predictor (x1) and effect (y) variables. The reason for this is that the students who attend university more often may be more aware of the upcoming change and have a higher GPA. The mathematic formula for the linear regression is:y = bx + a + E, where

y -- dependent variable.

x -- dependent variable.

a -- Y-intercept, which is a value of y when all x variables are equal to 0.

b -- A slope of a regression line.

E -- is a random error term. Basically, it is the difference between the actual and predicted value of a predicted variable.

However, the software used for calculation (MS Excel) calculates error automatically. These calculations are carried out with the least squares method to seek a and b coefficients. Therefore, the final regression equation looks the following way:y = b0 + b1*x1 +b2*x2, or GPA = b0 + b1*Awareness + b2*Attendance.

The aim of the quantitative part is to measure and analyze the attitude of the students towards change, assess the current communication strategy, and see if some methodological recommendations may be drawn to improve the current communication model basing on the theory reviewed in the second chapter of this research. The data from both the poll and expert interviews are to be subjected to the qualitative content analysis. The reason for this choice is that QCA allows precise evaluation of the attitude of the participants by marking the answers as either positive or negative feedback/attitude. Such an approach seems to be the best suitable to answer the research questions this work puts forward.

Data collection methods that were used in this research are a questionnaire and the expert interview. The poll creates a basis for both qualitative and quantitative parts of the research and the expert interview is used to find out what is the current strategy that is used by university management to introduce change.

For the purpose of the research, a poll that consists of 28 questions was spread among the students of the School of Foreign Languages at the NRU HSE. Thirteen of these questions were multiple-choice questions, three of which were used to gather general information about the respondents. The rest ten questions offered students to grade their attitude or the degree of agreement with the statement basing the choice on a Likert scale (where 1 -- completely disagree, 2 -- disagree, 3 -- Not sure, 4 -- agree, 5 -- completely agree). Three questions were open. Thus, some opinion was necessary to be provided (e.g. question 27, see table 1). Twelve questions were true/false/not sure types of questions where the respondents were asked to provide their opinion concerning the relevance of the statement to the HSE academic environment or their personal experience with change.

All the questions were compulsory to complete the survey except for question 28 where students were given an opportunity to leave their contact information to receive the results of the study. The list of the poll questions may be seen in table 1, where the left column contains the list of questions and the right one contains the type of the question (MC -- multiple-choice, O -- open, T/F -- true/false):

Table 1. The poll questions and its types.

1. Please, select your current year of study.	MC
2. Tick your gender.	MC
3. What percentage of classes do you attend?	MC
4. Please type in your GPA.	O
5. I believe change is a necessary process.	T/F
6. I feel comfortable thinking about the upcoming change.	T/F
7. I feel comfortable discussing change with my peers.	T/F
8. It is easy for me to adapt to change.	T/F
9. I face change often in my everyday life.	T/F
10. I find adaptivity to change an important skill.	T/F
11. I find HSE environment change-oriented.	T/F
12. I feel comfortable discussing change with the administration (study office, department management).	T/F
13. I may ask for a clarification about change at the study office.	T/F
14. Change introduction at HSE is supported by the department management (academic supervisor, department head, study office).	T/F
15. HSE management ENSURES students are notified about the upcoming change.	T/F
16. HSE management notifies about change in advance.	T/F
17. I feel comfortable about the change of professor.	MC
18. I feel comfortable about the change in schedule.	MC
19. I feel comfortable about the change in the exam format.	MC
20. I feel comfortable about the change in syllabus (new courses, grading system, etc.).	MC
21. I feel comfortable about the change of study format (online/offline).	MC
22. I feel comfortable about the change of the study environment (classrooms, ergonomics).	MC
23. For me, the most convenient way to be notified about the academic change is via…	MC
24. I am always aware about the upcoming change.	MC
25. Concerning my feelings towards the switch to online classes due to CoVid-19, I'm currently at the stage of…	MC
26. I tend to make plans for…	MC
27. In terms of career perspective, how often are you ready to experience a change in the workplace?	O
28. Contact information (optional).	O



For the sake of coherence, the poll may be divided into four sections. The first one (questions 1-4) was aimed to gather statistical information about the respondents. The second one (questions 5 -10) covered the overall attitude and feelings of the respondent about change (as a concept). The third one (questions 11-23) contained questions about the change in HSE academic environment (as a practice). The last section (questions 24-28) considered how students evaluate their skill of adaptivity to change. This section was followed by optional question 28 which allowed to leave contact information.

The poll was spread among the students of different grades via social networks. The feedback gained recognition and was shared further by the students themselves which contributed to the randomness of sampling. The questions were the same for all the students and did not vary depending on their grade/gender/GPA or other features.

The results were analyzed and interpreted with content analysis. The findings are organized in order of relevance and some probable links were drawn where seemed necessary to improve the precision of the interpretation.

An expert interview was conducted to find out the administration's view on change communication among department management. The initial impulse to utilize this method was dictated by the necessity to gain expertise in the current model of change introduction within the School of Foreign Languages concerning several aspects of it. For the sake of coherence, the following aims of the expert interview were formulated:

1. To form an exhaustive understanding of how change communication is carried out at the School of Foreign Languages.

2. Check if there are some restraints that could affect this process in a negative way.

3. To find out if the perception of change communication is the same from the perspectives of both the administration and the students.

The interview was conducted with a fixed set of questions which neither were changed during the interview nor were different for each respondent. The questions formulated in accord with the literature that was reviewed in the previous chapter. A fixed poll of questions was created to answer the specific question and to cover the specific aspects of the academic culture which are presented above. The list of the questions consisted of nine questions. They are presented in table 2:

Table 2. Expert interview questions.

1. How the process of institutional change is organized at the School of Foreign Languages?
2. What part of academic environment tends to change more often (curriculum, learning process, teachers/professors, physical environment)?
3. What type of change occurs more often in HSE academic environment (planned, unpredictable, transformational, revolutionary, strategic, or reactionary)? ...

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