Organizational Change Management for Sustainability in Higher Education Institutions: A Systematic Quantitative Literature Review

Abstract

Higher education institutions (HEIs) have been urged to integrate sustainability across all their structural and organizational dimensions. A promising area of research and practice that can help to deliver this is organizational change management for sustainability. While this field has received increasing attention over the past decade, a comprehensive assessment is still lacking. Therefore, a systematic quantitative review was carried out to summarize and synthesize the academic literature on organizational change management approaches that aim to holistically embed sustainability in HEIs. Furthermore, this review aims to illustrate what change factors have been observed and how they have been analyzed, and from this highlight implications for practice and pathways for future research. The literature reviewed puts strong emphasis on change processes and human factors, as well as elements of the institutional framework, such as vision and strategy. The findings highlight the value of strategic and reflective actions, the importance of understanding and actively shaping change processes, and that change towards sustainability requires broad stakeholder input and commitment. This review serves as an important reference point for future research and practice.

Governance in the implementation of the UN sustainable development goals in higher education: global trends

“…Figure 2 illustrates the landscape of key concepts the researchers discovered when studying HEIs' governance in implementing the SDGs, which was achieved through the co-occurrence analysis performed on VOSviewer software. The output data generated a network graph consisting of four clusters that represent the main research strands of governance, such as managerial processes and policies (Paletta & Bonoli, 2019 ), how universities assemble internal resources to implement green campus operations—since the green campus is one of the aspects deriving from governance, how they are implementing sustainability into their educational systems such as teaching and learning, research, and services to the community, as well as how they are contributing to the UN 2030 SD Agenda (Blanco-Portela et al, 2017 ; Rieg et al, 2021 ). The analysis shows that managerial processes and issues related to integrating sustainability into the education system have received more attention.…”

“…Therefore, this cluster embraces these terms: management, transformation, growth, systems, future, technology, business model, and social innovation. This construct is highly reputed in the literature, which explores the drivers and barriers that could foster or hamper HEIs in their journey of shifting management processes toward sustainability (Blanco-Portela et al, 2017 ; Mader et al, 2013 ; Rieg et al, 2021 ). Also, management includes the proposal of appropriate methods, like the Supplier, Input, Process, Output, and Customer (SIPOC), which intends to analyze these issues at universities and understand how to align HEIs' strategies and policies with the SDGs (Fleacă et al, 2018 ).…”

“…Many studies indicate that university management or leadership decides the priorities of activities to be initiated and followed through on campus (Mader et al, 2013 ; Rieg et al, 2021 ; Stephens & Graham, 2010 ). Furthermore, leaders at HEIs are crucial to initiating and promoting the university's continuous support for a wide range of activities and guaranteeing their success.…”

Regulatory overlap: A systematic quantitative literature review

“…It allows “researchers to identify what is known about a topic, as well as highlighting areas where further research is needed” (Thomson et al, 2020). An SQLR differs to a traditional literature review in that it (as far as possible) eliminates the discretion of the researcher (except in determining the search terms) and instead considers all aspects of the literature including dates, jurisdiction, and “change factors” identified (Rieg et al, 2021). Therefore, an SQLR is an important research method, particularly in providing support for decision‐makers to articulate policy priorities through evidence‐based research (Pickering et al, 2015).…”

Organizational Change: The Challenge of Change Aversion

“…Ultimately, organizational change initiatives are common and essential pivotal moments enabling businesses to adjust and maintain their competitiveness within a dynamic, flexible, and continuously evolving environment. Organizational change processes have been studied for decades (Hubbart 2023;Jabri and Jabri 2022;Kolbergyt ė and Dromantait ė 2022;Manning 2012;Rieg et al 2021;Tichy 1983;Todnem 2005;Vlachopoulos 2021), and many tools exist to assist in deliberate approaches to yield optimal outcomes (Kearney and Hyle 2006;Kotter 2012;Peters and Waterman 2011;Sarayreh et al 2013;Tang 2019). However, challenges will always exist because there can be a great deal of organizational variability, including employee resistance (aversion), during these moments.…”