“…These limitations have prompted other writers to call for a broader range of organisational perspectives to be deployed in devising governance arrangements in higher education that more accurately reflect the nature of organisational life in higher education and how it responds to complexity of changes that are occurring at both local and global level. To do that, they suggest that current rational systems theories that emphasise alignment of higher education with the needs of the external environment must be combined with others that focus more on the core work of HEIs, with the human dynamics involved in that work and how such work brings about institutional change (Bastedo, 2012;Bolman & Gallos, 2011;Frølich et al, 2013;Kezar, 2013a;Kezar et al, 2006;Manning, 2013;Marginson, 2006;Scott, 2015). As Marginson puts it, any alternative theorisation should be capable of addressing the many changes that are happening in the field of higher education and society but equally importantly, 'its own varying, inner capacity for self-alteration ' (2006, p.45 ) Following this reasoning, we point to an alternative emergent paradigm of organisational dynamics to the current rational model and outline how it reframes discussions on strategy and change leadership in higher education.…”