Grief Stages and Organizational Change in Education

Introduction

Organizational change is not typically examined by investigating the emotions of members. The Kearney and Hyle (2003) research seeks to show that successful organizational change must take into account emotional issues like loss and grief. By applying Kübler-Ross's stages of grief model to educational institutions, the researchers suggest how organizations can better prepare for and execute change more effectively.

The purpose of the Kearney and Hyle (2003) study is to examine organizational change in terms of individual emotional experiences with change and loss. The researchers apply Kübler-Ross's stages of grief to the individual members of an organization experiencing change. Because of the authors' interest in change within educational institutions, the study focuses on applying the Kübler-Ross theory to organizational change in an educational setting. It is hypothesized that unsuccessful organizational changes fail to account for the individual stakeholders and their emotional states during the upheaval. The authors suggest that taking into account the stages of grief might help organizations undergo changes more effectively. Leadership styles and other management issues are pertinent, but so too are the personal experiences of the organization's members.

Methods

The research was conducted at a technology training school in a rural area of the American Southwest. The school had recently undergone a change in leadership, and the new leader was proposing radical transformations to the organizational culture — both in terms of philosophies and practices.

Theoretical Framework

Kearney and Hyle (2003) used unstructured interviews to collect data, as well as emotional checklists. The data collection process lasted eight weeks, after which the data was analyzed by reviewing the checklists and tagging for keywords in the interviews. Follow-up interviews were also conducted.

Kübler-Ross developed the stages of grief model in relation to death and dying. The model helps psychologists and social workers address some of the common experiences of grief by helping clients recognize core emotional and cognitive issues. Although the Kübler-Ross model presents stages of grief, those stages are not linear, hierarchical, or chronological in nature. Rather, the stages may overlap and coexist, and grievers will sometimes move back and forth between them. The stages of grief include denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

Prior literature has shown that each of these stages may be relevant in organizational change, which can be viewed as a type of loss or death. Denial is a common response, and one that can be considered healthy and adaptive because it buffers the employee from the immediacy of shock. More problematic concerns include anger and resentment, which can be counterproductive in organizations. By paying closer attention to employees, leaders can encourage feedback and foster dialogue that will empower employees and help diffuse and dissipate anger. Depression can and should be dealt with in a similar fashion. Bargaining can also hinder effective organizational change, as bargaining generally suggests a weakening of the core values driving the change.

Conclusion

The death and dying model applies well to organizational change, because all change entails some degree of shock and loss, which in turn evoke emotional responses. Those emotional responses impact productivity and other measurable employee variables like job satisfaction or trust in the organization's leadership, culture, or hierarchy. The theoretical framework highlights the empirical importance of emotional processing when advising or guiding organizations through major structural or philosophical changes.