Successful Digital Change in Swiss Higher Education Institutions

Topic
The digital transformation prompts in Swiss higher education institutions a need for successful change processes. Management literature focussing on success conditions in the higher education context are scarce. One model available is the organization-sensitive “model of collective change” for  German higher education institutions developed by Graf-Schlattmann et al. (2021). This whitepaper explores the applicability of this model for the Swiss context with industry experts, outlines missing conditions and proposes an adapted model. Moreover, current measures fostering digital change of Swiss universities are presented.

Relevance
Amplified by the high pace of innovation and significant financial resources dedicated to digital transformation, universities face substantial pressure to reshape value creation. To master this change successfully, it is crucial to consider the unique organizational characteristics of universities, such as double hierarchy and high autonomy. This suggests a change management model specifically designed for the higher education landscape. The model, used as a management tool, offers guidance when planning, aligning, and implementing measures by providing direction and outlining opportunities. This can help to avoid biases, misalignments and planning errors in the digital change process.

Results
The findings of this work demonstrate that the change model of Graf-Schlattmann et al. (2021) can be largely transferred to the Swiss context. Moreover, an additional success factor that fosters successful digital change is identified. It is called “change need” and encompasses to action fields, namely “self-reflection” and “trendspotting”. These areas aim to prepare, support, and guide the necessary self-reflection by creating space for it. Practical ways of tackling these action fields are outlined. All findings result in an adjusted “Model of Collective Change for CH-HEIs”.

Implications for practitioners
• Consider that successful digital change encompasses a bundle of action variables that need to be constantly aligned within the extraordinary fields of tensions of higher education organizations.

• Use the “Model of Collective Change for CH-HEIs” as a guiding framework and derive a management tool adapted to the specific needs and conditions.

• The creation of a dedicated role, such as a digital networker or a digital board, is advisable. Their responsibility spans beyond networking and includes the identification, prioritization and organization of trends and needs.

• At a national level, swissuniversities should guide and support universities in their self-reflection processes with a suitable instrument such as a national assessment tool or a vessel in which universities can assess themselves or individual products.

Methods
Industry experts were interviewed to investigate on the applicability of the model. The selection based on multiple criteria, including the type, size and location of the university, available information on digitalization, and gender and position of the experts. The interviews followed a qualitative semi-structured approach, guided by existing literature. To ensure confidentiality and allow in-depth insights, the interviews were anonymized. For data analysis a pattern matching approach was employed which included deductive and inductive coding. The purpose of these coding techniques was to gain comprehensive insights and identify meaningful patterns in the data. The observations resulted in an adjusted “Model of Collective Change for CH-HEIs”.