A Review of the Process Change Effort and an Exploration of the Prospects for Continuation of the Change Process in the Registrar's Office at the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine

The management of change in an organizational setting can be very challenging. Kotter (1996, p.91) posited that while the change and transformation process "have gone under many banners: total quality management, reengineering, right sizing, restructuring, cultural change, and turnaround" a large percentage of change or transformation efforts failed. Some of the reasons for failure could be the conflict associated with the approach to the change management process, the choice of the consultant to facilitate the process and resistance to change by the persons involved in the process.In an attempt at process change in the Registry at the University of the West Indies, the Campus Registrar invited key members of staff to a weekend retreat in the sister isle. However, evidence from the data presented showed that the change process began without some participants understanding what was about to take place. Most of the key participants as well complained that the facilitator, an external consultant, did not understand the climate of a higher education institution and as such did not use an approach that they were comfortable with. Because of the conflict created by the above, the change process eventually came to a premature end. In this paper, taking into account the views of the managers of the various sections of the Registry, I will review the effort and explore the prospects for continuation of the change process.