Download or read book A Multi-Site Case Study of the Alignment of Institutional Change Strategies and Culture for Guided Pathways Reform Implementation in California Community Colleges written by Jeffrey D. Archibald and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The guided pathways reform movement promises to redesign community colleges to improve student achievement by restructuring students' journeys through an institution. As colleges implement these reforms, they must engage an overworked faculty fatigued by change initiatives that have been implemented with varying degrees of faculty participation and success. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the alignment between the strategies used to implement guided pathways-based organizational change and faculty engagement in guided pathways reform initiatives within the organizational culture of two California community colleges with the goal to understand the role of organizational culture in transformational change and identify best practices in faculty engagement. This study was guided by an overarching research question and two subquestions. The overarching research question was: How has the alignment of organizational change strategies and the organizational culture of two California community colleges selected to participate in the national implementation of guided pathways influenced faculty participation in the reforms and the success of the implementation? The subquestions were: 1. How have the community colleges involved their faculty members in the organizational change initiative? 2. How have the community colleges' organizational strategies to implement guided pathways-based change aligned with their organizational cultures? Data were collected using one-on-one, semi-structured interviews, artifact analysis, and observations. The findings derived from analysis of the two cases included: (a) the design of the implementation had a significant impact on the process, (b) cultural factors at each site strongly impacted the implementation, (c) resistance to change emerged at each campus, (d) centering of the student experience was crucial to advancing implementation, and (e) building and sustaining momentum was important for each college. The study found that both cases utilized implementation strategies for guided pathways that were congruent with their organizational cultures and encouraged faculty participation. The study confirmed that transformational change such as guided pathways that seeks to reform community colleges requires significant faculty participation and leadership to have any chance of success. Keywords: guided pathways, community college, organizational culture, organizational change, faculty