Psychosocial Hazard Snapshot: Poor Organisational Change Management

As anyone that has been in schools for any length of time knows, we love a good change, and we’re happy to go all-in on a new way of working or trend if we think it will benefit the students. Instructional models, ways of reporting, whole school positive behaviour and behaviour response protocols, school structures as communities grow or decline – the question is never ‘is there change in my school at the moment?’ but ‘what are we changing now?’

While this has long been the status-quo in schools, it turns out that poorly managed change is not just painful to be part of, it’s also a psychosocial hazard – it’s not good for the people involved. Poor change management typically shows up as limited consultation before decisions are finalised, unclear timelines, ambiguous role changes, and inadequate support during transition. On top of what we are already managing in schools (high workload, high emotional demands, poor role clarity) it also erodes people’s sense of agency, which isn’t good for us either.

The TL:DR summary: change processes need to be well planned and executed to be considered safe.

References:

SafeWork NSW’s Code of Practice: Managing psychosocial hazards at work. https://www.safework.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/983353/Code-of-Practice_Managing-psychosocial-hazards.pdf