Improving the work climate in a TVET college through changing conversations
Abstract
As an HRD manager in a college, I am responsible for employee wellness
within the organisation. However the culture of the college in which I
work is toxic, characterised by bullying, destructive leadership, gossip and
victimisation. Such a culture is difficult to change and requires a different
approach to the expert-led, training interventions that are underpinned by
diagnostic organisational development. In this article, I provide evidence that
supports my claim that a participatory action research approach, embedded
within a dialogic organisational development paradigm, succeeded in
improving the work climate as it enabled individuals to identify the factors
which contributed to the toxic environment and take action to improve it.
The participatory methods employed allowed the x participating college
mangers to deal with their own feelings, and enabled them to describe
and evaluate the workplace climate as toxic. Armed with a discourse to
discuss the problem, they were able to move from helplessness and selfblame
to acceptance of responsibility for change. Viewing the problem as
a systemic issue enabled them to understand how to modify their practice
to embody life-enhancing values that diminished the toxic patterns of
communication. By changing conversations, negativity was diminished and
negative interactions were replaced by more positive workplace relations.
The process described in this account of my learning may be useful to
improve the climate in other similarly toxic workplaces.
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- Faculty of Education [756]