1. Alternative Identification:
The Search for Stability
in the Context of Change
By Ashley Sokia

2. EMT
• Environment of Change
• Role of identification during change
• “Retroactive” and “Unrequited” ID
• Implications of new identity
• Recommendations

3. Levels of Change
• National
• Institutional
• Divisional

4. U.S. Demographic Changes
“Knocking at the College Door.” Boulder: Western Interstate Commission for Higher
Education, 2013. Web. 16 July 2014.

5. U.S. Demographic Changes
“Knocking at the College Door.” Boulder: Western Interstate Commission for Higher
Education, 2013. Web. 16 July 2014.

6. U.S. Demographic Changes
“Undergraduate enrollment at private colleges
increased 38% over the past eight years…
…Over the next eight years it will increase only
10%.”
“Trends for 2014.” Eden Prairie. The Lawlor Group, 2014. Web. 16 July 2014.

7. Alternative Identification
The college has established stability through
“retroactive” identification with past
leadership, structure, and culture and
“unrequited” identification with enrollment
goals.

8. • Identity offers stability during change
• Change/stability dialectic
• Staff’s identification to the College
• Cliques and resistance
Identification/Identity Theory

9. “Retroactive” Identification
• “Old School” Bureaucracy
• Post-Traumatic Leadership Disorder
(PTLD)
• Effect of PTLD on team

10. “Unrequited” Identification
• Enrollment goals=numbers
• Common ground in uncertainty
• Inherit ambiguity
• Reinforced by institution

11. Implications of New Identities
• Focus on mission, not vision
• False unity within the team
• Lack of interpersonal relationships

12. Recommendations
• Purpose of change
• Collaborative vision
• Team narrative