Creating a Climate for Change: Critical Reflection and Organisations

By:
Ms Fiona Gardner
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An organization can be thought of as both an entity in itself with its own culture and as a collection of individual workers teams and clients constantly creating the culture through their interactions. Cultural change can come from many directions: the environment or context, from individual workers, teams or clients. This paper/workshop explores the use of critical reflection in generating change in organizations. Critical reflection is a theoretical approach and a process for analysing and changing practice. Using critical incidents, workers can identify their own assumptions and values and those of their organization. The process can then enable workers to develop new ways of perceiving and acting in their practice and/or their organization. This can in turn lead to changes in organisational culture. I will demonstrate the process though asking participants to work through a critical incident of mine. I will also provide data about the kinds of changes resulting from workshops for participants and some case studies of how participants see themselves as generating change in organizational culture.


Keywords: Critical Reflection, Reflective Practice, Culture and Change
Stream: Change
Presentation Type: 60 minute Workshop Presentation in English
Paper: Creating a Climate for Change

Ms Fiona Gardner

Senior Lecturer, Centre for Professional Development, LaTrobe University
AUSTRALIA

My background is in social work with over twenty years of experience in a variety of government and voluntary organizations. My roles included direct service, management, research and policy development all of which fostered a continuing interest in organizations and how they operate. From 1996 for eight years, I managed and taught in the Social Work Department at LaTrobe University in Bendigo which developed my interest in ongoing learning for students and practitioners. This was reinforced by my current role at the Centre for Professional Development running workshops for health and human service professionals using critical reflection an approach that enables workers and organizations to change. These interests are reflected in my current writing and research: Working with Human Service Organisations published recently by Oxford University Press and being one of the editors of “Critical Reflection and Professional Practice’ to be published in 2006.

Ref: M06P0172