Change Management Communication in University: Factors Affecting Students' Perception of Changes

The purpose of this study was to identify factors affecting students’ perception of changes at universities (the empirical base was the Higher School of Economics). A university is a dynamically developing structure that is subject to regular changes, and communication support of changes is crucial for internal stakeholders to accept these changes. The subjectivity of students in the scientific community is not defined – the metaphor “student-consumer” dominates now to explain student-university relationship, however, in recent years, researchers have proposed alternative concepts of co-creation to define these relations. An incorrect understanding of these relations can lead to organizational problems, including the implementation of changes. Based on the concept of co-creation, as well as studies that emphasize the importance of change agents and organizational identification, the study examined the influence of these factors in academic context using experimental design. The survey experiment was attended by 403 students of the Higher School of Economics of Baccalaureate and Magistracy of all courses and faculties. Respondents at the beginning of the questionnaire answered a number of questions determining the level of organizational identification, then, in the first part of the experiment, they randomly received information about potential change with different indication of change agents (student council, rector, HSE administration and control group without initiator), in the second part – respondents randomly received a message inviting them to take part in the discussion of changes or just a notification about the modifications introduced. The results showed that the co-creation factor positively affects the respondents' estimates of the proposed changes, there is a connection between organizational identification and the perception of the changes, and the change agents on the case of the Higher School of Economics do not affect the estimates of the changes. As practical recommendations, it was proposed to use the concept of co-creation in building the communication strategy of the university, as well as the development of internal ambassadorship in order to create internal influencers in the process of implementing changes.