Abstract

Organisational change is often approached with trepidation by those who are leading the change and those who are affected by the change. Change is a challenging time as it often requires an in-depth review of existing capabilities, capacities, functions, processes and ways of working. And this in turn can bring about a resistance within a team due to a fear of the unknown, a possible lack of clarity about the benefits and purpose of the change, miscommunication, change fatigue, and other complexities.

However, by adopting a proactive mindset and fostering an empowering environment, organisational change can provide an incredible opportunity for growth, sustainability, improvement, stability and innovation. In the past two to three years, a number of strategic changes occurred in the Research Portfolio at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. These included changes in the Leadership Team, a new research strategy, a redefined research ecosystem and new areas of research focus. For Swinburne Research Services this also included more staff turnover – a lingering result of COVID-19. This provided the perfect opportunity to reimagine Research Services as a whole and more specifically how we provide grant development, pre-award, post-award and contractual support to our research community and internal and external partners. We embarked on an authentic co-designed journey to refresh our structure, culture and functionality, guided by principles based on inclusivity, integrity, accountability, collaboration, agility, timeliness and excellence.

The case study we present will take the audience on our approximately six-month journey and showcase our successes, challenges, learnings and next steps. It will also provide a framework for co-designed organisational change.