Change Projects | Organizational Change

All degree students in the Center for Creative Change conduct a capstone change project in an organization or community. Change projects enable students to integrate ideas studied in the classroom with real-world experiences of social change.

These student change projects cover a range of issues and approach them in many different ways. Here are examples of student change projects on organizational change: 

City of Tacoma Telecommuting Study

Bill Smith (Environment and Community) worked with the City manager and senior management team to design and implement a telecommuting study to quantify the reduction in vehicle miles traveled resulting from employees telecommuting one, two or three days per week. In addition, through the use of surveys and interviews with telecommuters and their supervisors, he documented changes in morale and productivity. His study will inform revisions to the City's telecommuting policy in response to the 2004 U.S. Mayor's Climate Protection Act.

Developing a Nonprofit's Transition Plan

Brian Finnila and McKenna Lang (Organizational Psychology) worked with a Washington state social service nonprofit to develop a transition plan for the organization. The pair worked with the agency's director to create an organizational chart, sound job descriptions and a document describing healthy workplace policies.

Recruiting and Retention Strategies Include Telecommuting

Kristin Devlin (Organizational Psychology) partnered with the Naval Facilities Engineering Command's (NAVFAC) Northwest division. With her understanding of recruiting and retention strategies for younger employees, she worked with NAVFAC's leadership team to build a telecommuting program that would entice a younger population to work for the civil service group.

Collaborative Approach Brings Success

Molly Breysee-Cox (Organizational Psychology) partnered with the Rural Development Institute for their Second International Women's Day Event and Luncheon. As a member of the event planning committee, she supported fund-raising activities and
also worked to capitalize the group's resources, enabling collaboration throughout their planning process.

Sifting Through Institutional Layers Brings Perspective and Direction

Robert A. Cantillo (Management) worked with the Nitartha Institute, an educational nonprofit dedicated to preserving the study and practice of traditional Tibetan Buddhism, to create a project that would enable a holistic approach to observing, understanding and engaging an organization from both a structural and cultural perspective. While the organization was in the early stages of significant transition, he sifted through institutional layers to discuss challenges and to illuminate collectively on the history and working relationships of the organization.

From Plan to Reality: An Operations Strategy for the
Pacific Northwest Salmon Center

Michael DeBlasi (Management), Deirdre Duffy
(Whole Systems Design and Organizational Psychology),
Karna Humphrey (Environment and Community) and
Sue Patnude (Management). This multi-disciplinary team joined together with the Pacific Northwest Salmon Center (PNWSC) to design and implement a timeline of activities leading up to the PNWSC opening day. The project included establishing a steering committee for activities, programs, education and research for opening day and beyond. The team utilized strategic planning processes to promote organizational awareness and involved a number of stakeholders. The project connected these issues to the mission of PNWSC and fostered a sustainable organization and its sense of place within the community.

Employee Engagement and Role Perception: How Role Perception Influences Operational Objectives

Vivian Phillips Husband (Management) deepened her work with PEMCO Mutual Insurance Company's customer service department by addressing business practices that contributed to the perception that roles within the service center were not viable career options. Serving as a facilitator and coordinator of conversations to explore the drivers of employee satisfaction, she began to change these perceptions by directly involving and collaborating with service center employees.

Organizational Learning: Facilitating an Engaging Sub-culture

What factors increase engagement and participation in teams and lead to improved organizational performance? Rachel Cecka (Organizational Psychology) partnered with hospital clinical managers to develop and implement interventions aimed at answering this question.

Reframing Resistance – From Roadblock to Reflection

Leah Colson (Organizational Psychology) collaborated with a local business to learn how reframing resistance can affect organizational change. To accomplish this, she conducted interviews and provided coaching service. Her findings allowed her to develop a new model for understanding and working with resistance to change in organizations.

Collaborative Organizational Change From the Bottom Up

Lori Danielson (Whole Systems Design) worked on a team with the Army Corps of Engineers to reduce the environmental effects of the use of electronic equipment. Without a position of formal authority within the organization, she relied on collaboration and engaged others to change their everyday work practices, thereby achieving organizational change from the bottom up.

Resistance to Change: Necessary Evil or Angel in Disguise?

Ed Ferrigan (Organizational Psychology) assisted the staff of a young organization to form a collaborative team to improve communications. From this experience, Ferrigan learned how to acknowledge and minimize individual resistance to change in an organization.

Organizational Sustainability and Community

Sarah Kennedy (Environment and Community) worked with a struggling, Portland-based nonprofit feminist bookstore called "In Other Words" to create a plan for it to become sustainable. While exploring ways to ensure the organization's viability, Kennedy found a remarkable correlation between the local community's commitment to the bookstore and its ongoing sustainability.

Revitalizing Workspace in the Midst of Dramatic Organizational Change

Leanna Mix (Organizational Psychology) worked with the local branch of a global manufacturing company to renovate physical workspaces and build a new customer-interaction site. She explored these processes, as well as the group dynamics associated with a company that experienced post-acquisition challenges.

Planning for Uncertain Futures

How do organizations that work with traumatized clients talk about the future? Sarah Murphy-Kangas (Organizational Psychology) designed and facilitated a strategic planning process with a local nonprofit group that provides services to street youth. From her work, she learned how their trauma impacts the group's processes and organizational culture and how groups like this can look toward the future together.

Organizational Development Consultant: Being Changed by
Serving Others

Masha Pozen (Organizational Psychology) collaborated with a small nonprofit organization. She helped create its vision and mission statements, decide on individual roles and responsibilities and conduct a mediation session between two conflicting parties. Her experience taught her that as an organizational development consultant she was changed by serving others.

Virtual Team Technology – A Tool for Transformative
Organizational Change?

Globalization is driving economic integration and interdependency among nations, corporations and the nonprofit sector. New virtual team technologies are available to help organizations and teams become more effective, even when they are dispersed around the world. Can these virtual team technologies be used to tackle organizational challenges and facilitate transformational change? In her student project, Susan Sena (Management) looked at this question in detail.