A corporate college of nursing and midwifery philosophy: a strategy for managing change

This paper is an account of the process of identifying a college of nursing and midwifery corporate philosophy. This process represents one component of a change strategy for managing an amalgamation between three schools of nursing to form one college of nursing and midwifery. The paper is divided into four sections: Literature review, Methodological approach, Lessons learned and Managing change: a way forward. The literature review draws on what is described, in general education, as the school/college 'effectiveness literature'. This literature emphasises why the building of corporate norms is so important and that real change in the organization of a college cannot occur without the college redefining its commitments. A methodological approach embedded in grounded theory is described. This approach facilitated the discovery of colleagues' views from their perspective, and within their working context. It also enabled all the staff to take part in the process of identifying a corporate philosophy, which would subsequently underpin the college's educational policy and practice. This process was therefore conceptualised as an attempt to provide 'ownership' for a working corporate philosophy. In the final section it is suggested that many of the theories of change nurse and midwifery educators draw upon are conceptually and practically inadequate, as a basis for action in the socio-political climate of the 1990s. Effective approaches to the management of multiple changes calls for combining and balancing factors that do not apparently go together--in essence a dialectical approach to the management of change in nurse and midwifery education.