ABSTRACT
T he events that transpired at Le Moyne-Owen, Olivet, and Tusculum follow a time-honored pathway of change. Mounting pressures spur action, the disruption in organizational life creates opportunities for innovation, and finally the changes become embedded in the institutional fabric—unfreezing, change, and refreezing, to use the formulations of Lewin (1947) and Schein (1985). This description is useful, a kind of aerial view of events. But the framework tends to present change as an organization's unified response to negative external stimuli—organization as organism. In doing so, it overlooks both the complexities of the events and the manifold perspectives and interests that reside within organizations. Organizations are communities comprised of individuals and as communities are subject to the vicissitudes of humanity. What motivated a small group within each of these institutions to seek change was not financial exigency alone but a gut-level sense that the life was being strangled from the institution. It was not merely declining resources but the waning of commitment, innovation, and trust that raised concerns. It was discontent that ultimately led individual members to challenge the seemingly intractable state of affairs. Eventually, the pursuit of a more satisfying life blossomed into the formulation of a new dream, a shared vision of what the institution might become.
