2024 Volume 46 Issue 1 Pages 162-172
To reduce the emphasis on knowledge-oriented university entrance examinations, the Japanese government introduced Multidimensional and Holistic Assessment (MHA) to evaluate the qualities and abilities of university applicants. In the written policy, the government did not specify the structure or methods to conduct MHA, which undoubtedly created confusion among universities. Many universities ended up introducing essays and interviews on top of traditional written examinations, which created additional burdens for university faculty and staff. Under these circumstances, National Z University (anonymized) successfully introduced MHA as original practice and reformed its admission system. Today, MHA at Z University is considered one of its successful models. Why were they able to take charge, and what was the process?
This case study aims to describe how actors involved in interpreting and implementing MHA developed their admission system as they attempted to address the policy-driven challenge of a shift towards MHA. For this purpose, data was collected from documents and interviews with faculty and staff members of Z University. I interviewed them with the following questions: (1) what kind of MHA practices did they implement, (2) how did they interpret MHA into practice, and (3) what was the process of implementation like. I used an organization learning theory, the 4I framework by Crossan et al. (1999), to analyze the interviews and documents.
As a result, two factors that led to “institutionalization” are presented: the creation of a concrete admission system and the construction of a shared knowledge about introducing this new admission system among university members. Furthermore, three factors were identified as reasons that led to the realization of the system and the shared philosophy: knowledge transfer through information sharing among members, collaborative influence exercised by members, and timing based on the internal and external conditions of the university. Although these findings are based on a single case study, it is possible to understand the mechanism of organizational change by outlining what happened, then utilizing an analytical perspective to understand why it happened. This study also shows that it will be difficult to achieve organizational change simply by deploying outside technical specialists to introduce and promote MHA. The findings of this study can be used as a reference to create an environment in which technical specialists may function more effectively.
