This paper describes an organizational change project undertaken by a group of researchers affiliated with the Institute for Advanced Studies in Problem-based Learning at Aalborg University, Denmark (AAU). The current change project centers around Aalborg University Library (AUL).

AUL is a service organization within the university with approximately 60 employees working with a range of administrative and practical tasks for the university. Over the last five years, the AUL management had become increasingly aware that the character of the tasks that AUL undertakes has changed from primarily being individual, linear, and instrumental to being more and more collective, complex, and reflexive. Their conclusion was that the organization needed to change itself into a project-oriented organization (Gemünden et al., 2018; Huemann et al., 2007) to be able to respond to the demands they were facing. Thus, they invited the authors of this paper as scholars within project-oriented learning and organizational change to help them pave the way for this organizational transition.

Organizational change projects are often described as being either based on a top-down (Ryan et al., 2008) or a bottom-up approach (Yi et al. 2017). Both approaches have pros and cons. However, neither of these approaches have proven especially successful in fostering lasting organizational change (Fullan, 1994, Huber, 1991) and thus researchers have begun to explore other strategies. In this regard, Hargreaves and Ainscow (2015) discusses the possibility of combining top-down and bottom-up approaches to organizational change in a new approach which they call Leading From the Middle (LFM). This approach is defined by Fullan (2015:24) as “a deliberate strategy that increases the capacity and internal coherence of the middle as it becomes a more effective partner upward and downward, in pursuit of greater system performance”. LFM is a strategy that does not consider leadership as a position but as an activity (Robinson et al., 2007). Thus, leadership resides not in the position but in the task and therefore leadership in the project organization can and must be distributed amongst organizational members (Hamel & Zanini, 2020).

The LFM approach seemingly corresponds well with some of the core principles of problem-based learning (PBL) that requires collaboration and a high level of active participation and self-directedness within project groups. Therefore, the management team at AUL and the research group agreed upon a design for organizational development based upon a combination of the theory of LFM and the principles behind PBL and Dewey’s notion of experiential learning (Dewey, 1938, Kolb, 2014). Thus, AUL employees were to learn about working with complex problems in project groups by actually working with complex problems in project groups with the university researchers acting as supervisors and group facilitators. 

PBL is an internationally recognized pedagogical approach in many areas and levels of education (Barrows 1996; de Graaff & Kolmos 2007; Savin-Baden & Major 2004). However, not much research has been done regarding PBL as an approach for promoting organizational learning and change (Thomassen & Jørgensen, 2020). Thus, we formulated the following research question to further investigate this matter:

How can the principles behind theories of Learning From the Middle and Problem-based Learning be combined and applied to effectively foster organizational learning and change?

To answer the research question, we designed a course for all staff at AUL and a plan for collecting data about the experience of the staff after completion of the course. In the section below, we shall briefly describe the design of the organizational change project and the data collection process.

The theoretical inspiration for the organizational development project was, as mentioned above, theories of LFM, PBL, and experiential learning. Thus, all staff were divided into project groups by the AUL management and assigned a supervisor (a member from the research team). After an introduction seminar in which everybody was familiarized with the project and the project design, each project group was presented with an initial problem area (chosen by the management team) relevant to their specific professional responsibilities. Each group was given the task to formulate a problem statement and afterwards address this specific problem under guidance from their supervisor and their respective line manager. The project was finalized with a joint full day session in which each group presented a product they had developed as part of their project work. The overall project was evaluated through a questionnaire after the final session asking the participants about their experiences during the project period. Questions related to their understanding of PBL, the value of using PBL principles as a foundation for their professional work, their own learning, the project method inspired by LFM theory, and their perception of the organizational changes induced by the project. Subsequently, four focus-group interviews with project groups of diverting profiles in terms of educational background and working tasks in the AUL organization were conducted to further inquire into the experiences of the participants. The AUL leadership was also considered a valuable source of insight as cooperators on and initiators of the project but also because they had immediate everyday access to and communication with the project groups. Therefore, a fifth focus group interview was conducted with the group of AUL managers. The interviews were then transcribed and coded. All authors used an inductive approach to search for themes and provide preliminary codes (Coffey & Atkinson, 1996) of both the questionnaire data and the interview transcriptions. The authors compared and discussed the themes and the coding until consensus was obtained regarding themes and codes. Additional empirical material was constructed during the final full day session. Each group presented a product that was the result of their project-work, and these presentations and results were included in the empirical material. Furthermore, the material included reflections upon the project as a whole from a workshop activity on the final day of the project. Finally the group of researchers produced observation notes from this day.

The preliminary findings show that the principles behind theories of Learning From the Middle and Problem-Based Learning can be combined and applied to successfully foster organizational learning and change. For most groups, the project was seen as a positive development in their work life. These groups responded well to the increased amount of self-determination, higher level of agency and the problem-oriented type of work. Some of these groups even reported being initially very sceptic about the project but being surprised at how well their project-work went. A few groups did not find the new approach suitable or relevant for their work. They found that the project-oriented work disturbed their daily routines. However, this also helped the management and the researchers to gain additional knowledge. For instance, they were able to identify weaknesses in the approach and to better identify which types of projects and which types of group constellations are more likely to benefit in the future. Overall, the project showed that combining the principles behind theories of Learning From the Middle and Problem-Based Learning might be a fruitful way of facilitating organizational change. There are of course things that could have worked out better, but the future for PBL as a driver for organizational change is promising.

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