Using Kotter’s Eight-Stage Model to Understand Departmental Efforts to Broaden Participation in Computing

Background : Motivated by the need for a diverse technological workforce, broadening participation in computing (BPC) efforts aim to increase the representation of people who identify as women, African American or Black, Hispanic or Latinx/a/o/e, Native American, Indigenous, and persons with disabilities. Research on BPC efforts has highlighted exemplar institutions and activities, but tends to focus on what initiatives computing departments have undertaken and the outcomes of these initiatives. Purpose : Given this prior focus on what initiatives computing departments are undertaking, we propose refocusing on how change happens to increase our collective capacity for impactful change efforts. We apply a well-known organizational change framework, John Kotter's eight-stage process of leading change, to examine catalysts for change in computing departments, who contributes to this work, and what motivates the work. Doing so can deepen our understanding of BPC efforts and how to enhance them. Theoretical Framework : Kotter's framework for leading change includes the following eight stages: (1) establishing a sense of urgency, (2) creating the guiding coalition, (3) developing a vision and strategy, (4) communicating the change vision, (5) empowering broad-based action, (6) generating short-term wins, (7) consolidating gains and producing more change, and (8) anchoring new approaches in the culture. Methods : Using a practitioner research approach, we conducted interviews with 13 faculty and staff members across R1 and R2 U.S. institutions via Zoom. Participants were recruited based on their involvement in BPC efforts at their respective institutions. We used inductive and deductive analytic coding approaches to capture how the Kotter framework illuminated participants’ experiences leading BPC efforts. Findings : Kotter's stages provide a useful breakdown of processes with which to understand and illuminate catalysts for change in computing departments. Across our participants, we see examples of how each stage not only takes shape in different departments, but also how subsequent stages build upon the one(s) before it. Findings reveal a variety of factors that motivate the urgency for computer science (CS) departments to engage in BPC work, along with the importance of top-down leadership and institutional resources. Implications : Kotter's organizational change model provides an appropriate frame to guide BPC efforts and may be useful to practitioners. Findings from this study illuminate several areas for CS departments to address in order to build capacity for organizational change efforts that support BPC goals. These include examining a variety of departmental data, effectively using meetings and other communications mechanisms, and revising hiring and promotion policies.