Abstract
This study examines the level of preparedness that community college leaders have to facilitate the large-scale institutional change underscoring Guided Pathways and the change process leaders employ at their colleges. During a time when there is an urgency for change within community colleges, there is a corresponding need for strong community college leadership to facilitate these efforts. Further, the organizational change process within a higher education context is understudied and transformational change within community colleges is rare (Burke, 2002; Eckel & Kezar, 2003; Fullan, 2016; Kezar, 2001; Kezar, 2018; Kotter, 1996; Pascale, Millemann, & Gioja, 1997). The findings from this mixed-methods study suggest that level of involvement in change efforts is the strongest predictor of leader preparedness to lead change, along with two other significant predictors: level of education and level of position within organization. In terms of the change process, leaders were not able to directly focus on the change process because much of their time and energy was predominantly focused on addressing and mitigating barriers occurring on many levels (individual, leader, group, and institution/state government). Through the convergence of findings, change competencies and an organizational change model is proposed to inform the development of current and future educational leaders and gain understanding of how change operates within community college. As a result, recommendations for future research, leadership and institutional practices, and state government policy are offered to empower leaders and advance institutional change that has a lasting, transformational impact on student success.