Process of Change and Resistance
Change refers to alteration or modifications from a regular state. Change is common in society and organizations due to advancements in certain elements that affect normal processes. Society experiences change due to various reasons like demographic alterations, technological impacts, or even the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses and institutions also experience change due to factors that affect organizational processes. Change is not always planned and requires individuals to adapt, especially when resistance to change presents a threat. For example, the pandemic led to the adoption of strict measures that helped to prevent the spread of the virus. Those who resisted the health guidelines had a higher risk of infection. However, some changes are planned and can be implemented through structured processes that ensure successful adoption. The existence of a change strategy is vital in the effective implementation of changes at the organizational and societal levels.
Paradigms are models for specific processes, ensuring proper task performance or implementation. The structures ensure that individuals or organizations have a step-by-step approach to doing specific things. The existence of paradigms is essential in helping institutions improve the success of processes or the introduction of change. Change has several processes that have been researched and proven to be effective. Each model of change varies in success based on use and the environment. Leaders are expected to assess the settings in which change is to be introduced and determine the most effective model. Paradigms significantly impact change by dictating how the change is implemented and the outcomes based on adoption. Each model will have a different impact on the results, which demands the consideration of all factors that affect the adoption of change, including resistance.
Resistance to change is common due to a lack of knowledge, fear, and lack of trust that directly or indirectly affect stakeholders. Opposition to change refers to direct or indirect actions that prevent or interfere with the process of adopting alterations in an organization. It is common in organizations and individuals since people fear what they do not know. Most resistance comes from individuals who lack knowledge about the reasons for change to the standard processes. The lack of trust in the leadership or those proposing and implementing change is also a factor that can lead to resistance. Leaders are crucial in change adoption, and the success of the processes significantly depends on the level of trust people have in the management. Opposition can also come from the lack of belief in the need for change, even after creating awareness and indicating the need for changes.
Change paradigms emphasize the need for awareness creation and dealing with any resistance from the processes to reduce barriers. Resistance can be addressed by preparing the organization or stakeholders for the change. Managers or leaders should inform every relevant stakeholder about the change, the need for the change, and the expected outcomes. Convincing stakeholders about the significance of change is vital in gaining their support to implement it. Resistance should also be addressed through continued engagement with those affected by the change and addressing any concerns about the proposed change. Continuous engagement makes those affected by change part of the process and increases trust in its adoption.
Resistance to change will affect changes that are to be made to a developmental school counseling program by slowing the process or making it unsuccessful. Resistance to change emerges due to various reasons that can be addressed. Most of the factors that cause resistance will slow the change implementation process because of the need to ensure that all the concerns among stakeholders are addressed. Failure to address the concerns can lead to further resistance. among essential stakeholders, who may prevent the adoption of changes to the program. For example, failing to convince the school head or the board that runs the school about the need for changes in the counseling program can lead to a lack of approval and support. It can also lead to the prevention of the interventions because of a lack of understanding or awareness. However, resistance can also lead to the enhancement of the interventions through assessments and raised concerns. The counseling program will be subject to scrutiny from relevant stakeholders who will present their concerns through resistance, which may be included in the interventions to improve the program.
Developing School Counseling Program
The additional reading by Brown and Trusty (2005) supports the stages ASCA provides in developing a counseling program through a seven-step model. The first step by Brown and Trusty is creating advocacy dispositions where the advocacy attitude motivates the professional to engage in creating and enhancing school counseling programs (Brown & Trusty, 2005). The second step is developing advocacy relationships and knowledge, which focuses on having a good relationship with the school leadership and maintaining good relationships with stakeholders who can facilitate advocacy. It also entails acquiring and comprehending knowledge of systems within and outside the school. Defining the advocacy problem is the third step, and it involves collecting information about the problem that needs to be addressed, identifying the problem’s etiology, and comprehension of the problem based on the context of the system.
The fourth step is developing an action plan with clear and specific plans that use resources effectively and predicts challenges. The action plan should be flexible to emerging issues unless flexibility will affect specific moral principles (Brown & Trusty, 2005). Implementation of the action plan is the next step, and it comprises various processes that lead to the desired change. The stage requires the counselor to collaborate with stakeholders, use effective communication skills, resolve problems, and adopt advocacy models to determine the identified issue. It also advocates for promoting and supporting collaborative efforts to make changes successful (Brown & Trusty, 2005). The sixth step is assessing the implemented changes, where the effectiveness of advocacy efforts is evaluated to measure their effectiveness in addressing the problem. Reviews also help to determine the need for further interventions. The final stage is to celebrate or regroup, whereby the success of advocacy efforts should be acknowledged, and all stakeholders who contributed should be recognized and rewarded. Failure to reach the goals should lead to regrouping to determine the way forward.
Issues in Developing and Implementing Comprehensive School Counseling Program
Ethical guidelines are crucial in counseling, and practitioners must ensure that they comply with all standards to avoid emerging ethical, professional, and legal issues. Adopting changes to a developmental school counseling program entails several aspects that affect various stakeholders. Also, the program directly impacts students, making professional guidelines crucial to each step of the change. The four professional standards and competencies will apply to the process (American School Counselor Association, 2019). Being updated about current practices and school counseling research will be essential in ensuring that the latest methods are used to evaluate the developmental program and determine the effectiveness of the changes. Self-appraisals will help ensure that a competent professional is making changes with knowledge of school counseling standards and competencies that will support the proper adoption of relevant changes. Self-reflection and annual professional plans will also be crucial in ensuring that the process of adopting interventions will be performed by a counselor with sufficient knowledge of existing guidelines.
The legal and ethical principles that guide school counseling programs are also vital in developing and implementing changes to existing programs. Practicing within the ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors will be essential in adhering to standards that guide the professional (American School Counselor Association, 2019). School counselors have legal responsibilities that include working with minors in school settings. The ethical principle of confidentiality applies to the counselor, implying that all shared information by students has to be used within the confines of the law. The moral obligations to other stakeholders like families and administrators must be ensured in accordance with existing standards. Counselors are expected to collaborate with professionals in education, legal affairs, and other school counselors to ensure that the adopted interventions are legally appropriate and address any questions that may arise. Any ethical dilemmas should be addressed through ethical decision-making based on ASCA Ethical Standards for School Counselors to ensure that the counselor makes proper decisions. The legal and ethical principles also expect professionals to engage in continued professional development to guide ethical and legal work and exhibit ethical model behavior.
Making changes to the developmental school counseling program requires consideration of the various factors that affect the learners and other stakeholders. The current student population is diverse and requires the program to consider possible multicultural issues. The counselor should engage in cultural assessment to determine the cultural diversity in the student population (American School Counselor Association, 2022). The evaluation will help determine the cultures in the student population and inform the changes to be culturally sensitive. Another crucial area to address is transitioning primary counseling services while ensuring minimal interruption of services. Any transitions in counseling programs should be done considering that there is a need to maintain an appropriate relationship with students to facilitate the use of other services.
The prevention of harm is an area of concern for counselors because of the nature of their jobs. They are required to prevent the occurrence of harm to students or other stakeholders when their judgment is compromised (American School Counselor Association, 2022). It is crucial to acknowledge that decisions may be compromised, and remedies should exist to prevent harm to those involved. The other area that can raise issues is the use of student data to generate interventions that will be used to enhance counseling programs. Student data is subject to the guidelines of confidentiality. Any efforts to gain insight into students should consider the principle of privacy.
Analysis of the ASCA Model
The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) model is a framework for creating school counseling programs. ASCA’s main quadrants include Define, Manage, Deliver, and Assess. Each has a role in the program’s overall working. Define involves a perfect understanding of the set standards by the counseling profession. Immense comprehension of their constitution eases the approach to developing, implementing, and evaluating the school counseling program. The defined entity also ensures that aspects like cultural diversity and sustainability are keenly considered. Manage involves the creation of sustainable and impactful plans to implement the proposed counseling programs (Goodrich et al., 2020). All necessary tools and assessments emerge in the management phase. Deliver comprises activities, services, and interactions a counselor uses to move the students through the program. Instructions and appraisals can feature in this quadrant. The assessment comes last and entails checking the program’s effectiveness by contrasting the students’ state before and after undertaking it. Items such as Annual Results Reports and Closing-the-Gap reports are common in this quadrant.
The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) model is prescriptive due to its legal foundations. It handles issues of national concern, making it subject to extreme legal considerations. Secondly, it involves diagnosing the concerned subjects and recommending the appropriate actions to counter their counseling needs (Dollarhide & Saginak, 2017). In managing numerous students across the Americas, the model showcases several strengths. Firstly, it can identify student competencies in various fields, including academic and social connections. It also performs excellently in shaping leadership skills among students. The model is also helpful in transforming the counseling approach from a traditional-based to a modernized customizable format.
The model possesses weaknesses, such as inconsistent support from the counseling panel. This scenario is exalted by the diversity of interests and division based on knowledge levels. This act costs the formed programs a lot of time during decision-making moments. Having a united approach to issues could ease things. Incompetent supervision resulting from the model’s structure causes poor workload allocation. Negative attitudes also form a large portion of programs created under this model. There is also a rarity regarding the act of motivation counselors. The lack of this provision leads to their poor performance. Role ambiguity in the model is another weakness of its. It implies having multiple administrative positions with common roles.
Consistent models in schools act as exemplary units to train students in the essence of attributes like steadfastness. The models also aid in creating effective learning environments since all the proposed learning plans will progress to the latter (Dollarhide & Saginak, 2017). Another reason for such models is that they nurture the trait of routines, keen adherence to rules, and sharpening student behavior in the school environment. Hence, students have a chance to obtain control over their actions as they pursue accountability.
The developmental needs of students occur via the creation of room for emotional support and extension of affection. Dedicated staff shall ensure that the present students are free from emotional encounters steering them toward depression and other mental disorders. Additionally, the students shall be granted security regarding healthcare and shelter. The program shall cater to the expenses. A special developmental need is stability from the student’s family. In this case, offering them a chance to redeem themselves of poverty and lack of financial support will alleviate this issue. Creating platforms for interest-free borrowing and investment opportunities for their ready cash will increase their stability base.
Counselors as Leaders
School counselors need to observe high-level professionalism in handling their subjects. For instance, the life is constantly evolving. It means that the techniques used to handle them need periodic upgrading. Counseling leaders must advocate for personnel who understand this scenario and intend to advance their skill and service-delivery strategies (Dollarhide & Saginak, 2017). Leaders will need to observe ethics in their operations. The aim is to reduce the harm caused to students, especially when sharing information without their consent.
School counselors must respect the staff and administration in exercising their roles. All colleagues must experience respect by allowing each to air their opinions (Dollarhide & Saginak, 2017). This act must happen without any favoritism or discrimination. A leader who condones this behavior also faces the downfall of their administration. In respecting the neighboring community, the leaders must advocate for its values and morals. They must also work in collaboration with them to create culturally sustainable solutions to issues that require counseling actions. Leaders should also be accountable for their actions and strive to achieve the set goals. An ideal leader in this environment also promotes fairness and ensures all rules and regulations are adhered to without failure. The intention is to build reliable counselor programs via the ASCA model to benefit the community and institution.
Counselor’s Responsibilities outside ASCA Guidelines
Counselors are expected to showcase integrity in their doings. Being entrusted with such a powerful position in the school administration could hide numerous details of ill will. For instance, due to the rising number of students who need counseling, the task force may decide to skip some of its responsibilities. Another cause of this case is heavy workloads. Inadequate supervision from the upper management could result in this; hence, leaders must understand that perfect results are not achieved while defying values like faithfulness. They ensure all requirements are met with minimum or zero intentional flaws. Another issue not tackled in the guidelines is the place of innovation in counseling. Student leaders must advocate for creative means of implementing the underlying counseling programs. For instance, it would be absolute boredom to have the subjects listen to counsel lectures for hours. The expected behavior from this act is most of them shunning the events and others fidgeting the entire session.
Additionally, this practice can be linked to similar ways of doing things, which promise minimal results. It is, therefore, necessary to have the student leaders vouch for creativity in delivering their services. The counseling sessions can be as interesting as possible. Consent is another issue in the ASCA guidelines. Information release requires that the subject concerned is informed before any actions. This act shows respect and value for students’ privacy. Adherence to consent is a trait every leader must consider. It builds students’ confidence and promises safety in handling information. Counselors must promote holistic service delivery. It means they should not focus only on the counseling aspect but also check and recommend interventions to the identifiable needs of the clients. This act will form a compact unit with all-around service delivery.
The surest way to address the disparity between counseling theory and practice is the in-person involvement of the counselors in the student’s life. Interacting with students and being part of their education activities can help the practitioner bridge the knowledge gap between theory and actual practice (Ziberi, 2020). By doing so, counselors can constantly check the information updates in the profession and update their knowledge base accordingly. Therefore, any actions are in the direction of addressing both rampant and newly formed issues. Tracking changes also cause a constant shift in the counselor’s way of thinking. They are constantly updated to venture into the analysis of current events. Hence, in a serious occurrence, the counselor knows how to react in a way that benefits from the prior theories and practice.
References
American School Counselor Association (ASCA). (2022). ASCA ethical standards for school counselors. Web.
American School Counselor Association. (2019). ASCA School Counselor Professional Standards & Competencies. Alexandria, VA: Author.
Brown, D., & Trusty, J. (2005). School Counselors, Comprehensive School Counseling Programs, and Academic Achievement: Are School Counselors Promising more than they Can Deliver? Professional School Counseling, 9(1), 2156759X0500900. Web.
Dollarhide, C. T., & Saginak, K. A. (2017). Comprehensive School Counseling Programs K–12 Delivery Systems in Action (3rd ed.). Pearson.
Goodrich, K. M., Kingsley, K. V., & Sands, H. C. (2020). Digitally responsive school counseling across the ASCA national model. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 42(2), 147-158. Web.
Ziberi, F. (2020). Between theory and practice: the importance and function of school counseling. School Counseling, 1(1), 10. Web.