Supporting change through sustainable staff development: Lessons from Indonesia and Thailand

The objectives of this paper are to:

• define and examine the concept of sustainability as it relates to staff development outcomes;
• explain the impact that staff development programs have had in universities, other post-secondary institutions, and individuals in Indonesia and Thailand;
• identify theoretical and practical approaches that appear to support sustainable change.

The transformation of institutions through staff development is a problematic proposition regardless of the quality of the programs offered or the quality and enthusiasm of participants. The dominant belief that institutional development and change will flow from staff development is not supported by the evidence on longer term impacts which shows that the absence of systemic and institutional commitment and leadership is a primary impediment to the goals of development. Nevertheless, the institutional studies identified several input and contextual factors which have had a significant impact on longer term change and which illustrate the validity of the theoretical approach adopted in the studies. However, change appears to be more profound at the individual level where long term staff development has been undertaken in a different culture.