7 - Navigating the Delicate Balance between Academia and Administration through Transformational Leadership in a South African University
Corresponding Author(s) : Nhlanhla Landa
Journal of Higher Education in Africa,
Vol. 18 No. 2 (2020): Journal of Higher Education in Africa: Special Issue on Middle-level Academics and Leadership in African Universities
Abstract
This study investigated the challenges faced by middle-level academic leaders at a university in South Africa. It was guided by the transformational leadership approach. The study found that heads of departments faced many challenges, including disruption of the teaching programme, due to meetings and other responsibilities as well as persistent student protests, too much paperwork as a result of reporting to higher management, and lack of leadership induction. The study also established that there was minimal academic career growth for academics in middle-level academic leadership during the time they were in those positions, due to the pressure that came with the office, which reduced research activities. There is a lack of support in terms of capacity-building for heads of departments, which functions as an impediment to career growth among middle-level academic leaders. Once they get into leadership positions, most academics sacrifice their academic careers to satisfy the administrative demands of their office. Balancing academia and administration at the sampled university was very difficult for the middle-level managers. The study recommends that the university develops and implements a practical strategy for middle-level academic managers, which would allow them to strike a balance between the administration and academic sides of their careers.
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- Alexander, L., 2007, Invading Pure Space: Disrupting Black and White Racially Homogenised Spaces, South African Journal of Psychology, Vol. 37, No. 4, pp. 738–754.
- Avolio, B. and Bass, B., 2002, Developing Potential Across a Full Range of Leadership. London, UK: LEA.
- Barnett, R., 2005, Reshaping the University: New Relationships between Research, Scholarship and Teaching, Buckingham, UK: SRHE/Open University Press.
- Bateman, T. S. and Snell, S. A., 2002, Management: Competing in the New Era, 5th ed., New York: Irwin McGraw Hill.
- Bazana, S. and Mogotsi, O. P., 2017, Social Identities and Racial Integration in Historically White Universities: A Literature Review of the Experiences of Black Students, Transformation in Higher Education, Vol. 2, No. 0, a25 (https://doi.org/10.4102/the.v2i0.25).
- Bendermacher, G. W. G., Oude Egbrink, M. G. A., Wolfhagen, I. H. A. P. and Dolmans, D. H. J. M., 2016, Unravelling Quality Culture in Higher Education: A Realist Review, Higher Education, Vol. 73, pp: 39–60 (doi: 10.1007/ s10734-015-9979-2).
- Bitzer, E. M. and Bezuidenhout, S. M., 2001, ‘Transformation’ as a Problematic Concept in the Realm of Higher Education in South Africa, Journal for Humani- ties, Vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 33–40.
- Brandis, B., 2003, Transformational Leadership in Higher Education: From Politics to Porcelain, Graduate Research Papers 417 (https://scholarworks.uni.edu/ grp/417). Accessed 25 May 2019.
- Burns, J. M., 1978, Leadership, New York: Harper and Row.
- Chipunza, C. and Gwarinda, S.A., 2010, Transformational Leadership in Merging Higher Education Institutions: A Case Study, SA Journal of Human Resource Management/SA Tydskrif vir Menslikehulpbronbestuur, Vol. 8, No. 1, Art. #195 (DOI:10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.195).
- Denzin, N. and Lincoln, Y., 2000, The Discipline and Practice of Qualitative Re- search, in Denzin, N. K. and Lincoln, Y. S. eds, Handbook of Qualitative Research, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 1–32.
- Du Preez, P., Simmonds, S. and Verhoef, A. H., 2016, Rethinking and Researching Transformation in Higher Education: A Meta-Study of South African Trends, Transformation in Higher Education, Vol. 1, No. 1, a2 (http://dx. doi.org/10.4102/ the.v1i1.2).
- Fourie, M., 1999, Institutional Transformation at South African Universities: Im- plications for Academic Staff, Higher Education, Vol. 38, pp. 275–290 (http:// dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1003768229291).
- Francis, D. and Hemson, C., 2010, Initiating Debate, South African Journal of Higher Education, Special issue on Transformation, Vol. 24, No. 6, pp. 875–880.
- Fullan, M. and Scott, G., 2009, Turnaround Leadership in Higher Education, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
- Gallos, J. V., 2002, The Dean’s Squeeze: The Myths and Realities of Academic Lead- ership in the Middle, Academy of Management Learning & Education, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 174–184 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/40214150). Accessed 2 July 2019.
- Gevers, W., 2016, Helping to Lead a University: A Job Not What It Seems, in Re- flections of South African University Leaders (1981 to2014), Cape Town: African Minds & Council on Higher Education.
- Gmelch, W. H. and Miskin, V. D., 1993, Leadership Skills for Department Chairs, Bolton: Anker Publishing Company, Inc.
- Henkel, M., 2000, Academic Identities and Policy Change in Higher Education, Lon- don, UK: Jessica Kingsley.
- Herbst, T. H. H. and Garg, A. K., 2017, Transformational Leadership Potential at a University of Technology, The Journal of Applied Business Research, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 741–758.
- Holloway, I. and Wheeler, S., 2010, Qualitative Research in Nursing and Healthcare, 3rd ed., Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
- Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), 2014, State of Poverty and its Mani- festation in the Nine Provinces of South Africa, Johannesburg: Human Sciences Research Council.
- Koen, J. and Durrheim, K., 2009, A Naturalistic Observational Study of Informal Seg- regation: Seating Patterns in Lectures, Environment and Behavior, Vol. 42, No. 4, pp. 448–468 (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0013916509336981). Accessed 12 May 2019.
- Kogan, M. and Teichler, U., eds., 2007, Key Challenges to The Academic Profession (Werkstattberichte, Vol. 65), Kassel: International Centre for Higher Education Research Kassel.
- Leaming, D. R., 2006, Academic Leadership: A Practical Guide to Chairing the Department, 2nd ed., San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
- Lester, S., 1999, An Introduction to Phenomenological Research, Taunton: Stan Lester De- velopments (http://www.sld.demon.co.uk/resmethy.pdf ). Accessed 7 June 2019.
- Mader, C., Scott, G. and Razak, D. A., 2013, Effective Change Management, Governance and Policy for Sustainability Transformation in Higher Education, Management and Policy Journal, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 264–284.
- Mohajan, H., 2018, Qualitative Research Methodology in Social Sciences and Related Subjects, Journal of Economic Development, Environment and People, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 23–48.
- Montez, J. M., Wolverton, M. and Gmelch, W. H., 2003, The Roles And Challenges Of Deans, The Review of Higher Education, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 241–266. Moore, M. R. and Diamond, M. A., 2000, Academic Leadership Turning Vision into Reality, The Ernst & Young Foundation.
- Ndimande, B. S., 2016, School Choice and Inequalities in Post-Apartheid South Africa, Global Education Review, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 33–49.
- News 24, 2019, Pandor Disbands Fort Hare University Council, 27 April (https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/pandor-disbands-fort-hare-university-council-20190426). Accessed 25 May 2019.
- Ngcamu, B. S. and Teferra, D., 2015, Leadership and Transformation in a South African University, Problems and Perspectives in Management, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 208–216.
- Nguyen, T. L. H., 2013, Middle-Level Academic Management: A Case Study on The Roles of the Heads of Departments at a Vietnamese University, Tertiary Education and Management, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 1–15 (DOI: 10.1080/13583883.2012.724704).
- Schrieff, L., Tredoux, C., Dixon, J. and Finchilescu, G., 2005, Patterns of Racial Segregation in University Residence Dining-Halls, South African Journal of Psychology, Vol. 35, pp. 433–443.
- Schultze, U. and Avital, M., 2011, Designing Interviews to Generate Rich Data for Information Systems Research, Information and Organization, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 1–16.
- Seale, O., 2004, Rooting for Management Capacity in South African Higher Educa- tion, Paper Presented at the HESDA Staff Development Conference, 4 November.
- Seale, O. and Cross, M., 2016, Leading and Managing in Complexity: The Case of South African Deans, Studies in Higher Education, Vol. 41, No. 8, pp. 1514–1532 (DOI:10.1080/03075079.2014.988705).
- Soudien, C., 2010, Grasping the Nettle? South African Higher Education and its Transformative Imperatives, South African Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 24, No. 5, pp. 881–896.
- Soudien, C., 2015, Looking Backwards: How to Be a South African University, Educational Research for Social Change (ERSC), Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 8–21.
- South Africa, Department of Education, 1997, Education White Paper 3: A Programme for The Transformation of Higher Education, Government Gazette, No. 390 (18515), Pretoria: Government Printers.
- Statistics South Africa, 2017, Poverty Trends in South Africa: An Examination of Absolute Poverty Between 2006 and 2015, Pretoria: Stats SA.
- Swanson, R. A. and Holton III, E. F., 1997, Research Handbook: Linking Research and Practice, San Francisco: Berret-Koehler Publishers.
- Tucker, A., 1993, Chairing the Academic Department: Leadership Among Peers, 3rd ed., Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press.
- Van Niekerk, M. M., 2005, Transformational Leadership at A Higher Education Institution, Master of Arts in Industrial and Organisational Psychology, University of South Africa.
- Van Wyk, B., 2005, Performativity in Higher Education Transformation in South Africa, South African Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 5–19.
- Waghid, Y., 2002, Knowledge Production and Higher Education Transformation in South Africa: Towards Reflexivity in University Teaching, Research and Community Service, Higher Education, Vol. 43, pp. 457–488 (http://dx.doi. org/10.1023/A:1015211718131).
- Walia, R., 2015, A Saga of Qualitative Research, Social Crimonol, Vol. 5, No. 2, p. 124.
- Whitchurch, C., 2006, Who Do They Think They Are? The Hanging Identities of Professional Administrators and Managers in UK Higher Education, Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 159–171.
- Whitchurch, C., 2008, Shifting Identities and Blurring Boundaries: The Emergence of Third Space Professionals in UK Higher Education, Higher Education Quarterly, Vol. 62, No. 4, pp. 377–396.
- Wolverton, M., Ackerman, R. and Holt, S., 2005, Preparing for Leadership: What Academic Department Chairs Need to Know, Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, Vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 227–238.
- Wolverton, M., Gmelch, W. H., Wolverton, M. L. and Sarros, J. C., 1999, A Comparison of Department Chair Tasks in Australia and the United States, Higher Education, Vol. 38, No. 3, p. 18.
References
Alexander, L., 2007, Invading Pure Space: Disrupting Black and White Racially Homogenised Spaces, South African Journal of Psychology, Vol. 37, No. 4, pp. 738–754.
Avolio, B. and Bass, B., 2002, Developing Potential Across a Full Range of Leadership. London, UK: LEA.
Barnett, R., 2005, Reshaping the University: New Relationships between Research, Scholarship and Teaching, Buckingham, UK: SRHE/Open University Press.
Bateman, T. S. and Snell, S. A., 2002, Management: Competing in the New Era, 5th ed., New York: Irwin McGraw Hill.
Bazana, S. and Mogotsi, O. P., 2017, Social Identities and Racial Integration in Historically White Universities: A Literature Review of the Experiences of Black Students, Transformation in Higher Education, Vol. 2, No. 0, a25 (https://doi.org/10.4102/the.v2i0.25).
Bendermacher, G. W. G., Oude Egbrink, M. G. A., Wolfhagen, I. H. A. P. and Dolmans, D. H. J. M., 2016, Unravelling Quality Culture in Higher Education: A Realist Review, Higher Education, Vol. 73, pp: 39–60 (doi: 10.1007/ s10734-015-9979-2).
Bitzer, E. M. and Bezuidenhout, S. M., 2001, ‘Transformation’ as a Problematic Concept in the Realm of Higher Education in South Africa, Journal for Humani- ties, Vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 33–40.
Brandis, B., 2003, Transformational Leadership in Higher Education: From Politics to Porcelain, Graduate Research Papers 417 (https://scholarworks.uni.edu/ grp/417). Accessed 25 May 2019.
Burns, J. M., 1978, Leadership, New York: Harper and Row.
Chipunza, C. and Gwarinda, S.A., 2010, Transformational Leadership in Merging Higher Education Institutions: A Case Study, SA Journal of Human Resource Management/SA Tydskrif vir Menslikehulpbronbestuur, Vol. 8, No. 1, Art. #195 (DOI:10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.195).
Denzin, N. and Lincoln, Y., 2000, The Discipline and Practice of Qualitative Re- search, in Denzin, N. K. and Lincoln, Y. S. eds, Handbook of Qualitative Research, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 1–32.
Du Preez, P., Simmonds, S. and Verhoef, A. H., 2016, Rethinking and Researching Transformation in Higher Education: A Meta-Study of South African Trends, Transformation in Higher Education, Vol. 1, No. 1, a2 (http://dx. doi.org/10.4102/ the.v1i1.2).
Fourie, M., 1999, Institutional Transformation at South African Universities: Im- plications for Academic Staff, Higher Education, Vol. 38, pp. 275–290 (http:// dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1003768229291).
Francis, D. and Hemson, C., 2010, Initiating Debate, South African Journal of Higher Education, Special issue on Transformation, Vol. 24, No. 6, pp. 875–880.
Fullan, M. and Scott, G., 2009, Turnaround Leadership in Higher Education, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Gallos, J. V., 2002, The Dean’s Squeeze: The Myths and Realities of Academic Lead- ership in the Middle, Academy of Management Learning & Education, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 174–184 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/40214150). Accessed 2 July 2019.
Gevers, W., 2016, Helping to Lead a University: A Job Not What It Seems, in Re- flections of South African University Leaders (1981 to2014), Cape Town: African Minds & Council on Higher Education.
Gmelch, W. H. and Miskin, V. D., 1993, Leadership Skills for Department Chairs, Bolton: Anker Publishing Company, Inc.
Henkel, M., 2000, Academic Identities and Policy Change in Higher Education, Lon- don, UK: Jessica Kingsley.
Herbst, T. H. H. and Garg, A. K., 2017, Transformational Leadership Potential at a University of Technology, The Journal of Applied Business Research, Vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 741–758.
Holloway, I. and Wheeler, S., 2010, Qualitative Research in Nursing and Healthcare, 3rd ed., Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), 2014, State of Poverty and its Mani- festation in the Nine Provinces of South Africa, Johannesburg: Human Sciences Research Council.
Koen, J. and Durrheim, K., 2009, A Naturalistic Observational Study of Informal Seg- regation: Seating Patterns in Lectures, Environment and Behavior, Vol. 42, No. 4, pp. 448–468 (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0013916509336981). Accessed 12 May 2019.
Kogan, M. and Teichler, U., eds., 2007, Key Challenges to The Academic Profession (Werkstattberichte, Vol. 65), Kassel: International Centre for Higher Education Research Kassel.
Leaming, D. R., 2006, Academic Leadership: A Practical Guide to Chairing the Department, 2nd ed., San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Lester, S., 1999, An Introduction to Phenomenological Research, Taunton: Stan Lester De- velopments (http://www.sld.demon.co.uk/resmethy.pdf ). Accessed 7 June 2019.
Mader, C., Scott, G. and Razak, D. A., 2013, Effective Change Management, Governance and Policy for Sustainability Transformation in Higher Education, Management and Policy Journal, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 264–284.
Mohajan, H., 2018, Qualitative Research Methodology in Social Sciences and Related Subjects, Journal of Economic Development, Environment and People, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 23–48.
Montez, J. M., Wolverton, M. and Gmelch, W. H., 2003, The Roles And Challenges Of Deans, The Review of Higher Education, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 241–266. Moore, M. R. and Diamond, M. A., 2000, Academic Leadership Turning Vision into Reality, The Ernst & Young Foundation.
Ndimande, B. S., 2016, School Choice and Inequalities in Post-Apartheid South Africa, Global Education Review, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 33–49.
News 24, 2019, Pandor Disbands Fort Hare University Council, 27 April (https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/pandor-disbands-fort-hare-university-council-20190426). Accessed 25 May 2019.
Ngcamu, B. S. and Teferra, D., 2015, Leadership and Transformation in a South African University, Problems and Perspectives in Management, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 208–216.
Nguyen, T. L. H., 2013, Middle-Level Academic Management: A Case Study on The Roles of the Heads of Departments at a Vietnamese University, Tertiary Education and Management, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 1–15 (DOI: 10.1080/13583883.2012.724704).
Schrieff, L., Tredoux, C., Dixon, J. and Finchilescu, G., 2005, Patterns of Racial Segregation in University Residence Dining-Halls, South African Journal of Psychology, Vol. 35, pp. 433–443.
Schultze, U. and Avital, M., 2011, Designing Interviews to Generate Rich Data for Information Systems Research, Information and Organization, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 1–16.
Seale, O., 2004, Rooting for Management Capacity in South African Higher Educa- tion, Paper Presented at the HESDA Staff Development Conference, 4 November.
Seale, O. and Cross, M., 2016, Leading and Managing in Complexity: The Case of South African Deans, Studies in Higher Education, Vol. 41, No. 8, pp. 1514–1532 (DOI:10.1080/03075079.2014.988705).
Soudien, C., 2010, Grasping the Nettle? South African Higher Education and its Transformative Imperatives, South African Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 24, No. 5, pp. 881–896.
Soudien, C., 2015, Looking Backwards: How to Be a South African University, Educational Research for Social Change (ERSC), Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 8–21.
South Africa, Department of Education, 1997, Education White Paper 3: A Programme for The Transformation of Higher Education, Government Gazette, No. 390 (18515), Pretoria: Government Printers.
Statistics South Africa, 2017, Poverty Trends in South Africa: An Examination of Absolute Poverty Between 2006 and 2015, Pretoria: Stats SA.
Swanson, R. A. and Holton III, E. F., 1997, Research Handbook: Linking Research and Practice, San Francisco: Berret-Koehler Publishers.
Tucker, A., 1993, Chairing the Academic Department: Leadership Among Peers, 3rd ed., Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press.
Van Niekerk, M. M., 2005, Transformational Leadership at A Higher Education Institution, Master of Arts in Industrial and Organisational Psychology, University of South Africa.
Van Wyk, B., 2005, Performativity in Higher Education Transformation in South Africa, South African Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 19, No. 1, pp. 5–19.
Waghid, Y., 2002, Knowledge Production and Higher Education Transformation in South Africa: Towards Reflexivity in University Teaching, Research and Community Service, Higher Education, Vol. 43, pp. 457–488 (http://dx.doi. org/10.1023/A:1015211718131).
Walia, R., 2015, A Saga of Qualitative Research, Social Crimonol, Vol. 5, No. 2, p. 124.
Whitchurch, C., 2006, Who Do They Think They Are? The Hanging Identities of Professional Administrators and Managers in UK Higher Education, Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 159–171.
Whitchurch, C., 2008, Shifting Identities and Blurring Boundaries: The Emergence of Third Space Professionals in UK Higher Education, Higher Education Quarterly, Vol. 62, No. 4, pp. 377–396.
Wolverton, M., Ackerman, R. and Holt, S., 2005, Preparing for Leadership: What Academic Department Chairs Need to Know, Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, Vol. 27, No. 2, pp. 227–238.
Wolverton, M., Gmelch, W. H., Wolverton, M. L. and Sarros, J. C., 1999, A Comparison of Department Chair Tasks in Australia and the United States, Higher Education, Vol. 38, No. 3, p. 18.