We are in an age where there are several societal and scientific challenges that are facing humanity. The academic researcher is not left out of this entire dilemma. The same researcher who is expected to be active in research within the university system is also expected to be committed to teaching and service assignments. The research task itself requires a lot of processes scattered around various work, culture, people and structure such as writing proposals, liaising with the research department, looking for materials in the library, learning appropriate applications with the Information Technology (IT) department etc.
The study is based on a case study of the University of Botswana. It uses the Nadler-Tushman Congruence Framework to perform a gap analysis on the current system. The outcome from the study is a proposed model to help align work, culture, people and structure. The blueprint provided by the model will allow one to see the real impact of change, identifying where gaps and opportunities exist, and understand how and where things can be improved for the benefit of all stakeholders. The paper also proposes that a more detailed model can be achieved using The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) architecture model.