Women, Leadership, and Organizational Culture in Higher Education: Lessons Learned from South Africa and Ghana

2016 ◽  
pp. 75-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reitumetse Obakeng Mabokela ◽  
Yeukai A. Mlambo
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Women Leadership

A case study of transformation in four African universities.

2021 ◽  
pp. 240-250
Author(s):  
David Kraybill ◽  
Moses Osiru
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Agricultural Education ◽  
Transformation Process ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Institutional Transformation ◽  
The University

Abstract This chapter presents selected analytical narratives of successful institutional transformation of tertiary agricultural education (TAE) from four African universities. The four universities analysed are Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya (JKUAT); Gulu University, Uganda (GU); University of Abomey Calavi, Benin (UAC); and the University of Venda, South Africa (UNIVEN). The study examines what each of the universities changed, and how they went about effecting and supporting those changes. The discussion focuses on both 'soft changes' in organizational culture and strategies, and 'hard changes' in enrolments, staffing, programmes, departments, faculties/colleges and campuses. Outcomes of the transformation process are described, along with lessons learned.

scholarly journals ‘You have to keep your head on your shoulders’: A systems psychodynamic perspective on women leaders

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claude-Helene Mayer ◽  
Louise Tonelli ◽  
Rudolf M. Oosthuizen ◽  
Sabie Surtee
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Women Leaders ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Women Leadership ◽  
Tongue Position ◽  
Context Specific ◽  
Education Resource ◽  
Role Confusion

Background:Women leaders within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in South Africa have increased in numbers over the past years and they have changed the dynamics in these institutions. Yet, it is a subject that has hardly been explored from the perspective of women leaders.Aim:The aim of this study is to explore the experiences of women leaders in HEIs from a systems psychodynamic perspective using the conflict, identity, boundaries, authority, roles, task (CIBART) model, a well-researched model to analyse systems psychodynamics and to gain a deeper understanding of (un)conscious dynamics within organisations.Methods:This qualitative study is based on Dilthey‘s modern hermeneutics. Interviews were conducted with 23 women leaders from the Higher Education Resource Services South Africa, network across 8 HEIs. Observations were conducted in one organisation to support the data analysis and interpretation. Data were analysed through content analysis.Findings:Findings show that women leaders re-evaluate and reconstruct themselves constantly within organisations. This continuous re-evaluation and reconstruction become visible through the constructs of the CIBART model. The findings reveal deeper insights into systems psychodynamics, which considers anxiety within the system where women leaders seem to contain such anxiety by mobilising specific defence mechanisms. Certain diversity markers, such as race, gender, mother tongue, position within the organisation and generational belonging play a role in creating the dynamics. Women leaders’ experience of de-authorisation and role confusion impacts significantly on women leadership and their action towards ownership.Practical implications: The study provides new, valuable and context-specific insights into women leadership seen through the lens of the CIBART model, highlighting unconscious dynamics that need practical attention in the HEIs to empower women leaders for gender-specific leadership training.Originality or value: Findings provide a foundation for future research on women leaders and applied solutions to empower women leaders, whilst reducing anxiety within the system. The study provides complex insights, which should create increasing awareness in women leaders towards being containers of anxiety and creating new ways of empowered women leadership.

scholarly journals Existing organizational culture typologies and organizational commitment at a selected higher education institution in South Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ndlovu Wiseman ◽  
Hlanganipai Ngirande ◽  
Sam Tlou Setati
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Organizational Culture ◽  
Organizational Commitment ◽  
Pearson Correlation ◽  
Education Institution ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Higher Education Institution ◽  
Continuance Commitment ◽  
The Relationship

The study investigates the relationship between organizational culture and organization commitment at a higher education institution in South Africa. Quantitative research approach was used and 30 participants were chosen at random from academic and non-academic employees of the university. Furthermore, in order to gather data, the study used a structured questionnaire regarding the effects of existing organizational culture on organizational commitment. Pearson correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between existing organizational culture typologies and facets of organizational commitment. The study revealed that different culture typologies bring about different levels of organizational commitment. Moreover, support of culture had a strong significant relationship with normative and continuance commitment. This means that if the organization shows the sense care and support to its employees, they will develop an obligatory sense of belonging and help the organization in attaining its objectives.

USE OF BLENDED LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION – SOME EXPERIENCES

2015 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
R J Singh
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Distance Learning ◽  
Blended Learning ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
E Learning ◽  
Face To Face Learning ◽  
Made In

This article reports on the use of blended learning in higher education. Blended learning has become popular in higher education in recent years. It is a move beyond traditional lecturing to incorporate face-to-face learning with e-learning, thereby creating a blend of learning experiences. The problem is that learning in higher education is complex and learning situations differ across contexts. Whilst there is face-to-face contact at some institutions, others offer distance learning or correspondence learning. In each context, the mode of learning may differ. The challenge is to cater for various learning opportunities through a series of learning interactions and to incorporate a blended approach. The aim of this study was to examine various ways of defining blended learning in different contexts. This was done through an examination of experiences of the use of blended learning in different higher education contexts. The study presents a case of blended learning in a postgraduate course. The experiences from all these cases are summarised and conclusions and recommendations are made in the context of blended learning in higher education in South Africa.

Challenges Posed by Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for South African Higher Education Institutions

10.28945/2679 ◽  
2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
ME Herselman ◽  
HR Hay
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
Revolutionary Change ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Teaching Learning

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are the major driving forces of globalised and knowledge-based societies of a new world era. They will have a profound impact on teaching and learning for two decades to come. The revolutionary change which is taking place in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), has dramatic effects on the way universities carry out their functions of teaching, learning and research, particularly on the creation, dissemination and application of knowledge. These developments pose unprecedented challenges to higher education institutions (HEIs) in developing countries particular in South Africa as South Africa is viewed as the leading country on the continent.

Winning the Argument and Moving the Fight: The Legacy of a Grassroots Humanitarian

Public Voices ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 115
Author(s):  
Mary Coleman
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
United States ◽  
Winning Strategy ◽  
Supreme Court Decision ◽  
The United States ◽  
Colleges And Universities ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Trade Offs

The author of this article argues that the two-decades-long litigation struggle was necessary to push the political actors in Mississippi into a more virtuous than vicious legal/political negotiation. The second and related argument, however, is that neither the 1992 United States Supreme Court decision in Fordice nor the negotiation provided an adequate riposte to plaintiffs’ claims. The author shows that their chief counsel for the first phase of the litigation wanted equality of opportunity for historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), as did the plaintiffs. In the course of explicating the role of a legal grass-roots humanitarian, Coleman suggests lessons learned and trade-offs from that case/negotiation, describing the tradeoffs as part of the political vestiges of legal racism in black public higher education and the need to move HBCUs to a higher level of opportunity at a critical juncture in the life of tuition-dependent colleges and universities in the United States. Throughout the essay the following questions pose themselves: In thinking about the Road to Fordice and to political settlement, would the Justice Department lawyers and the plaintiffs’ lawyers connect at the point of their shared strength? Would the timing of the settlement benefit the plaintiffs and/or the State? Could plaintiffs’ lawyers hold together for the length of the case and move each piece of the case forward in a winning strategy? Who were plaintiffs’ opponents and what was their strategy? With these questions in mind, the author offers an analysis of how the campaign— political/legal arguments and political/legal remedies to remove the vestiges of de jure segregation in higher education—unfolded in Mississippi, with special emphasis on the initiating lawyer in Ayers v. Waller and Fordice, Isaiah Madison

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