The analysis of the leadership governance in South African universities.

Abstract

The concepts of good leadership and governance have been topics of great interest to scholars, where most of the studies in this respect were confined to large corporations and businesses, and not focused on the education landscape. Due to changes in government funding criteria for higher education institutions, they are now operating using business-like practices to cope with and to survive competition in the global market place. A literature review reveals that poor leadership governance is a major problem facing South African institutions today. The literature indicates that poor leadership governance leads to high levels of dropouts and low levels of throughput in universities. Some researchers point out that there is a lack of leadership with the vision to push the agenda for open access to publishing to accredited journals. Those universities with resource problems can assist those which are lacking. The literature reviewed further indicates that leadership involves good relationships with others in order to ensure unity and cohesion in decision-making. Transformation has been discussed as an important aspect of leadership governance for universities to enable them to tap into the micro-environmental behaviours of their stakeholders. This study therefore aimed to investigate the problem of leadership and governance and suggest solutions. The aim of this study was to assess and examine critical leadership governance styles, and identify contributing factors that might influence the leadership governance of all universities in South Africa. In addition, it proposes procedures to be adopted for leadership governance within these universities. The study answered questions on the role of leadership governance at universities, and to what extent leadership governance influences policies implemented within universities. The targeted population were members of senates from the traditional universities and universities of technology in South Africa. Questionnaires and interviews were used to collect primary data. Questionnaires were delivered to prospective respondents from all universities in South Africa. Research officers and registrars for institutions were approached to obtain permission to conduct research at their universities. With the assistance of the research officers and registrars, the link to a Survey Monkey questionnaire was e-mailed for distribution to the participants. Statistical analysis was employed, and quantitative data was descriptively analyzed, with results presented using various types of graphs. The data was analyzed using the SPSS Version 24.0 statistical software programme. The qualitative data was analyzed through inductive approach using research themes. The empirical findings indicate that there is a strong relationship between the type of universities and the process of reviewing policies and procedures. The main conclusion drawn from this study is the need for inclusion of diverse stakeholders in leadership governance and the consideration of their contributions. This study recommends further research to be conducted with other targeted populations from universities.