Lau, Pui Kwan = 兩所大學的故事 : 組織文化與通識教育改革 / 劉珮君. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 305-329). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese. / Lau, Pui Kwan = Liang suo da xue de gu shi : zu zhi wen hua yu tong shi jiao yu gai ge / Liu Peijun.

Leadership is a problematic topic at universities and it is therefore difficult to isolate a leadership theory that is applicable to Heads of Department (HODs). The manner in which HODs construe their leadership roles is the focus of this research project and the study is conducted from a constructivist perspective The university context in which HODs lead is explored in the literature overview. Definitions of leadership, general leadership theories and leadership issues in academe are investigated. The research findings are integrated into a leadership model for HODs, consisting of constructs (leadership behaviours, actions and values) and elements (leadership situations). The following contributions are made by the study: * The variety roles an HOD has to fulfil is confirmed by the study. However, this study indicates that leadership is interwoven with everything an HOD undertakes. * HODs construct their roles uniquely, but in general terms most HODs consider academic and scholarly work (own and that of the department) as part of the leadership role they fulfil. Leadership at HOD level at university incorporates both managerial and leadership ideas. * HODs consider their leadership environment to have qualities of the following known university environments: collegial, enterprise, bureaucratic and corporate. * This study identifies eight leadership themes with reference to the leadership role of an HOD at university; providing academic guidance, being a figurehead, determining the strategy and positioning the department, liaising with internal and external stakeholders, being a change agent, being a general manager, and being involved in student and staff relations. The following leadership themes can be added to the current body of literature: being a figurehead, own scholarly profile, as well as being involved in staff and student relations. Leadership at academic departments is at the heart of everything in which an HOD is involved. Leadership is thus becoming indispensable at academic departments at university. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology) / D. Com. (Consulting Psychology)

This study was prompted by an interest in exploring ways in which the development of private higher education in Malawi could be more sustainable. It examines the challenges that private institutions of higher education face in different contexts and the underlying causes of these challenges. The aim of the study was to explore the emergence of private higher education (PHE) in Malawi, its management, development, the challenges it faces and the generative mechanisms of these challenges. The research is a case study of one of the earliest private institutions of higher education in Malawi. The institution is owned and operated by a Christian church organisation that has been operating a network of private primary and secondary schools and health centres since its establishment in Malawi in the early 1890s. Critical realism is used as an underlabourer for its stance on ontological, epistemological and ethical assumptions of reality and its views on agency and structure. Two theoretical frameworks - complexity theory and transformational leadership theories - are used as lenses to help make sense of the nature of social organisations and also as heuristic devices for organising and making sense of data. Data were collected using qualitative interviews, archival document content analysis and observation. Twenty participants were purposefully selected for interviews. The participants comprised a senior officer at the MoEST headquarters, proprietors, members of the top management team of the institution, administrative assistants, heads of academic and nonacademic departments, teachers and non-teaching staff and students. Abstracted data were analysed using inductive, abductive and retroductive modes of inference. The study established that the emergence of private higher education in Malawi was generated by a number of mechanisms. These include the need to survive the threat to socioeconomic development posed by global trends in scientific and technological issues that heavily rely on access to the knowledge economy; the need to respond to demand for equity and access to higher education; the need to carry out the mission of the Christian church; government’s failure to expand and widen access to higher education; and the agential need to survive economic demands. The research findings indicate that a critical challenge that the emergence of private higher education faced was the lack of adequate and efficient structures and systems in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology to expeditiously process applications to establish and accredit, monitor and control the development of private higher education institutions. It was also found that the challenges that the private higher education faces include high level of authoritarian governance and management practices, weak institutional management and control systems and structure, secularisation, lack of adequate funds to meet operation and capital development costs, facilities and resources to support teaching – learning functions, learner support facilities and services and a critical shortage of appropriately qualified administrative and academic personnel. The underlying causes of the challenges include the perceived threat to personal power and survival; fear of apostasy and secularisation; cultural values, adverse socioeconomic conditions; lack of diverse sources of funding, ineffective communication skills; weak governance systems and structures; low level of self-control; unfavourable attitudes towards educational institutions and the need to restore equity. To make private institutions of higher learning more sustainable, the study recommends that governance practices be guided by clear structures, policies and guidelines in the interest of transparency and accountability. It also recommends that government works in close partnership with private providers, reviews unfair policies concerning government scholarships, subsidizes the cost of materials for instruction and infrastructure development, and provides technical assistance to prospective and active providers. Lastly, the study recommends that private providers form an association so as to share experiences and to collectively deal with issues of common interest and concern. / Adobe Acrobat 9.53 Paper Capture Plug-in

Market orientation is generally defined as the implementation of the marketing concept within organizations. It has been operationalized by such dimensions as customer orientation (the pursuit of customer satisfaction), Competitor Orientation, Inter-functional Coordination, and Responsiveness. According to a growing body of literature, this strategy is likely to help higher educational institutions in their effort overcome the challenges and pressures of their changing environment (these are: massification, professionalisation, budget constraints, the rise of stakeholders’ requirements in terms of quality control and accountability… In this research, I first object that those researchers who are suggesting market orientation as the suitable strategy have said nothing as for its content or definition. I also contend that empirical works using higher educational setting to operationalize the market orientation strategy are just conceptual transpositions, which do not consider the specificities of higher education institutions as compared to private firms. These shortcomings are the theoretical justification of my research. Hence, after showing the origin of the market orientation rhetoric in higher education, I develop a new conceptualization of the strategy and suggest a new scale for its measurement. The following dimensions composed my suggested scale: Stakeholder orientation (Students, policy-makers, and organizations), Competitor Orientation, Collaboration, Inter-functional Coordination, and Responsiveness. The empirical validation of these dimensions was enriched by a quantitative assessment of the place of the market orientation strategy within the mission statements of higher educational institutions. This research is one attempt in a whole ongoing trend towards research on how to relevantly import private sector strategies into public and nonprofit sector organizations, among which, higher education/<p><p>L'Orientation-Marché est généralement définie comme étant l'implémentation du marketing dans les organisations. Une revue de littérature permet de l’opérationnaliser par les dimensions telles que l'Orientation clients qui consiste en la poursuite de satisfaction des clients, Orientation concurrents, Coordination inter/intra fonctionnelle, et la Réponse organisationnelle. Cette stratégie est de plus en plus évoquée comme pouvant aider les institutions d'enseignement supérieur à faire face aux défis tels que la massification, la professionnalisation, la réduction des financements, la montée des exigences des parties prenantes en termes de qualité. Dans cette thèse, je constate d'une part que certains chercheurs se limitent à proposer cette stratégie sans en définir le contenu, et d'autre part que les travaux empiriques existants sur l'Orientation-Marché dans l'enseignement supérieur se limitent à des transpositions conceptuelles, sans tenir compte des spécificités des institutions d'enseignement supérieur. C'est pour cette raison qu'après avoir démontré l'origine des discours sur l'Orientation-marché dans ce secteur, je développe une échelle de mesure susceptible d'Opérationnaliser cette stratégie. L'échelle comprend l'Orientation vers les parties prenantes (Etudiants, Décideurs politiques, Entreprises), l'Orientation Concurrents, la Collaboration, la Coordination Interfonctionnelle, et la Réponse organisationnelle comme principales dimensions. La validation empirique de ces dimensions a été enrichie par une évaluation quantitative de la place de l'Orientation-Marché dans les missions des institutions d'enseignement supérieur, telles que déclarées dans leurs différents documents. Cette recherche est une première ébauche dans tout un courant de recherches sur l'importations des stratégies de gestion privée dans les institutions à but non lucratif. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished