Mergers and incorporations are relatively new phenomena in the South African
higher education landscape. The unbundling of Vista University, and the subsequent
incorporation ofVUDEC into the merger between Unisa and TSA, posed a major
challenge to all affected employees. This thesis focuses on how these employees
experienced the various stages of the incorporation process. A social construction of
inner and outer voices heard, shared, and read during the different phases of the
incorporation process attempts to describe how to conserve the self in a merger. The
aim of the thesis is to build towards a framework for dealing with the human aspect
during institutional mergers and incorporations. The thesis consists of a prologue, a
series of four manuscripts that report on the experiences of employees during the
different phases of the merger process, and an epilogue. Each manuscript focuses on
a specific phase or aspect of the incorporation process, with its own research focus,
aims, and methodology.
The first two manuscripts reflect on the pre-merger phase. The first manuscript
reports on employees' preparation for the incorporation. Following a social
constructionist grounded theory approach, four participating employees gained the
opportunity to reflect on their own experiences of well-being during the pre-merger
phase. The manuscript also reports on a wellness development workshop, attended by
35 representatives from various departments and units of Vista University during the
pre-merger phase.
The second manuscript reports on how employees embraced the VUDEC
institutional culture. A case study approach was selected for semi-structured
interviews with 17 participants from governance, academic and administrative
departments, and post-graduate programmes. By means of content analysis, the
institutional culture ofVUDEC was captured on the eve of the incorporation into
Unisa.
The third manuscript focuses on employees' experiences of the four-year transition
and implementation phases of the incorporation. This manuscript follows a social
identity approach, and through thematic analysis, reports on how 24 participants
experienced the four-year implementation of the incorporation process.
The fourth manuscript provides an overview of the human side of mergers as
depicted in both national and international literature. The aim is to position the
current longitudinal investigation and its findings in the broader higher education
landscape, and a survival kit for conserving the self in a merger is proposed. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/3112 |
| Date | 10 1900 |
| Creators | Fourie, Mattheus Eduard |
| Contributors | Snyders, F.J.A., Hoelson, C.L. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (xiv, 170 leaves) |
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