The Influence of Leadership Development Opportunities on the Career Aspirations of Professional Staff: A Case Study of a Selected South African University
Date
2024-12
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Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
Abstract
Effective leaders are critical for guiding organisations to success and growth, and to navigate a changing economic and global landscape. In higher education, and particularly in South African higher education, effective leaders are critical for helping their institutions navigate a transforming context. This research study sought to explore how this leadership can be sustained within higher education institutions through leadership development. The study focuses on professional management-level staff in a selected university in South Africa and their experiences of leadership development, both within and outside the organisation. The study sought to align their access to leadership development opportunities with their career aspirations to ascertain how well (if at all) the institutional leadership development initiatives support the leadership progression of the professional staff. Through a qualitative case study methodology, this research employed interviews and document analysis to collect the data. A total of ten participants were purposively selected to take part in the study, nine of whom were middle to senior management staff in professional positions, while one participant was located in the training centre that administers staff training for the university’s professional and academic staff. Thematic analysis was used to draw themes from the data. In addition, conceptual themes related to career progression were drawn from the literature and helped to frame the presentation of the results and recommendations of the study. The findings of the study show that there are both internal and external opportunities for leadership development. The internal opportunities include secondments, internal training programmes, academic qualifications from the institution, conference presentations within the institution and bursary funding to study outside the institution. External opportunities were in the form of academic qualifications from other universities, exchange programmes, special field-related training programmes, and conference presentations. The study also discusses the leadership development experiences of the participants, and how these relate to their career aspirations. The study shows that having career aspirations is the main driver for participants to aspire to be in leadership roles, and hence seek out leadership development opportunities both within and outside of the university. The following recommendations arose from the study: the importance of line manager support; having development plans for staff; having mentoring programmes that enhance staff leadership development; coaching; relevant training and development programmes for middle management staff; introducing succession planning within departments; career pathing; and supporting the career aspirations of staff.
Description
Thesis (MPA)--Stellenbosch University, 2024.