Leadership in South African higher education : a multifaceted conceptualisation
Year: 2006
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This thesis explores the meaning of leadership in the context of higher \neducation in South Africa, a society in transition. The higher education \nsystem in the country is in a process of change from being fragmented and \nsegregated, to being a democratic one, guided by various policies. Within this \nfacilitative environment, very little is said about leadership yet 'leadership' \nhas been blamed in many instances where things have gone wrong. \nThis qualitative study consisting of semi-structured interviews with middlelevel \nacademic leaders, reveals inequalities in terms of who is leading at that \nlevel. The study also reveals an awareness of the existence of these \ninequities among the manager-leaders; they do, however, hold two distinct \nviewpoints about the causes of these inequities. A feminist and \npoststructuralist framework is used to analyse specific dimensions of the \nmanager-leaders' understandings and practices of leadership. \nIn the absence of a defined discourse of leadership, the manager-leaders are \ndrawing on their own personal experiences of how they have been and are \nled and their own practices of how they lead in order to conceptualise \nleadership and what constitutes a leader. The study shows that the managerleaders \nunderstand leadership as a combination of leadership practice, i.e. \nhow it is being enacted and their notions of characteristics desired in leaders. \nTheir descriptions of leadership seem to be characterised by relational \nelements. \nIn addition, the findings show that race and gender have specific implications \nfor leadership; from a racial perspective additional roles are added to the \ngeneral identified leadership practices while a gender perspective reveals \nseveral invisible leadership aspects. \nThe thesis therefore describes leadership as an activity or process influenced \nby contextual elements: historical imperatives, organisational factors, and \npersonal and group constructs, such as race and gender.
Source: IOE EPrints
Author: Patricia Smit
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1883544394