HOW I CAN CONTRIBUTE TO MY DEPARTMENT AND COLLEGE’S MANAGEMENT
Mtholeni N. Ngcobo
Linguistics
29 May 2009
Outline
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Organisation and managers
Management process
Levels of management
Management skills
The basic resources of Unisa
Contributing to my department and College’s management
Managing in a changing environment
Being prepared
Training and induction
Team building
Supervision procedures
Administrative systems and financial management
Teaching and learning
Teaching and learner support
Conclusion
Organisation and Managers
• Organisations need managers in order to
achieve their goals
• Managers have to deploy the basic
resources to help the organisation to
achieve its goals
• Managers must activate and guide the
organisation
• In this way the organisation is viewed as
the habitat of the manager
Management process
• Managers do not work in isolation
• Planning – to determine the organisation’s vision,
mission and goals
• Organising – allocation of resources to relevant
departments or individuals
• Leading – directing and motivating the human resources
• Controlling – to make sure that the organisation is on the
right track, i.e. to monitor performance and action
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Management is defined as the process of planning, organising, leading and
controlling the resources of the organisation to predetermined stated
organisational goals as productively as possible (Smit, Cronje,Brevis and
Vrba 2007)
Levels of management
• Top management
• Middle management – e.g. Deans in
colleges, concerned with implementing the
policies, plans and strategies formulated
by top management
• Lower/first-line management – e.g.
HODs/CODs, managing the daily activities
of their departments or sections
Management skills
• The manager is expected to inform and
communicate with his/her group
• Skills required in management – conceptual
skills, required for thinking and planning abilities
• Interpersonal skills, the ability to work with
people
• Technical skills, the ability to use knowledge of a
specific discipline to attain goals
• The manager also needs to be able to handle
the organisation’s resources
The basic resources of Unisa
• Human resources – lecturers and support
staff
• Financial resources – state subsidies,
investment income, student fees
• Physical resources – buildings, libraries,
lecture rooms, computers, conferencing
equipment
• Information resources – expertise in ODL,
research reports, annual reports
Contributing to my department and College’s
management
• Dept. of Linguistics falls under the College of
human sciences - 9th floor of Theo van Wyk bldg
• The Line manager is the HOD
• Challenges include unclear objectives, terms of
reference, meetings, de-motivated staff
members, supervision, low student retention,
outdated study matter
• Therefore my contribution will be on improving
management, teaching and learning
Managing in a changing
environment
• The main challenge to the middle and line
managers is to understand the Unisa
environment
• The university is going through a period of
change – post-merger and transformation
• Line managers will have to cope with
managing diversity in their groups
Being prepared
• The middle and first line managers must understand the
Unisa’s goals and objectives – these must also be
outlined to the staff members
• Environmental scanning through information
• Strategic response, e.g. mergers or joint ventures perhaps Linguistics must also be prepared to merge with
applied language departments when this is necessary
• Terms of reference need to be drawn up – so that it is
known who does what – and the boundaries must be
clarified
Training and induction
• Training – every manager needs to be trained by
attending courses on management skills
• This will help avoid ineffective or inefficient meetings –
detailed agendas must be drawn – background papers to
be available a fixed time in advance
• Managers also need to be inducted properly to their
roles
• They need to be given written agreements detailing what
is expected of them in a changing environment – a
follow-up review to be done by the college managers
Team building
• This is part of leading and motivating staff
members
• Working in collaboration may inspire selfconfidence
• The manager must make sure that all
employees have written contracts and that they
work as a team
• The employees must have precise written job
descriptions, e.g. teaching 3 modules
• All job descriptions must be reviewed annually
Supervision procedures
• There must be regular procedures for
overseeing and reviewing work, discussing
difficulties and clarifying how to proceed
• The line manager must create an
opportunity where workers will discuss
their progress and problems with each
other – learning from others may inspire
self-confidence
• Monitored regular appraisals for all staff
Administrative systems and
financial management
• Encourage staff members to do filing
• Propose improvement to the information
systems
• Prepare instruction sheets or a detailed
procedures book
• Managers must have basic financial training
• Information on finances must be made available
to all workers
Teaching and Learning
• This is our core business – students must
be at the centre of our concern – learning
as means of empowerment
• Involve students in decision making –
collect students perspectives by means of
questionnaires – this will help in course
design and review
• This will encourage openness, negotiation,
social justice and concern for others
Teaching and learner support
• Encourage context depended teaching
• Encourage the use of ICT – myUnisa
• Collaboration for learning – there must be a
proper moderation for both assignments and
exams as explained in the assessment policy
• Self-evaluation process – involves scrutinizing
the teaching and learning – line managers must
review modules offered in their departments
Conclusion
• Management is essential in providing a
good and productive working environment
• It is therefore important to keep a proper
and appropriate balance between effective
management and responsive, creative
services for the people we want to serve
Thank you