Abstract
D.Phil.
The restructuring of the South African Higher Education landscape in postapartheid
era has been the scene of vast organisational change as numerous
mergers between Higher Education Institutions have typified this transformation.
One such a merger is the merger between the Technikon Witwatersrand, the
Rand Afrikaans University and two campuses of Vista University (namely the East
Rand and Soweto Campuses) into the University of Johannesburg.
Announced on 31 May 2002 and intended to be effective as of 1 January 2005,
this merger represents the birth of the largest residential university in South Africa
and presents the opportunity of studying the effects of all-encompassing change
on employees first hand. In terms of organisational change – with mergers
representing a specific type of organisational change – it is apparent that the
effect of change on staff members is not only a widely overlooked matter in
practice, but also in organisational change literature (and in mergers and
acquisitions literature in particular).
This study explores the merger experiences of academic staff at the University of
Johannesburg and also examines the role leadership has played in these
experiences. Using an Interpretive, case study design, 40 academic staff
members were interviewed. These research subjects were selected on a
purposive basis from all faculties across all campuses. Using the Strauss and
Corbin application of Grounded Theory, the collected data was analysed to
construct the reality of academic staffs’ merger experiences and perceptions of
the merger at the University of Johannesburg.
In terms of the University of Johannesburg, findings indicate that institutional
predisposition is a major contributor to shaping research subjects’ initial attitude
toward the pending merger. Furthermore, the interim phase that the University
found itself in directly after merger the date, was a cause of great discontent
amongst academic staff and was seen as the greatest debilitating factor to the
successful roll-out of the merger. The study indicates that academic staff relay
their experiences and perceptions of the merger in three discernable time frames,
or perspectives, each with its own unique dynamic. Collectively, these three
perspectives constitute the Reflective Experience of Mergers (REM) theory, which
examines how the merger experiences of academic staff shape their perceptions
of and attitudes toward the merger over time.
The REM-theory reiterates the temporal nature of change; it is a phenomenon that
evolves over time in discernable stages. Furthermore the REM-theory also
underscores the effect change has on the emotional and psychological well being
of individuals over time. The REM-theory also highlights the important role
leadership plays in a merger as, in the case of the University of Johannesburg,
research subjects tended to be far more critical of deficiencies in leadership as
opposed to deficiencies in management.