Abstract
The role played by tertiary institutions goes beyond education and research, but also procreation of new business ventures and solving current socio-economic problems. These social obligations of tertiary education serve as the underpinning for its actuality and existence. There is a growing sense that tertiary institutions lack the necessary dynamism needed to continuously align and realign assets in order to achieve the necessary congruence with the environment. This observation does not emanate from intransigence, but is instead suggestive of the need for strategic management frameworks based on the emergent concept of dynamic capabilities. Strategy implementation, particularly in tertiary institutions, is one of the current areas of research and the importance of dynamic capabilities as a catalyst of growth imperatives is cardinal.
The aim of this research was to explore the catalytic role of dynamic capabilities on strategy implementation at a private college operating in South Africa with a goal to overcome capacity issues around strategic change. This research drew on dynamic capabilities theory, for clues as to how organisations become dynamic through bolstering sensing, seizing and transformation capacities.
The study followed a qualitative approach, with a single case as the research strategy. An interpretivist role was assumed because it allowed qualification of phenomena through illumination, understanding and exploration in a context-specific setting. Furthermore, it preserved the originality of interviewees’ interpretation regarding the catalytic role of dynamic capabilities on strategy formulation and implementation. Content analysis was utilised to analyse the rich textual data generated from the interviews conducted.
The study revealed the presence of sensing and seizing capacities at the private college. It was, however, established that there were inadequacies in the college’s ability to transform within the context of dynamic capabilities as provided in the framework. The conclusion reached in the study was that dynamic capabilities are catalytic in nature and therefore the implementation of strategy should balance the three capacities namely, sensing, seizing and transforming. It was consequently, recommended that the private college should further investigate possibilities of...
M.Com. (Business Management)