Abstract
M.Com. (Business Management)
The commercial sustainability of an institution of higher learning depends on the
number of students that enrol each year, the quality and quantity of research output
and the institution’s ability to produce excellent academic standards. Institutions
must compete for students and still remain financially buoyant, since the amount of
funding received from government depends on the enrolment capacity and the
research output. The financial support, which has reduced over the years, made
these universities to seek other ways to reduce operational costs. It is for this reason
that the institutions have increasingly adopted an outsourcing strategy to save costs
and maintain quality.
The trend is that institutions of higher learning have embraced outsourcing in recent
years and the rate seems high. Although outsourcing is widely accepted, the
question is whether outsourcing academic services plays any role in maintaining
greater services, reduced costs and better academic qualifications or whether higher
education is on the path to ruin due to outsourcing. Therefore this study aims at
investigating the cost savings and service delivery standards achieved through
outsourcing of academic services while an attempt is also made to determine
whether outsourcing affects the quality of academic qualifications and the loyalty of
the full-time employed staff at the Faculty of Management, University of
Johannesburg.
This research employs a qualitative case study strategy, an empirically explanatory
study that investigates the extent and the effect on cost effectiveness, quality and
integrity of outsourced academic services in the Faculty. The research evaluates the
claim that an external outsourcing strategy achieves a cost reduction compared to
using internal resources. The heads of the eight departments in the faculty and the
executive dean were selected for interviews, and although only six out of the eight
heads responded, their knowledge and experience in the outsourcing process within
the faculty were explored.
Qualitative data analysis includes four steps: compiling, disassembling,
reassembling and interpreting before concluding. These steps are described in
chapter 3. Qualitative data was collected using in-depth interviews, documentation...