ADMIN •
4.6 NUL's TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE LEADERSHIP
In transformation, there are individuals who provide the vision and the broad direction for the transformation and make the fundamental decisions which set the major transformation process in motion, through planning, organizing, consulting informing, coordinating and so on. However, managers of change are not always powerful and clear about what they can and cannot control or change within a transforming organization. Planned organizational change requires an appropriate form of leadership style. In plain terms, leadership is achieving things through other people. Weak leadership can wreck even the soundest of strategies, but on the other hand, forceful execution of poor plans can often bring victory. What matters is matching the style to the internal and external context of the organization.
The leadership style appropriate for any changing organization should be matched with the organization's position on its lifecycle as well as the type of change required to make the organization profitable and competitive within the industry.
Figure 4.5 NUL's Life Cycle
Risk taker Caretaker
Introduction Growth
Surgeon
Maturity
Undertaker NUL
Decline
The model in Figure 4.5 indicates that NUL is in a mature phase of its life cycle and is at the brink of experiencing a decline. The decline is caused by NUL not being able to meet stakeholder requirements and needs due to staff inefficiencies and ineffectiveness. This is also a result of the fact that NUL has failed to become self-sufficient and still depends on the Government subvention fund for its financing thus this has serious implications for the quality of services NUL provides to its stakeholders. This compromises the quality of scholarship, graduates and research that the university produces. The leadership that NUL requires to spearhead its transformation process is one that will be able to turn it around to become more efficient, effective, and provide quality services to all stakeholders concerned.
NUL is at a stage that requires a strong leadership of a surgeon who has the capability of selectiveness, knows what has to be changed when and how, someone who is decisive and is able to make tough decisions without fear of staff reactions as long as it is for the good of the organization. NUL's transformational change leadership should be visionary with a clear focus on where the organization is headed and how it is to get there. The required transformational leader should have charisma to provide a vision and a sense of mission that instils pride, gains respect and trust for the transformation. The leader should also be inspirational to be able to communicate high expectations, use symbols to focus efforts and to
be able to express complex but important purposes in a simple manner. Moreover, the leader should have intellectual simulation and individualized consideration to enable him to promote intelligence, rationality, careful problem-solving, give personal attention, treat each employee individually as well as to coach and advise employees accordingly.
NUL has appointed a director to lead its transformational change process from within the institute. The Director of the Transformation is Dr Makoala Marake who has been with the university for over a decade and at the time of appointment was serving as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Soil and Conservation in the Faculty of Agriculture. He possesses special skills in negotiation, conciliation, and public speaking; and has academic prowess, adequate academic experience, and professional know-how as well as a passion for change tempered with prudence. As indicated by Lebohang Chefa, NUL's information officer, Dr Marake has a vision and commitment to help NUL make a positive difference "moving from the past, in the present, towards the future", and is the right man to steer the University boat into turbulent waters of uncertainty to the shore of certitude. Dr Marake possesses the necessary skills and capability to be NUL's change agent. His enthusiasm and dedication to see the transformation process become a success are inspired by a commitment and dedication to a paradigm shift from conventional approaches to innovative and transformative development initiatives.
Having served in the strategic planning team that laid the foundation for the transformation, the Director of Transformation is convinced that what NUL needs to become a leading higher learning centre of excellence, is commitment by all staff members to the purposeful change process to reverse the crisis of the university. The Director believes that nothing short of a big transformational change will save the University from an impeding academic and management decay.
Dr Marake appears to be the appropriate leader of NUL's transformation as he has foresight of a future state of the University delivering service excellence through transformation. Through his time at NUL he is quite clear of the constraints and circumstances of the University departments, and of what needs to be changed within the Institution, what kind of a future organization NUL is supposed to be and how through his leadership and University community support, NUL will achieve its transformational goals. He is also aware that for the transformation to be successful, it requires a managed process. His role is, therefore, to
nurture the University culture in order to facilitate a deliberate break from the historical academic and management logic that has carried the University thus far. His role entails, among other things, to articulate to internal and external stakeholders a new context encapsulating where NUL has come from, where it is now and where it is headed, as well as to convert purpose to strategic action by facilitating pragmatic activities to fulfil the new purposes of NUL.
The question that remains is whether with his capability, vision, enthusiasm and charismatic leadership, the Director of Transformation will get the necessary support, loyalty and commitment to the transformation by fellow staff members to ensure that together they all strive for the success of the transformation process and a better future for NUL. However, some people may argue that academic experience and familiarity with the institute and its problems does not mean that the selection of the change agent from within the university was a good strategic move by the university management. Maybe the change agent should have been selected from outside consultants who have the appropriate capability and no stake in the change process. This would ensure greater objectivity and much more focus on the activity without any other interventions.