Exploring Mintzberg’s managerial roles of academic leaders at a selected higher education institution in South Africa

Abstract

Academic leaders at Higher Education Institutions in South Africa are applying various management principles to be effective and efficient in performing their duties as managers. It is imperative for these academic leaders to develop and apply effective management skills such as Mintzberg’s managerial strategies that will ensure constant improvement. The aim of this study was to explore the extent to which academic leaders at a selected higher education institution in South Africa, apply Mintzberg’s managerial roles in executing their functions as leaders within the institution. A descriptive survey research design was used in this study, employing a quantitative approach to inquiry. An online questionnaire was sent to the sample group for data collection. A non-probability sampling technique was used to select participants within a research population comprising of 150 academic leaders. The sample size selected for the study was 109 participants. Out of this number, 91 fully completed the questionnaire while 18 partially did so, giving a response rate of 83.49%. Data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS, 23). The following techniques were applied in the analysis: descriptive statistics, factor analysis and cross tabulations. Mintzberg’s managerial roles were found to be important to all academic leaders at the selected Higher Education Institution. The results of the study revealed that academic leaders at the selected institution apply all the three Mintzberg’s managerial roles. This, therefore, shows that Mintzberg’s managerial roles model is a contemporary and most effective management model to be applied by academic leaders in higher education institutions in order to adequately achieve their set objectives. It is recommended that all academic leaders of this selected Higher Education Institution should endeavour to motivate new staff to ensure that they work at their optimum abilities to achieve institutional goals. They should also check their attitude towards the staff and step up the amount of motivation towards them in order to boost productivity and performance as effective leadership starts with the right mind-set. A correct mind-set is founded upon the enthusiasm of leaders to motivate and boost the morale of subordinates.