HOW I CAN CONTRIBUTE TO MY DEPARTMENT AND COLLEGE’S MANAGEMENTMtholeni N. Ngcobo

Linguistics

29 May 2009

Outline • Organisation and managers• Management process• Levels of management• Management skills• The basic resources of Unisa• Contributing to my department and College’s management• Managing in a changing environment• Being prepared• Training and induction• Team building• Supervision procedures• Administrative systems and financial management• Teaching and learning• Teaching and learner support• Conclusion

Organisation and Managers

• Organisations need managers in order to achieve their goals

• Managers have to deploy the basic resources to help the organisation to achieve its goals

• Managers must activate and guide the organisation

• In this way the organisation is viewed as the habitat of the manager

Management process

• Managers do not work in isolation• Planning – to determine the organisation’s vision,

mission and goals• Organising – allocation of resources to relevant

departments or individuals• Leading – directing and motivating the human resources• Controlling – to make sure that the organisation is on the

right track, i.e. to monitor performance and action• Management is defined as the process of planning, organising, leading and

controlling the resources of the organisation to predetermined stated organisational goals as productively as possible (Smit, Cronje,Brevis and Vrba 2007)

Levels of management

• Top management

• Middle management – e.g. Deans in colleges, concerned with implementing the policies, plans and strategies formulated by top management

• Lower/first-line management – e.g. HODs/CODs, managing the daily activities of their departments or sections

Management skills

• The manager is expected to inform and communicate with his/her group

• Skills required in management – conceptual skills, required for thinking and planning abilities

• Interpersonal skills, the ability to work with people

• Technical skills, the ability to use knowledge of a specific discipline to attain goals

• The manager also needs to be able to handle the organisation’s resources

The basic resources of Unisa

• Human resources – lecturers and support staff

• Financial resources – state subsidies, investment income, student fees

• Physical resources – buildings, libraries, lecture rooms, computers, conferencing equipment

• Information resources – expertise in ODL, research reports, annual reports

Contributing to my department and College’s management

• Dept. of Linguistics falls under the College of human sciences - 9th floor of Theo van Wyk bldg

• The Line manager is the HOD• Challenges include unclear objectives, terms of

reference, meetings, de-motivated staff members, supervision, low student retention, outdated study matter

• Therefore my contribution will be on improving management, teaching and learning

Managing in a changing environment

• The main challenge to the middle and line managers is to understand the Unisa environment

• The university is going through a period of change – post-merger and transformation

• Line managers will have to cope with managing diversity in their groups

Being prepared

• The middle and first line managers must understand the Unisa’s goals and objectives – these must also be outlined to the staff members

• Environmental scanning through information• Strategic response, e.g. mergers or joint ventures -

perhaps Linguistics must also be prepared to merge with applied language departments when this is necessary

• Terms of reference need to be drawn up – so that it is known who does what – and the boundaries must be clarified

Training and induction

• Training – every manager needs to be trained by attending courses on management skills

• This will help avoid ineffective or inefficient meetings – detailed agendas must be drawn – background papers to be available a fixed time in advance

• Managers also need to be inducted properly to their roles

• They need to be given written agreements detailing what is expected of them in a changing environment – a follow-up review to be done by the college managers

Team building

• This is part of leading and motivating staff members

• Working in collaboration may inspire self-confidence

• The manager must make sure that all employees have written contracts and that they work as a team

• The employees must have precise written job descriptions, e.g. teaching 3 modules

• All job descriptions must be reviewed annually

Supervision procedures

• There must be regular procedures for overseeing and reviewing work, discussing difficulties and clarifying how to proceed

• The line manager must create an opportunity where workers will discuss their progress and problems with each other – learning from others may inspire self-confidence

• Monitored regular appraisals for all staff

Administrative systems and financial management

• Encourage staff members to do filing• Propose improvement to the information

systems• Prepare instruction sheets or a detailed

procedures book• Managers must have basic financial training• Information on finances must be made available

to all workers

Teaching and Learning

• This is our core business – students must be at the centre of our concern – learning as means of empowerment

• Involve students in decision making – collect students perspectives by means of questionnaires – this will help in course design and review

• This will encourage openness, negotiation, social justice and concern for others

Teaching and learner support

• Encourage context depended teaching• Encourage the use of ICT – myUnisa• Collaboration for learning – there must be a

proper moderation for both assignments and exams as explained in the assessment policy

• Self-evaluation process – involves scrutinizing the teaching and learning – line managers must review modules offered in their departments

Conclusion

• Management is essential in providing a good and productive working environment

• It is therefore important to keep a proper and appropriate balance between effective management and responsive, creative services for the people we want to serve

Thank youThank you