Academic staff perceptions and the identification of critical success factors in a merger of two academic institutions

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of this investigation is two-fold: to ascertain the perceptions andreactions of academic staff to a merger, and its impact on them; and secondly, toidentify factors which are critical to merger success.Although the two institutions had agreed on some form of closer relationship, theprocess was accelerated by a decision by the Department of Education to usemergers as a means of initiating change in South Africa's post-school educationsystem.Despite many superficial similarities, the two institutions were dissimilar. Onlyoperational and financial factors were considered. The human factors wereignored. This was critical as the two institutions were totally different withregards to organisational culture and academic standards. The resulting clash inthese areas proved to be a major stumbling block to the success of the merger.Technikon A, regarded as the institution of choice, had been subjected to avariety of rapid environmental changes in the few years immediately prior to themerger. These changes had sapped staff morale. In addition, significantfinancial mismanagement had almost crippled the institution.While the staff of neither institution was in favour of the merger, and both staffassociations approached the Department of Education to stop it, the merger wentahead. However, the staff association of Technikon B publicly and vociferouslyopposed the merger, based on their fears that Technikon A's incompetentmanagement and weak financial position would impact negatively on them.Instead of integrating 'best practice systems, the weak Technikon Amanagement allowed Technikon B to 'make the running and introduce only theirsystems into the merger. In effect, this turned the merger into a hostile take-overand allowed for the total deculturation of Technikon A.The perceptions of a sample of Technikon A academic staff were canvassed,both pre- and post-merger. The pre-merger predictions were accurate and therewas almost unanimous consent as to the outcomes of the post-mergerenvironment.Comparisons were made with other academic mergers in South Africa andoverseas – notably Australia – and parallels drawn with the merger in question.In all cases, the perceptions of staff were very similar.From the literature, a list of critical merger success factors was compiled, againstwhich the present merger was compared. Given that this merger failed tosuccessfully address almost all of the success criteria, the merger must,therefore, be regarded as a complete failure.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University