Managing Multicultural Fet College
LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Student Name: S.Z. Zungu
Student Number: 15931838
Lecturer(s): Prof. Erwin Schwella & Dr Belinda Ketel
Institution: School of Public Management and Planning – University of Stellenbosch
Managing a Multicultural FET College
Abstract
The Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges have gone through a big merger process where 152 colleges were reduced to only 50 colleges in 2001. This change was brought by the promulgation of the new legislation that further necessitated changes in both roles and functions of colleges. The merger process called for the integration of people from diverse cultural backgrounds. This posed a big challenge towards the leadership and management of these colleges.
The top management of these colleges is now faced with the complex and diverse leadership and change management issues. Originally, some of these colleges had predominantly white staff members and others had predominantly black staff members. The merger process then brought these different cultures together to function under one roof.
For the purpose of this paper, our discussions will reflect the leadership and change management challenges faced by the management of Umfolozi FET College situated in the Northern-East of KZN. Subsequently, the paper will discuss some theoretical aspects relating to the issue of diversity within the college environment. Finally, the paper will then make recommendations as to what leadership implications there are in order to deal with diversity.
1. Introduction
Managing a multicultural workforce poses a complex challenges in both leadership and management style of the organisation. The challenges are mainly attributable to the different views on how to deal with a culturally diverse workforce as well as our deep understanding of the meaning of such cultures. Cascio (1995:67) defines culture as “the characteristics behaviour of people in a country or region”. Culture forces
Student Name: S.Z. Zungu
Student Number: 15931838
Lecturer(s): Prof. Erwin Schwella & Dr Belinda Ketel
Institution: School of Public Management and Planning – University of Stellenbosch
Managing a Multicultural FET College
Abstract
The Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges have gone through a big merger process where 152 colleges were reduced to only 50 colleges in 2001. This change was brought by the promulgation of the new legislation that further necessitated changes in both roles and functions of colleges. The merger process called for the integration of people from diverse cultural backgrounds. This posed a big challenge towards the leadership and management of these colleges.
The top management of these colleges is now faced with the complex and diverse leadership and change management issues. Originally, some of these colleges had predominantly white staff members and others had predominantly black staff members. The merger process then brought these different cultures together to function under one roof.
For the purpose of this paper, our discussions will reflect the leadership and change management challenges faced by the management of Umfolozi FET College situated in the Northern-East of KZN. Subsequently, the paper will discuss some theoretical aspects relating to the issue of diversity within the college environment. Finally, the paper will then make recommendations as to what leadership implications there are in order to deal with diversity.
1. Introduction
Managing a multicultural workforce poses a complex challenges in both leadership and management style of the organisation. The challenges are mainly attributable to the different views on how to deal with a culturally diverse workforce as well as our deep understanding of the meaning of such cultures. Cascio (1995:67) defines culture as “the characteristics behaviour of people in a country or region”. Culture forces
References: Cascio, W.F. 1995. Managing Human Resources. 4th Ed. McGraw-Hill, Inc., USA. Dubrin, A.J. 2007. Leadership – Research Findings, Practice, and Skills. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. Griffin, R.W. 1996. Management. 5th Ed. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. Pope, R.L. 1993. Multicultural-Organisation Development in Student Affairs: An Introduction