Some of South Africa’s universities are still struggling to fill senior management positions that have become vacant. The universities of Cape Town, Fort Hare and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University are searching for new vice-chancellors, while a few others are looking for deputy vice-chancellors.
Traditionalists argue that bringing in non-academics to run a university is dangerous: non-academics could treat education as a commodity and students as clients, with the bottom line made the priority.
Furthermore, a non-academic heading an entity might not command the respect or credibility of subordinates as he or she may not be a professor or even highly published. This could jeopardise the implementation of strategic plans.
A counter-argument is that academics may not necessarily make brilliant leaders and, despite their research prowess, could lead an entity into financial ruin. Sometimes academics are best left to research in their laboratories.
But a compromise could be fashioned — pioneering, dynamic people who have credibility in industry could be appointed to academic leadership positions to resolve problems or to kickstart initiatives, then step down once the environment is stable and make way for an academic appointment.
PG: Are there many companies recruiting for academia?
While some companies do work in academia, it is not their centre of gravity. The unique environment within tertiary institutions, the relationships they have with business, government and the community, and their internal value systems, need a special focus for recruitment to be truly effective.
PG: What positions do you recruit for regularly?
Fundraisers — as South Africa has democratised, so too has the face of donor funding. Prior to 1994, funding was abundantly given to the disadvantaged education system that predominated prior to 1994. Fundraising then was more about administering a willing inward flow of donor funding. Today, the fundraiser is an astute business-minded person.
The other positions have been generic in discipline, but the profile of each has been dramatically different; the key determinant being leadership. Today, where subsidies and funding models are dramatically different to 15 years ago, institutions that don’t function as competitive business units will dwindle into obscurity. Every discipline needs to be led in a business-spirited way and that has forced the talent search to extend way beyond the parameters of the campus fence.
How difficult is it to fill positions in academia?
No positions in academia are particularly easy to fill — even those requiring fairly straightforward and generic skills can be difficult because of disparities with commercial packages and career opportunities, because of the environment, and people’s perceptions of what it might be like to work in such an environment.
How do you stratify your recruitment?
Our focus is on the difficult, senior and sensitive positions. Difficult ones are those where the number of candidates satisfying the agreed criteria will be very small, or where the environment is perceived as being unattractive. Senior positions require special assessment tools to enable candidates to be screened effectively.
Sensitive ones require high degrees of confidentiality, and are invariably passed on because the organisation does not want it generally known that they are engaged in such a recruitment exercise.
Where have you tried recruiting from?
We tried to seek talent from Dubai on behalf of the University of Botswana and the new second university in Botswana. The professional sector (we were aiming at medical doctors and professional engineers for academia) were far less apparent, but present. They are earning bucket-loads of money. They showed an interest in true ‘leadership” positions in academia. The pull of money in Dubai is exciting and rewarding, but a life there, after the glitz and glamour, is very shallow compared with what we have here in Southern Africa. An opportunity to ‘lead” in academia, with fair autonomy, gave them a meaningful opportunity to return home (or near home).
What is happening in London?
The money has become less attractive (but better than South Africa), while extension of work permits is becoming more onerous. The pull of Africa, particularly our great weather, is far more influential — that’s why we are going in October/November to market at the South African Homecoming Revolution.
The true, talented ‘academic-leader”, the one who has possibly become disillusioned with academia in South Africa, the one who has been poached to go abroad because of this prowess, is itching to return under the right conditions. Clients using us are changing their models to meet the intrinsic job needs of this type of candidate. Therefore, we go in search of great academic leaders, as well as great leaders outside of academia who feel they can make a valuable contribution to the competitiveness and meaningfulness of higher education in South Africa.
How long can it take to find the right candidate?
One might be lucky and find the ideal candidate quickly, but then you also need to find two or three other good candidates to benchmark him/her against. It is very difficult for any organisation to make an appointment when presented with a choice of one. But the criteria that candidates need to satisfy may result in a shortlist of only one candidate unless they are prepared to compromise in one area or another. We are able to find suitable candidates within six to eight weeks but it can take much longer, depending on the criteria.
What compromises can one make in appointments?
Reality forces compromises to be made sometimes, especially when the skills pool is so small. Most academic institutions focus on the experience of academics, their research areas, successes and failures, conferences and publications. Our assessment tools are ‘matter of fact” based, focusing on human behaviour trends. Technical content serves as a launch pad to demonstrate innate human ability. Compromise is inevitable if the target market is kept to the confines of academia alone, where whirlpool trends have been the order of the day.
What are some of the challenges you face?
Convincing academic institutions that non-academics can be highly effective in roles requiring leadership and/or management skills. Bureaucracy can slow down the whole decision-making process. This is an ongoing challenge to overcome, with no simple short-term answers unless the institution is ready and willing to implement a transformation project aimed at speeding up such processes.
Are universities open to short-term appointments who can get the job done?
In the case of the University of Venda (which is searching for a vice-chancellor) and Botswana, the skills being sought are more of a pioneering nature rather than those needed to maintain the status quo. When you are engaged in creating a new institution, or transforming an existing one, you need very strong leadership, the ability to harness people from different backgrounds and very different skill sets to achieve a common goal.
That sort of person will be bored by a stable environment where there are few challenges. An immediate candidate would be a builder, and one who takes over later would have the ability to make it sustainable. Short-term within this type of scenario would mean no less than three years.
Dr Jon Harris manages the Academic Partners brand. For more information go to www.executive-partners.co.za