Development needs of Middle Managers in Higher Education Institutions: A Case Study of a Post 1992 New University in UK

Abstract

Development of staff by Human Resources (HR) department in any organisation is crucial to implement its strategy, operations, goals and for eventual success. Similarly, in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) the Middle Managers (MM) are drivers who execute organisation vision, mission and contribute towards its desired attainment. MM job titles at faculty level include Deans, Head of Departments, Subject leaders and Principle lecturers/Programme leaders. However, evidenced from contemporary literature, changes and challenges transpiring in HEIs sector is influencing and generating tremendous pressures and workloads for MM to work effectively and efficiently in their respective roles. Therefore, the fortitude of this study is to explore this phenomenon and capture true MM Development Needs (DN) and propose a conceptual model. In stage one (qualitative stage), a semi structured interview protocol was derived from 2 pilot semi structured interviews and literature review theoretical model. A meso case study (sub cases and individual embedded cases) of a UK Post 1992 university was conducted with 23 semi-structured interviews lasting an hour each. 14 interviews were analysed in rich detail. The major findings depict 251 themes from the qualitative data analysis categorised under 6 main categories. To validated and cross compare the themes, 9 collected interviews were audio listened to verify and validate the findings. In summary, based on stage 1 results, there is a gap in the development programmes provided by HR in HEIs, and MM requirements. Future study in Stage two (quantitative stage), will further explore MM development needs via pilot testing a survey questionnaire in the same post 1992 HEI before disseminating it externally to 141 UK HEIs providers (Gov. UK, 2017) for validation prior to proposing the final development model.