Improving Research Outputs for a University Nursing Department using Mutingati: An Ubuntu Perspective

Abstract

Institutions of higher learning employ various strategies to increase their outputs. However, the increase in research output remains a challenging task in nursing academia and can be attributed to poor working approaches such as lack of teamwork and collectivism. Therefore, creative and collaborative initiatives to improve research outputs are needed. Amongst them, mutingati was seen as a groundbreaking initiative to promote teamwork and collaboration to achieve a common purpose of increasing research output in the nursing academia. This paper aims to report the impact of adopting community of practice strategy using an indigenous knowledge practice of mutingati to improve the research output of nursing department at a selected university in South Africa. A narrative case study research design was used to report the impact of adopting community of practice strategy using an indigenous knowledge practice of mutingati to improve the research output for a nursing department at a selected university nursing department. Data was collected from the yearly reports which highlighted the achievements and substantial increment in the number of publications and students who completed their research studies in record time. The adoption of mutingati improved proposal development by students and academic staff reviews, resulting in collaborative group writing and an increase in the number of articles published in accredited peer-reviewed journals, multi-stakeholder collaborations, community engagement, and dialogue facilitation. The community of practice strategy in mutingati was confirmed by academic staff to be an effective approach to improve research outputs, provided it is designed to promote teamwork and is based on the principles of Ubuntu. This paper recommends that mutingati should be considered by institutions intending to empower novice academics, scholars, and researchers to improve productivity and increase research outputs in various research fields.