Translating Social Capital into Ubuntu to Retain Academic Staff in Emerging Universities in Ghana
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25159/2663-6697/10608Keywords:
academic staff, attrition, Ubuntu, indigenous practices, social capital, retentionAbstract
Universities in developing countries are often engaged in competition for academic staff. Universities are recognised for the quality of their teaching and high research outputs, and this leads to a “war for talent” in terms of experts in teaching, research and community engagement. This article assumes that poor conditions of service and strained relationships between academic staff and university authorities may cause attrition of academic staff in emerging universities. Therefore, institutions of higher learning seeking to retain their best academic staff need to foster a good social relationship with the academic employees based on African indigenous practices to ensure a reduction in staff turnover. This paper explores how the translation of social capital into the indigenous practice of Ubuntu can reduce academic staff attrition in the new public universities in Ghana. A purposive sampling approach was used to select two new public universities that suffer from frequent academic staff attrition. The qualitative study employed interviews involving 30 participants (from two new universities) and observation as data collection tools. The study revealed that emerging universities in Ghana do not develop social capital or practise African indigenous practices and this alienates academic staff, hence they often look for greener pastures elsewhere. The study also revealed that good human relationships based on African values of mutual respect, cooperation, compassion and love are important ingredients for the retention of academic staff in any institution of higher learning. The findings validate the assumption that poor human relationships are a catalyst for academic staff attrition in emerging universities.
References
Adler, P. S., and S.-W. Kwon. 2002. “Social Capital: Prospects for a New Concept.” The Academy of Management Review 27 (1): 17–40. https://doi.org/10.2307/4134367. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2002.5922314
Akpey-Mensah, T. L. 2017. “People First: The Decolonisation of Human Resources Practices in Higher Education in Ghana.” In Proceedings of the South African International Conference on Education; 18–20 September 2017: “Rethinking Education in the 21st Century,” edited by M. M. Dichaba and M. A. O. Sotayo, 35–45. Pretoria: African Academic Research Forum.
Al-Qudah, M. K. M., A. Osman, M. S. Halim, and H. A. Al-Shatanawi. 2014. “The Effect of Human Resources Planning and Training and Development on Organisational Performance in the Government Sector in Jordan.” International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences 4 (4): 79–85. https://doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v4-i4/755. DOI: https://doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v4-i4/755
Andrews, R. 2011. “Exploring the Impact of Community and Organisational Social Capital on Government Performance: Evidence from England.” Political Research Quarterly 64 (4): 938–49. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912910381649. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912910381649
Bourdieu, P. 1986. “The Forms of Capital.” In Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, edited by J. Richardson, 241–58. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Bowling, A. 2004. Research Methods in Health: Investigating Health and Health Services. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill.
Broodryk, J. 2005. Ubuntu Management Philosophy: Exporting Ancient African Wisdom into the Global World. Johannesburg: Knowres Publishing.
Burt, R. S. 2000. “The Network Structure of Social Capital.” Research in Organizational Behaviour 22: 345–423. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-3085(00)22009-1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0191-3085(00)22009-1
Cohen, D., and L. Prusak. 2001. In Good Company: How Social Capital Makes Organisations Work. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. https://doi.org/10.1145/358974.358979. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/358974.358979
Coleman, J. 1990. Foundations of Social Theory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Gamage, A. S. 2014. “Recruitment and Selection Practices in Manufacturing SMES in Japan: An Analysis of the Link with Business Performance.” Ruhuna Journal of Management and Finance 1 (1): 37–52. http://www.mgt.ruh.ac.lk/rjmf/pdfs/RJMF0101_JA_p37.pdf.
Greve, A., M. Benassi, and A. D. Sti. 2010. “Exploring the Contributions of Human and Social Capital to Productivity.” International Review of Sociology 20 (1): 35–5. https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701003643261. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03906701003643261
Guest, D. E. 1997. “Human Resource Management and Performance: A Review and Research Agenda.” The International Journal of Human Resource Management 8 (3): 263–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/195851997341630. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/095851997341630
Hamilton, B. H., J. A. Nickerson, and H. Owan. 2003. “Team Incentives and Worker Heterogeneity: An Empirical Analysis of the Impact of Teams on Productivity and Participation.” Journal of Political Economy 111 (3): 465–97. https://doi.org/10.1086/374182. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/374182
Jacobs, J. 1961. The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York, NY: Random House.
Jones, J. J., and D. L. Walters. 1994. Human Resource Management in Education. Lancaster, PA: Technomic.
Kay, A. 2005. “Social Capital: The Social Economy and Community Development.” Oxford University Press and Community Development Journal 41 (2): 163–64. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/cdj/bsi045
Kapu, H. 2008. “Sosyal Sermaye ve Organizasyonların Öngörü Yeteneğini Geliştirme Gücü.” Atatürk Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Dergisi 22 (1): 259–88. Accessed January 17, 2023. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/atauniiibd/issue/2693/35446.
Lefa, B. 2015. “The African Philosophy of Ubuntu in South African Education.” Studies in Philosophy and Education 1 (15): 1–15. Accessed February 6, 2023. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274374017_The_African_Philosophy_of_Ubuntu_in_South_African_Education.
Lutz, D. W. 2009. “African Ubuntu Philosophy and Global Management.” Journal of Business Ethics 84 (3): 313–28. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0204-z. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-009-0204-z
Mbigi, L., and J. N. Maree. 1995. Ubuntu: The Spirit of African Transformation Management. Randburg: Knowledge Resources.
McMillan, J. H., and S. Schumacher. 1989. Research in Education: A Conceptual Introduction. Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman.
Metz, T. 2011. “Ubuntu as a Moral Theory and Human Rights in South Africa.” African Human Rights Law Journal 11 (2): 532–59.
Mohrman, S. A., and L. Novelli Jr. 1985. “Beyond Testimonials: Learning from a Quality Circles Program.” Journal of Organisational Behavior 6 (2): 93–110. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030060202. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030060202
Morrow, V. 1999. “Conceptualising Social Capital in Relation to the Well-Being of Children and Young People: A Critical Review.” The Sociological Review 47 (4): 744–65. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-954X.00194. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-954X.00194
Mouton, J. 2002. Understanding Social Research. Pretoria: Van Schaik.
Msila, V. 2015. Ubuntu: Shaping the Current Workplace with African Wisdom. Randburg: Knowres Publishing.
Ofori, D., and M. Aryeetey. 2011. “Recruitment and Selection Practices in Small and Medium Enterprises: Perspectives from Ghana.” International Journal of Business Administration 2 (3): 45–60. https://doi.org/10.5430/ijba.v2n3p45. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5430/ijba.v2n3p45
Öğüt, A., and C. Erbil. 2009. Sosyal Sermaye Yönetimi [Social Capital Management]. Konya: Cizgi Kitapevi.
Ployhart, R. E., and T. P. Moliterno. 2011. “Emergence of the Human Capital Resource: A Multilevel Model.” Academy of Management Review 36 (1): 127–50. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2009.0318
https://doi.org/10.5465/AMR.2011.55662569. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/AMR.2011.55662569
Putnam, R. 1993. “The Prosperous Community: Social Capital and Public Life.” The American Prospect 13 (4): 65–78.
Quan-Baffour, K. P. 2014. “Unity in Diversity: Ubuntu in the Classroom to Promote Learning among Adults from Diverse Backgrounds.” Studies of Tribes and Tribals 12 (2): 239–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/0972639X.2014.11886704. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0972639X.2014.11886704
Robbins, S. P., T. A. Judge, A. G. R. Odendaal, and G. Roodt. 2016. Organisational Behaviour: Global and South African Perspectives. 3rd ed. Cape Town: Pearson.
Snell, S., and G. W. Bohlander. 2012. Managing Human Resources. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Tustin, D., A. Lightelm, J. Martins, and H. Van Wyk. 2005. Marketing Research in Practice. Pretoria: University of South Africa.
Tutu, D. 1999. No Future without Forgiveness. London: Rider Random House. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5842.1999.tb00012.x. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5842.1999.tb00012.x
Van Zyl, E. S., R. Kleynhans, and M. Du Plessis. 2011. “Understanding and Approaching the Cultural Gap between First World Leaders and Their Third World Workforce: An African Focus.” African Journal of Business Management 5 (17): 7171–178. https://doi.org/10.5897/AJBM10.1338. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5897/AJBM10.1338
Weber, B., and C. Weber. 2007. “Corporate Venture Capital as a Means of Radical Innovation: Relational Fit, Social Capital, and Knowledge Transfer.” Journal of Engineering and Technology Management 24 (1–2): 11–35. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.jengtechman.2007.01.002. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jengtecman.2007.01.002
Yeboah, E. E. 2014. “The Link between Human Resource Capacity Building and Job Performance.” International Journal of Human Resource Studies 4 (3): 139–46. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijhrs.v4i3.5938. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5296/ijhrs.v4i3.5938
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright will be vested in Unisa Press. However, as long as you do not use the article in ways which would directly conflict with the publisher's business interests, you retain the right to use your own article (provided you acknowledge the published version of the article) as follows:
- to make further copies of all or part of the published article for your use in classroom teaching;
- to make copies of the final accepted version of the article for internal distribution within your institution, or to place it on your own or your institution's website or repository, or on a site that does not charge for access to the article, but you must arrange not to make the final accepted version of the article available to the public until 18 months after the date of acceptance;
- to reuse all or part of this material in a compilation of your own works or in a textbook of which you are the author, or as the basis for a conference presentation.
Accepted 2022-12-05
Published 2023-03-24
