Browsing by Author "Nkata L., James"

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Collegial cooperation turns toxic: Its depth and breadth: What are the implications for higher education institutions (HEIs)?
(Journal of Educational Research and Reviews, 2021-02) Kaguhangire-Barifaijo, Maria; Nkata L., James
Collegiality has been glorified as the strongest governance pillar for higher education institutions, especially in promoting independence of thought, impartial decisions on leadership, mutual respect, and providing peer support. However, the recent corporate culture recently adopted by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and a system that rewards individual accomplishments, together with decreased state funding had steadily weakened the collegial philosophy, while toxicity takes the center stage - thereby threatening unity, harmony and institutional visibility. As a result, institutions have turned toxic. Unfortunately, although easily identifiable, toxicity is a difficult phenomenon to deal with, especially in dynamic academia environment, performance-based pay and personal traits notwithstanding. The paper concludes that the lack of conclusive empirical research to establish the depth and breadth of toxicity has made it difficult for personnel to make defensible decisions. The paper recommends that institutions should prioritize institutional inquiry in order to address work related behavior – among others to negate unacceptable behavior that have persistently harmed individuals as well as the institutions. Finally, institutions should make collegiality part of all “Personnel decisions” that clearly stipulate flawless indicators and measures of toxic behavior, in order to enhance collegial, civil and harmonious work environment that promotes staff engagement, productivity and institutional stability.
An evaluation of critical success factors in a multinational partnership
(Ugandan Journal of Management and Public Policy Studies, 2019-11) Nkata L., James; Holta, Seppo; Barifaijo-Kaguhangire, Maria
This paper discusses critical success factors in a partnership of educational institutions from different countries, institutions, cultures, and regulatory frameworks since 2007. The project was a partnership between Uganda, Ethiopia, and Finland to develop leadership and management capacity in Ugandan Universities. An “appreciative inquiry approach” was adopted to evaluate the project using partnering institutions, project leaders, and partnership documents. The paper describes the approach to the management of the project and discusses specific challenges and critical success factors that contributed to the project’s success. The evaluators’ major focus was on how partners gained consensus on key decisions. Practical examples and outputs from the project are highlighted to illustrate the project’s critical success factors. The discussion was guided by the Collaborative Leadership Theory advanced by David Chrislip and Carl Larson (1994) who proposed that a mutually beneficial relationship should work towards common goals by sharing responsibility, authority and accountability for achieving desired results, and that the collaboration does not only achieve “tangibles” but also intangibles such as the dignity that comes with the ability of individuals to start a new venture and see it to success. This evaluation found that the project’s success was attributed to partner institutions’ innovation, caution and collaboration with each assembling a competent team to detect and mitigate threats to their collaboration. The study concluded that the project’s critical success factors were; emotional intelligence of the project leaders and participants, involvement of key stakeholders, honesty and equal participation. For any partnership to succeed, leadership demands a structure that enables all levels within each institution to contribute to the partnership objectives, and respect each other, because each comes with peculiar expertise, skills and attributes. Inevitable shortcomings in every project notwithstanding, partners successfully navigated the different cultures, security issues, legal and political environment, economic factors and infrastructure limitations.
The invisible accomplishments of faculty in Ugandan Universities: An ‘Iceberg Tip Metaphor’
(Journal of Educational Research and Reviews, 2021-10) Kaguhangire-Barifaijo, Maria; Nkata L., James; Namubiru S., Proscovia
The evaluation of faculty accomplishments has remained unresolved and contentious, threatening the quality of all university functions. Whereas performance evaluation of faculty is derived from their mandate of teaching, research, and community service, there has been no comprehensive tool that specifically measures aspects of quality, effectiveness or even commitment. As a result, without a comprehensive and reliable evaluation tool to evaluate faculty members’ performance, institutional quality may suffer, as may faculty enthusiasm, emotional engagement, and commitment, all of which are vulnerable to institutional productivity and visibility. The paper concludes that the lack of a comprehensive tool to measure all faculty activities affected mechanisms to acquire evidence for certain accomplishments. Therefore, Universities must develop a comprehensive tool to capture multiple accomplishments as a basis for performance evaluations to inform personnel decisions that go beyond class time and paper publications in order to restore visibility of fundamental faculty accomplishments.
A paradox in the supervision of doctoral candidates in Ugandan higher education institutions (HEIs)
(International Journal of Educational Administration and Policy Studies, 2021-12) Kaguhangire-Barifaijo, Maria; Nkata L., James
The paper examines the dynamics and complex dimensions in doctoral supervision in different disciplinary contexts in higher education institutions (HEIs), given that institutional success and reputation depends on ‘research output,’ which creates visibility and competitive advantage. However, traditional doctoral supervision, which frequently results in research output, has remained contradictory and complex due to its multi-layered, challenging, and conflicting tasks. The authors contend that while doctoral supervision necessitates a high caliber pool of trained academics and professionals, with reasonable accommodation and respect for one another, strong ethical values, cordial relationships, and professionalism, institutions continue to face unprecedented challenges in not only finding all of the attributes in a single supervisor, but also finding the best supervision model to employ. The paper concludes that, because supervisors are appointed based on their methodological, experience, and content expertise, the other essential attributes for effective supervision should be incorporated into policies. As a result, in order to resolve supervision nuances, institutions should implement flawless doctoral supervision guidelines and provide healthy supervision environments.
Teaching-learning quality assurance benchmarks and characteristics that promote learner outcomes among Public Administration students at Uganda Management Institute: An exploratory study.
(International Journal of Educational Administration and Policy Studies, 2013-03) Basheka, Benon; Nkata L., James; Kaguhangire-Barifaijo, Maria
In today’s academic environment, leaders at higher educational institutions face increasing demands as stakeholders’ expectations rise and resources diminish (Randall and Coakley, 2007). This paper examines student’s perspectives on the measures of teaching –learning quality assurance benchmarks and study environment conditions, which are likely to promote attainment of the learners’ outcomes. Of the 294 students who were sampled for the study, 279 returned the completed survey instrument suggesting a response rate of 94.5%. The paper identifies critical learning and teaching quality assurance benchmarks and a number of facilitator-student behaviors considered by students as pertinent for the realization of their learning outcomes. The results are original and compare well to the existing body of local and international literature.