Mergers in higher education : towards a survival kit for conserving the self

Abstract

Mergers and incorporations are relatively new phenomena in the South African higher education landscape. The unbundling of Vista University, and the subsequent incorporation ofVUDEC into the merger between Unisa and TSA, posed a major challenge to all affected employees. This thesis focuses on how these employees experienced the various stages of the incorporation process. A social construction of inner and outer voices heard, shared, and read during the different phases of the incorporation process attempts to describe how to conserve the self in a merger. The aim of the thesis is to build towards a framework for dealing with the human aspect during institutional mergers and incorporations. The thesis consists of a prologue, a series of four manuscripts that report on the experiences of employees during the different phases of the merger process, and an epilogue. Each manuscript focuses on a specific phase or aspect of the incorporation process, with its own research focus, aims, and methodology. The first two manuscripts reflect on the pre-merger phase. The first manuscript reports on employees' preparation for the incorporation. Following a social constructionist grounded theory approach, four participating employees gained the opportunity to reflect on their own experiences of well-being during the pre-merger phase. The manuscript also reports on a wellness development workshop, attended by 35 representatives from various departments and units of Vista University during the pre-merger phase. The second manuscript reports on how employees embraced the VUDEC institutional culture. A case study approach was selected for semi-structured interviews with 17 participants from governance, academic and administrative departments, and post-graduate programmes. By means of content analysis, the institutional culture ofVUDEC was captured on the eve of the incorporation into Unisa. The third manuscript focuses on employees' experiences of the four-year transition and implementation phases of the incorporation. This manuscript follows a social identity approach, and through thematic analysis, reports on how 24 participants experienced the four-year implementation of the incorporation process. The fourth manuscript provides an overview of the human side of mergers as depicted in both national and international literature. The aim is to position the current longitudinal investigation and its findings in the broader higher education landscape, and a survival kit for conserving the self in a merger is proposed.