CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE
REVIEW
Chapter one
provided an introduction to this research study. In view of the research
problem and the two research questions, Chapter two presents a review of
relevant literature, using the MIT90 schema (see Figure 1.3). This review of the literature focuses on the
following, each of which will be discussed subsequently:
2.1 external technological
environment
2.2 external socio-economic
environment
2.3 management processes
2.4 strategy
2.5 roles and skills of individuals
2.6 structure and
2.7 technology.
2.1 External Technological Environment
This
section accentuates the virtual class
as the most pertinent aspect of the external
technological environment in relation to this research.
Farrell's (1999:2) perception of virtual education
aligns itself to the definition of
The virtual
class can thus be seen as an educational experience of real people in a virtual
dimension. In the virtual class, teaching and learning is performed without the
movement of physical objects (eg getting students and lecturers into a physical
venue). The virtual class is thus primarily based on the movement of bits of
information in contrast to the movement of atoms (Negroponte, 1995) which forms
the central base of conventional education.
The promise of
the global information infrastructure that is coming into place and its
manifestation today in the Internet is that the critical components of
education: teachers, students, knowledge and its applications can come together
not as atoms but as bits of information.
The
specific manifestation of the virtual class referred to in this study is the virtual class predominantly based on Internet or intranet
technologies. The author describes this expression of the virtual class with
the term: networked education.
Networked education emphasises the high level of connectivity across space and
time that is enabled through creating a network between student and student,
student and teacher, student and resources, teacher and resources as well as
the past and the present (through availability of on-line resources of one
course occurrence for a next occurrence).
It also indicates that the education is network-based (Internet or intranet)
and computer mediated, that it includes teaching, learning and research
(“education”), and highlights the distribution
both of the control of learning and of the on-line learning and teaching
materials among the students and teacher(s).
Networked
education has a global dimension to it since the Internet in 1996 (Wizards,
1997) was represented in 129 countries (through domain names) and in July 1999
in 252 countries (Internet Software Consortium, 1999b). The Internet
representation spans a diversity of nations, philosophies, cultures, stature,
size and development stages of countries and groups as illustrated by the
following list of countries (with their domain names): Ascension Island (.ac), Antarctica (.aq),
Liechtenstein (.li), Viet Nam (.vn), Gabon (.gn), New Zealand (.nz), Cuba (.cu),
Japan (.jp), South Africa (.za), China(.cn), Lao People's Democratic Republic
(.la), Israel (il), Syrian Arab Republic (.sy), Vatican City State (Holy See)
(.va) and Saudi Arabia (.sa). Tapscott (1996:xiii) describes this ability of
students in networked education to access
other students, lecturers and resources globally in paradigmatic terms:
A new medium of human
communications is emerging, one that may prove to surpass all previous
revolutions – the printing press, the telephone, the television – in its impact
on our economic and social life... Interactive multi-media and the so-called
information highway, and its exemplar the Internet, are enabling a new economy
based on the networking of human intelligence... Such a shift in economic and
social relationships has occurred only a handful of times before on this
planet.
Farrell (1999:2) describes the problematic use of the term virtual in a broad context:
The
label virtual is widely and
indiscriminately used around the world…. Furthermore, it is used in some
regions to refer to systems that combine broadcast and interactive
teleconferencing technologies that operate in real time. With such broad use of
the term, you need to know what the information and communication technology
applications are in order to know what virtual education means in any given
context.
Various
terms are used to describe networked education, for example “distributed
learning” (Dede, 1995 July), “tele-learning” (Collis, 1996), "virtual
education" (Farrell, 1999; Butterfield
et al., 1999 July), “networked learning” (Gundry and Metes, 1997)
as well as ones that are "…frequently used interchangeably with other
labels such as open and distance
learning, distributed learning, networked learning, Web-based learning, and
computer learning" (Farrell,
1999:2).
Holmberg (1977:9) formulated an enduring definition of distance education as “… the various forms of study at all levels which are not
under the continuous, immediate supervision of tutors present with their
students in lecture rooms or on the same premises, but which, nevertheless,
benefit from the planning, guidance, and tuition of a tutorial
organisation”. Networked education is
different from distance education in that networked education is solely enabled
through the Internet and intranets, that a telepresence can be created among
teacher and students (Mason, 1999 July) and that it represents a paradigmatic
focus on the educational needs of the information society (Tiffin, 1996b November). This research further deals with conventional tertiary
education that excludes single distance mode or dual mode educational
institutes.
Distance education nevertheless has to contend with
various aspects in networked education. Like networked education, distance
education has to bridge geographical (Garrison, 1989:119) and transactional
distance (Moore, 1993), explore innovative uses of communication systems
(Garrison, 1989:17; Henri and Kaye, 1993), cater for individualised learning (Garrison, 1989:27; Peters,
1993:46), use communications technology (Bates, 1984b; Garrison, 1989:2),
procure sustainable commitment of students to their studies (Garrison,
1989:99), address the needs of adult learners (Garrison, 1989:103) and lifelong
learning (Garrison, 1989:107).
Lewis
(1992:14) defines “open learning” as a conglomeration of educational approaches
that aims to transcend the traditional barriers of conventional tertiary
education, namely physical, educational, individual and financial barriers.
Lewis points out that specific locations and times, sequencing of the content
and method of delivery, lack of awareness of what is available and costs of
course materials are some of the examples of these barriers that open learning
needs to address. Lewis further points to the learner centred nature of open
learning. The virtual class can identify with open learning, as it also has to
address these barriers.
Tiffin and Rajasingham (1995:10) distinguish the
concept of the virtual class from that of the “virtual classroom” originating
with Hiltz (1986), since the former concept “... suggests that the place a
virtual class is held is an electronic simulation of a conventional classroom”, while for Hiltz (1986:95) the latter was the
use of computer mediated communications “...to create electronic analogue of
the communications forms that usually occur in a classroom including discussion
as well as lectures and tests”. A software product, the Virtual Classroom,
based on Hiltz’s (1995, March) work, was in fact created and is described by
her as a teaching and learning environment that is constructed in software to
support collaborative learning among students who participate in a flexible
manner through computer networks.
Chambers
(1998:9) shares the reservations about using the metaphor of a ‘virtual
classroom” when he states that "today we make the same kind of mistake
when we glibly speak of the ‘virtual classroom’. This metaphor conjures images
of students who soon shall congregate in cyberspace to receive their lectures
from the electronic semblance of some sage professor". Chambers then
explains that "the idea of the ‘virtual class’ is misguided because
emerging telecommunications and information technologies promise something far
greater than forming classrooms in cyberspace: the new technologies enable
quality universities to provide one-on-one tuition cost effectively".
The virtual
class can lead to fully virtual institutes as Butterfield et al. (1999, July) could foresee. Although the term 'virtual
institution' is not yet well defined, it is an attempt to capture the sense of
a further dispersion. The word 'open' came to be prefixed to the word
'university' to qualify an institution that in some ways resembled a
'traditional' university but not in other ways; likewise the word 'virtual' in
relation to an institution signals a further difference: the students and staff
are likely to be in distant locations and hence the programmes are provided and
serviced primarily on-line through some form of computer mediated communications.
Furthermore, the staff who develops programmes may not be the ones to support
or assess them. As an institution
without a campus, it may be dubbed 'virtual'. Virtual education is not just
distance education: there are many fundamental differences, including changes
in the role of students, academic staff and support staff.
The
external technological environment needs to be contextualized within an even
wider system, namely that of the emerging information or knowledge society.
Tiffin (1996 February) regards the virtual class as an Information Technology
system for education and training in an information society, one whose function
could be likened to that of the conventional classroom in an industrial
society: as the core communication system for preparing people for the society
in which they live. For
The
information society is, however, not a universal state of societies: "everyone talks about the information
society. Yet there is evidence that global communication has led more to
divergence and division than to unity” (Frederick, 1993:267). This view is
supported by Negroponte (1997, June) who highlighted as a contributing
factor to divergence within the information society the fact that the Internet (on which networked education is based) is
a decentralised phenomenon that encourages diversity
This
information society in which the virtual class and tertiary education operate
at the beginning of the new millennium is exceptionally dynamic and volatile.
This can be attributed largely to the emergence of a global information or
knowledge society, which many view to be
“… as significant as the previous displacement of the agricultural age
by the industrial age” (Tapscott, 1996:43). Drucker (1989) draws an analogy between the introduction of computers in
education and the advent of printing by contending that a revolution of similar
or even greater proportions in education is occurring. Even the
nature of the change process from conventional education to the virtual class
itself is not stable; Morrison (1995) even describes this evolutionary process
dislocations, dilemmas and uncertainties rather than progression from 'what is'
to 'what is needed'.
Ponder and
Holmes (1999) similarly comment on the turbulence of the marketplace and the
adaptive management structures this environment requires of the school system,
which also seems to be highly relevant to conventional tertiary education. They claim that new technologies and
scientific break-throughs will cause a constant reshaping of the 21st-century
marketplace, and the ideal school system will be capable of rapidly reinventing
itself to accommodate this continuously changing world. Therefore educational institutions and
structures will be malleable and constructed in a way that allows them to be
easily and quickly reorganized and rebuilt.
When our Virtual Classes had
communication problems we tended to blame the technology in front of us rather
than looking at the wider system in which it operated. We were trying to
operate as though we were in an information society when in fact we were still
in an industrial society.
The virtual
class needs to further contend with information availability that is
exponentially increasing. There are estimates that “information is doubling every
eighteen months and that by the year 2012 it will be doubling every day. A
significant new insight in human knowledge is made every 60 hours” (Nugent, 1996:264).
The growth
in the Internet on which the virtual class is based is dramatic (see Figure 1.1). There are furthermore
sustained, revolutionary changes in the ICT that underpin the virtual class
(Bates, 1995:45; Szabo et al., 1997).
The computer per se has expanded from
being an information management tool to being a communications instrument (Tapscott,
1996). Some thinkers say that in a decade from now the technologies used in the
virtual class will be superseded – already there are pointers to a hyper class
being constructed in hyper reality (Tiffin, 1997 April).
The external technological environment can therefore
be seen as one that is becoming increasingly digitised, volatile, transitory
and divergent. It demands an appropriate response from conventional tertiary
education in terms of its processes and the way in which it is managed. However,
the information society is not yet fully established, and hence the virtual
class - also in its management - needs
to contend with a high level of immaturity, instability and change in many of
its underlying systems.
After an
examination of literature on the external technological environment and
specifically the virtual class, which is referred to as a new educational
paradigm (Tiffin, 1996b November), the focus now turns to the conventional
educational paradigm as the core of the relevant external socio-economic environment.
2.2 External Socio-economic Environment
The
socio-economic environment in which this research occurred is that of
conventional tertiary education in general and New
Conventional
tertiary education in this study describes post-compulsory public educational
institutes that are funded predominantly through the state to which it also has
a central reporting responsibility. These institutions normally adhere to
public sector financial accountability processes and are controlled by their
own council. “Tertiary education is generally understood to mean a level of
studies beyond secondary schooling that is broader than higher education
traditionally associated with the universities” (Ministry of Education, 1997 June). Rebore's (1985:36) description
of secondary schools in the United States as “service rendering public sector
organizations” aptly describes conventional tertiary educational institutes.
Conventional
tertiary educational institutes normally have clearly defined administrative
and academic components that are subdivided into units often called
departments. Conventional tertiary education, for the purposes of this
research, does not differentiate between students on a cultural or racial base
and furthermore has its main focus on face-to-face education where learning and
teaching occur physically “on-campus”. This study therefore excludes autonomous
(or single distance mode) and mixed (or dual mode) institutes as described by
Garrison (1989:115):
Autonomous institutions are
those totally committed to distance education while mixed institutions are
those distance education deliverers found within conventional tertiary
education institutions”.
Conventional
tertiary education is still a description of the predominant way of tertiary
education internationally (Garrison, 1989:121) – and certainly in
Universities
have a long and established tradition. Johnston and Challis (1994:72), after
having studied the changes in the working lives of a few academics who moved
from teaching a Master's degree course in a traditional face-to-face tutorial
format to one in which they also taught the same program in a distance mode,
commented on the concern that the changing patterns of teacher workload and
student participation associated with distance education “...might undermine
the whole tradition of a university as a group of scholars discovering
knowledge by a process of discussion and interaction”.
Van der
Molen (1996) also points to the long tradition of universities when describing
a concern of the liaison committee of the Rectors Conferences of the European
Community (EC) and the Standing Conference of Rectors, Presidents and
Vice-Chancellors of the European Universities (CRE) on the memorandum on Higher
Education in the European Community, in which they identify “values which over the centuries have been
associated with universities, such as independent judgment, creativity,
cultural and ethical dimensions”.
Moreover,
Laurillard (1993:4) identifies the pursuit of scholarship and research, the
advancement of learning, and academic freedom that is the freedom to conduct a
radical critique of knowledge, as being shared by academics across the world.
Collis (1998) identifies four values shared by universities:
1. Values related to academic
moulding (or developing of intellectual expertise)
2. Values relating to good
teaching
3. Values related to the
interaction of local and global perspectives and
4. Values related to the
university being a focal point of knowledge and expertise.
The
similarity among tertiary education institutes internationally allows
researchers like Rajasingham (1988:5) to write about a global problem in
conventional education:
“
Universities have changed very little and seem to be
resistant to change. Patterson (1997:7) studied the university’s evolutionary
dimensions and suggests that
The historic continuity of the institution is unbroken, and many of the medieval
university’s unique features remain characteristic of today’s universities:
features, for example, such as the university’s status as an autonomous
corporate body; its legal identity; recognition by others leading to the award
of recognised degrees or diplomas; the degree structure and levels, e.g.
bachelors leading to masters, and doctorates; testing by examination; and
structures of governance, such as the division of major branches of learning
into faculties, and the hierarchical positions such as deans, chancellor and
rector.
Trow (1996)
also provides a picture associated with typical university life: Remarkably
conservative and enduring institutions, in some important respects very much
like their medieval ancestors, where learned seniors spend their time reading
books and talking to young men (and now young women), lecturing to them in
large halls and talking more informally with them in small seminar rooms close
to collections of books. The teachers - masters and doctors today as in the thirteenth
century - are organised in groups of specialists around bodies of knowledge or
professional practice, in what in many places are still called ‘faculties’;
departments came later.... Universities are still largely governed by the guild
of teachers - the masters or professors
- with a rector (or chancellor, vice-chancellor or president) presiding over
the institution and managing its relations with its environment and its sources
of support.
There are, however,
also commentators pointing to diversity among modern universities such as Cass
(1996:10) who believes in the context of postmodernity that at least in
Australia "no single idea of the university is possible any longer” and
that we need “… plural ways of thinking about them.” Weber (1996:46) refers to “… how diverse
universities in different countries can be...” based on his experience of
having taught at universities in different countries.
These
comments are seemingly not representative of the predominant view that
institutes in tertiary education are very similar in their governance,
structure, mission and finance. Chambers (1998) points to contemporary
universities as institutions that still bear a close resemblance to their
antecedents of centuries past where classroom lectures have reigned supreme,
while Trow (1996) comments on how American higher education is still remarkably
"similar in basic structure, diversity, mission, governance and finance to
the system at the turn of the century.”
The
investigation now turns to tertiary education in New Zealand, which is defined
by the Ministry of Education (1994b) as consisting of universities,
polytechnics, colleges of education, and wananga (focusing on Maori tradition
according to Maori custom) which serve both the school leavers and those
already in the work force.
According
to the Ministry of Education (1994c), polytechnics (45%) and universities (49%)
had comparable shares in 1993 of the tertiary sector in
A guide by
the Ministry of Education (1997, June) provides a concise overview of tertiary
education in
Arrangements for the
establishment, governance and funding of tertiary institutions are set out in
legislation, and are identical for universities, polytechnics, colleges of
education, and wananga. The distinguishing characteristics of the four kinds of
tertiary institutions are also defined in legislation.
Currently there are seven
universities, 25 polytechnics, four colleges of education, and three wananga,
which between them enrol over 200,000 students each year.
Tertiary institutions are
Crown entities and are required to follow standard public sector financial
accountability processes.
Each tertiary institution is
controlled by its own council, established under legislation intended to
maximise its autonomy consistent with the standard requirements of
accountability for public funding.
Each tertiary institution
determines its own programmes. All matters relating to governance and
management are the responsibility of the council, which represents the
interests of staff, students, and the wider community.
Universities are primarily
concerned with advanced learning, the principle aim being to develop
intellectual independence; their research and teaching are closely
interdependent; they meet international standards of research and teaching;
they are a repository of knowledge and expertise; they have a role as critic
and conscience of society.
There are seven universities
in
Currently over 80,000
full-time equivalent students enrol each year for university study.
Polytechnics provide a wide
range of academic, vocational and professional courses, including vocational
training, which contributes to the maintenance, advancement, and dissemination
of knowledge and expertise and promotes community learning. They also promote
research - particularly applied and technological research - which aids
development.
There are 25 polytechnics in
Currently almost 60,000
full-time equivalent students enrol each year for polytechnic study. Taking
short courses into account, the actual number of students enrolled at
polytechnics is several times this figure.
While most polytechnics
continue to provide traditional trade and basic vocational courses, an
increasing number of professional courses offered at degree level are reducing
the distinction between the respective roles of polytechnics and universities.
Colleges of education
provide teacher education and research related to the early childhood and
compulsory sectors of education and provide associated social and educational
service roles.
There are now four
specialist colleges of education offering courses in early childhood, primary,
and secondary teacher training, situated in
Wananga are teaching and
research institutions that maintain, advance, and disseminate knowledge,
develop intellectual independence, and assist the application of knowledge
regarding ahuatanga Maori (Maori tradition) according to tikanga Maori (Maori
custom).
Three wananga are
established tertiary institutions.
All tertiary institutions
(universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, wananga) are governed by
their own councils.
The main functions of a
council are to set the strategic direction and policies of the tertiary
institution, determine its programmes, set its budget including tuition fees,
and appoint its chief executive officer.
The main functions of a
chief executive officer (who may be alternatively designated a vice chancellor,
director, principal, or president) are to implement council policies and
decisions and to manage the academic and administrative affairs, including the
employment of teaching and support staff.
University degrees are
approved by the New Zealand Vice Chancellors' Committee, and have international
recognition.
Degrees awarded by
polytechnics, colleges of education, wananga and private training
establishments are approved by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority, and
have international recognition.
Not
included in this study on account of the definition of conventional tertiary
education are the wananga institutes in
Conventional
tertiary education in
Most of the
39 tertiary institutes in
The
Wellington Polytechnic itself is a representative conventional tertiary
educational institute in
The Wellington Polytechnic is one of 25 Polytechnics
in
Wellington
Polytechnic strongly focuses on face-to-face education where learning and
teaching happens physically “on-campus”. Only a few courses in the field of
education are being offered at a distance. Its main focus is on
The implementation of the
virtual class in Wellington Polytechnic started in July 1995. This occurred
mainly through the activities of the HYDI Educational New Media Centre (Wellington Polytechnic, 1998 June) that developed the On-line
Campus of Wellington Polytechnic and also networked courses.
The
Ministry of Education (1994a) in
The rapid pace of
technological change, and the explosive growth in communications we have seen
over the last ten years, will accelerate as we enter the new century.
In New
Zealand the importance of the tertiary educational system in preparing school
leavers for the emerging information society is recognised and described
in “A Guide to tertiary education in New
Zealand” published by the Ministry of Education (1997, June):
To prosper,
The goal of preparing school
leavers for this new environment is a challenge for the tertiary education
system.
Successful conventional tertiary education institutes of
the future therefore will need to operate with new levels of flexibility. Beare and
Slaughter (1993:35) indeed believe that in the context of Australian schooling
organisations in the post-industrial economy need to be “… flexible, which can
make quick, strategic decisions, which encourage innovation and
entrepreneurship…” Esquer and
Sheremetov (1999, July:1607) point to an emerging consensus that successful universities of the
future will be those that operate with high flexibility:
The educational institutions seek to obtain strategic advantages by
redesigning the way they educate to reflect the rapidly changing state of the
art in the education domains and tutoring methods and techniques as well. The
emerging consensus is that successful Universities of the next millennium will
be those that embrace continuous change as an education paradigm. Such
Universities will be able both to adapt to changes in the social market for
their students and to lead this market in directions optimal to the society’s
goals by continually adapting their education plans, methods and strategies of
teaching, and educational infrastructures to changes in the environment.
Conventional
tertiary education therefore needs to have more open boundaries with boundary
management becoming more relevant as “… the external environment has impinged
more directly on university operations...” (Middlehurst, 1993:56).
Conventional
tertiary education in general and in
The
relationship between the virtual class and conventional tertiary education
therefore seems a complex and unlikely one. This is especially true when the
management processes within conventional tertiary education are examined.
2.3 Management
Processes
Conventional
management can be described as the process of planning and decision making,
organising, leading and control of an organisation’s human, financial and
information resources to achieve the objectives of an organisation in an
effective and efficient manner (
Many
writers like Boone and Kurtz (1984), Newman, Warren and McGill (1987),
Schultheis and Sumner (1989) and Van Dyk, Palmer, Smit, Vrba and De Klerk
(1991) divide the management process into four functions namely planning (decide what must be done),
organising (decide how it must be done), leading (ensuring that it is done) and
control (determine whether instructions have been followed). Other writers
identify additional functions of management for example staffing and
communication (Koontz and Weirich, 1990). Van Dyk et al. (1991) state that the following dimensions of management are
also included in, and are present in all management functions: communication,
decision-making, coordination and negotiation. Mintzberg (1973) postulates that
a manager has interpersonal, informational and decisional roles. Mintzberg
includes the leadership function in the interpersonal roles while the
organising, planning and control functions feature in the decisional and
interpersonal roles.
There has
been a clear and consistent call from prominent writers on management and
organizational design like Drucker (1985, 1989, 1995), Senge (1990), Peters
(1988), Marquard (1996), Tapscott (1996), Limerick and Cunnington (1993) to heed the
necessity to practice these functions and dimensions of management in an
entirely new way in the context of the emerging global information or knowledge
society.
2.3.1 Conventional educational management
Management in education is often equated to “administration”
(Rebore, 1985:39). However,
“management” in this research does not refer only to administration within
tertiary education. To limit the notion of management to administrative practices only and thus exclude the academic area
would be to argue that planning and decision making, organising, leading and
control do not occur in the area of teaching, but only in administration.
Using a
fractal view to analyse management in tertiary education is particularly apt
since academic staff members typically perform their duties like operational
managers instead of operational workers. Academics often operate fairly
autonomously without direct instructions due to their status as being
professionals, the one-to-many relationship between teacher and students and
the principles of academic freedom (Paul, 1990:32).
Management
and its related governance and organisational structures in conventional
tertiary education have remained fairly static and centralised. Patterson (1997:7) studied the university’s
evolutionary dimensions and points out that
The historic continuity of the institution is unbroken, and many of the
medieval university’s unique features remain characteristic of today’s
universities: features, for example, such as … structures of governance, such
as the division of major branches of learning into faculties, and the
hierarchical positions such as deans, chancellor and rector.
Trow (1996)
also highlights the rather stagnant management approaches within conventional
tertiary education.
Universities
are often highly bureaucratic. Garrison (1989:38) points to higher education
when contending that as “…formal education grew in size and complexity,
bureaucracies became the controlling mechanism”, while Paul
(1990:31) shares this view that “…universities exhibit many of the
characteristics of bureaucratic organizations” . A statement by Rebore (1985:33) reflects this
preference also in secondary schooling in the
Line administrators have supervisory responsibilities that emanate from
the superintendent down through the pyramid to the building level. While many
different models have been used, this is the most successful and effective in
school districts.
A
description of school organisation in
… draws upon the factory
model of organisation… Schools abound with the characteristics of bureaucracy,
like hierarchy and positional status; they encourage upward mobility and
promotion through graded ranks; they teem with rules and regulations, with
specialists and division of functions.
In the British universities during the 1990s “…
there has been a steady increase in bureaucracy and a steady decrease in the
amount of time available for core academic activities particularly at senior
levels” (Middlehurst, 1993:189). This is a common complaint from academics
heard in the hallways at national and international conferences.
This
description of management in conventional tertiary education aligns itself
clearly to what Burns and Stalker (1961) call a mechanistic control process in contrast to an organic control process. The mechanistic management structure links
to a stable external environment. According to Daft (1989:61) this structure
has the following characteristics:
(i)
Tasks are broken down in specialized, separate parts.
(ii)
Tasks are rigidly defined.
(iii)
There is a strict hierarchy of authority and control, and
there are many rules.
(iv)
Knowledge and control of tasks are centralized at the top
of the organization.
(v)
Communication is vertical.
In contrast
to the institutional management structures, the teaching and research functions
of academic staff as professionals are typically more client oriented, less
formal and less concerned with hierarchy (Paul, 1990). While institutional
conventional educational management operates on a largely bureaucratic model,
academic staff operate on a “collegial model” (Paul, 1990:32). This collegial
model is under attack as tertiary educational institutes compete with each
other and with private enterprise, and also because of the bureaucratic
environment in which it operates (Paul, 1990).
Another
model operating in universities is the political model which recognises the
“…predominance of power groups’ (Paul, 1990:35), but does not explain the
workings of the university in terms of its governance or collegial aspects.
The
anarchic model (Cohen and March, 1974) depicts the modern university as an
organised anarchy that, according to Paul (1990:37) illustrates such
ambiguities and uncertainties that it renders the traditional forms of
management meaningless or inept. Cohen and March (1974:83) assert that:
Although a college or
university operates within the metaphor of the political system or a
hierarchical bureaucracy, the actual operation of either is considerably
attenuated by the ambiguity of college goals, by the lack of clarity in
educational technology and by the transient character of many participants”.
The
anarchic model has not been without critique (Paul, 1990), and does focus more
on self-management of academic staff
than on the institute as a whole. Cohen and March (1974), in suggesting how to
deal with running an “organised anarchy”, highlight the importance of framing
university operations in academic terms when they satirically propose that
experience needs to be treated as theory, goals as hypotheses, intuition as
real, hypocrisy as transition and memory as an enemy.
It seems,
however, that the bureaucratic elements of conventional tertiary education are
pre-eminent and in constant conflict with the self-management ideals and processes
of academic staff.
Conventional
tertiary education has changed sporadically as it responded to shifts and
movements in society. It again faces the challenge to respond to the
educational needs of the knowledge society - also through entrepreneurship.
Drucker (1985:21) maintains that the “... creation and development of the
modern university” is a case study in entrepreneurship. It was a response to “…
a major shift in the market…” and “… represent entrepreneurship.”
The generic
conventional management paradigm in tertiary education acknowledges the
contrasting ideals of academic self-management and that there are exceptions to
rules.
The
conventional educational management paradigm can thus be described as being largely mechanistic, formal, centralised,
focussing predominantly on the local environment, insular, inflexible, rigid, bureaucratised, with strong
institutional control and segmented, with a
high degree of division of labour, variable participation, and often
politicised.
At the same time there is a need for transformation in
response to the educational needs of the emerging knowledge society and to
alter its management process to effect this transformation. There is little clarity in conventional
tertiary education on how to manage the virtual class as an integrated system.
2.3.2 New forms of educational management
Literature
on tertiary distance education, newer forms of tertiary education and private
enterprise is reviewed to analyse responses in educational management to the
educational requirements of the information or knowledge society.
Tertiary distance education
Management
of distance education institutes may provide pointers to approaches in managing
the operations of the virtual class. Rumble (1992:95) refers to the operations
of distance education as a “highly distributed system” which “looks very
different to the residential or non-residential campus-based university”. Networked education is based on distributed
networks and the management of networked education might therefore correlate
with the distributed nature of the operations of distance education.
The
effective and widespread use of networked education in conventional tertiary
education might facilitate a multiple-mode approach due to its differences with
distance education (as pointed out in 2.1 above). Garrison (1989) restricts
organisational models in distance education to two models. Autonomous (or
single distance mode) institutes are those totally committed to distance
education while mixed (or dual mode) institutes offer distance education as an
integral and important part of their teaching.
There is a
growing awareness in distance education that on-campus and off-campus education
is converging. Bates (1984a) points to a
possible convergence of on-campus and off-campus education through computer
mediated education. Garrison (1989:117) notes that this convergence is “…blurring the boundaries between
conventional and distance education”. Bates (1984a) also suggests that many
dual mode institutes will emerge as conventional education move into distance
education.
The use of ICT in distance education is growing. With reference to the
increasing and widespread use of ICT in tertiary education, and particularly in
distance education Bates (1993b:189) postulated that using ICT, “…‘meetings’ could be held without any staff
having to travel from their desks” (-
foreshadowing the operation of virtual teams in tertiary education.
An
organisational model that moves away from centralised control is possible through
the use of ICT. Bates (1984a) described the organisational model of traditional
distance institutes as being centralised but asserted that these new
technologies offer the possibility of an alternative model to the large,
centralised and specialised distance education system. Garrison (1989:38), in
view of the new technologies and the coming of the information age, postulated
that education “…is experiencing a shift from formal, centralised, and
segmented operations to increasingly complex, decentralised, and integrated
levels of organisation”. He furthermore foresees the potential of computer
based distance education to “…both decentralise education and individualise or
personalise it at the same time” (Garrison,1989:88). Peters (1993:53) contends that in the post-industrial society there will
be in distance teaching institutions a “departure from a highly centralized
organization of the teaching-learning process and a move to small decentralized
units which can be made transparent by the means of new technology”.
Distance education also links to the globalisation possibilities in
education. “Globalization is a feature
of later modernity which has been embraced by distance education, especially as
educational institution and their political bosses and business allies in
developed nations seek to extend their influence and sources of revenue into
developing nations” (Evans and Nation, 1993:213).
Newer forms of tertiary ed