Prachi Singh, Marius W Stander, Marieta Du Plessis
Abstract
The TVET sector and its academics continue to be plagued by many challenges, of which poor leadership and management feature prominently. Ascertaining what academics value in terms of leadership behaviours is thus of importance. The general objective of this research was to capture junior academics’ perspectives on leadership behaviours at a TVET college in South Africa. A qualitative approach was utilised for this study, using an interpretivist worldview. A purposive sample of 27 junior academics participated in face-to-face semi-structured interviews, which were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed using thematic analysis.
The findings revealed a prevalence of toxic and destructive leadership behaviours, interspersed with a few positive ones. Themes emanating from the study centred on academics’ experiences of leaders’ behaviours as they relate to (1) psychological safety, (2) work ethics, (3) professionalism, (4) empowerment, and (5) decision-making. The findings signal a need for positive leadership behaviours at the HEI to prevent a proliferation of toxicity. Capturing leadership experiences at a TVET college may constitute valid input into formulating appropriate human resource management policies concerning recruitment, selection, performance management, and training and development of academic leaders at TVET colleges.