Abstract:

Middle Managers (MM) in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are individuals who coordinate team of people in order to promulgate organisation vision, mission and goals. MM are key players in running day-to-day activities of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and act as a leverage between the top and bottom management in the organisation hierarchy. MM play a crucial role in organisational change and balance various inputs, processes and outputs. However, past and current changes and challenges experienced in HEIs sector is exerting enormous pressures for MM to work efficiently and effectively in their roles. Factors influencing such mounting pressures include aspects such as increased student numbers, government and organisation policies, working bureaucratic structures, immense workloads, accountability and transparency to name a few. Thus, training and development is crucial for MM to toil ingeniously in their respective HEI. Nonetheless, as evident from contemporary literature, the current training and developments provided by Human Resource (HR) departments in HEIs are too generic to fit the true purpose and needs of MM. Moreover, the current development provision for MM by their HEI organisation shows that a gap exists in HEI management development programmes provision and does not meet MM requirements. Nevertheless, such MM developmental needs can be identified and addressed through structured programmes that extended by the Human Resources department of such institutions are beneficial to success for MMs and HEIs. Hence, this study aims to develop a conceptual model for development needs of Middle managers in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) subjugated by HR department to develop and support MM’s in their roles.

Keywords:

Middle Managers (MM), Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), Developmental Needs (DN), Human Resources (HR).