Abstract:

Tertiary institutions are currently faced with new challenges and transformation on the political, economic, social and technological front. Research indicates managing diversity will be one of the biggest challenges faced by higher education institutions in the future. This implies, among other things, changing the organisational culture, re-conceptualizing appropriate leadership styles and restructuring institutions. In order to cope with these changes, tertiary institutions need to devise strategies and implement them successfully.

The main objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between diversity and organisational culture and how it impacts on successful strategy implementation in a tertiary institution.

Although the literature available on the individual concepts of diversity, organisational culture and strategy implementation is extensive, the literature tends to focus on only one of the concepts. Strategic management literature has in recent years increasingly commented about the role of socio-cultural factors in strategy implementation. This proposes an underlying consensus about the ideal socio-cultural factors for strategy implementation, further implying that diversity and organisational culture could be profiled on a continuum stretching from supportive to non-supportive for strategy implementation. Strategy implementation literature lacks sufficient concrete evidence to form a clear understanding of the dimensions of such a diversity and cultural profile. As a result, it is neither easy to guide institutions about the areas of diversity and organisational culture that are crucial to strategy implementation, nor to assess these social-cultural factors on a scale of strategy implementation supportiveness.

In order to address this weakness a research project was launched. The first phase of this research was a literature study with the purpose of developing a conceptual definition of a supportive diversity and organisational culture for strategy implementation. The three individual concepts were examined and a comprehensive interaction analysis of diversity, organisational culture and strategy implementation was done. A model was developed to depict the dimensions of each concept after extensive literature review. In addition, a strategic management model indicated the central role diversity and organisational culture should play in the strategy implementation process.

The next phase of the research subjects the conceptual formulation to empirical verification. A diagnosis has to be made of which dimensions of diversity and culture, of the tertiary institute, is presently supportive of strategy implementation, and which are not. It is important that tertiary institutions ensure there is a fit between diversity, culture and strategy implementation and purposefully link all changes and strategies to these.

Finally, the project aims to develop a diagnostic instrument that can discriminate between supportive and non-supportive organisational environments for strategy implementation. Such a capability should enable a more systematic approach to strategy implementation by giving institutions insight into the changes in diversity and culture required for supporting strategy implementation. Thus effective strategy implementation can be the basis for creating a sustainable competitive advantage for the tertiary institution.

Keywords:

Tertiary education, diversity, culture, strategy implementation.