8.

Being a unionized institution, collective bargaining is very much part of the employment process. This generally occurs at the departmental level. Generally, higher-level positions are filled by persons already employed by the University. The collective bargaining process entails the establishment of a contract that both an employee and employer find agreeable. Such a contract concerns the conditions of the workplace, including the hours, rules, regulations, and wages.

Once an employee is accepted at the University, the head of department encourages this person to join a union. The employee is then included in a meeting with a union representative and the head of department to discuss the terms of the contract. When an agreement is reached, the contract is presented to the employee for final approval and his or her signature. The contract is held for a period of three years, after which it is renegotiated.

The union is highly important in these negotiations, as it ensures the well-being and rights of the employee. Employees who join unions are required to abide by their rules, and also to pay a small monthly maintenance fee. The contract drawn up in this way then reflects the desires of the employer and employee as mediated by the union.

This process entails a democratic negotiation between the employee and employer, which is mitigated by a union representative. This means that, while the organization itself is not necessarily democratic in its structure or leadership, there is room within the individual departmental processes to indeed include democratic practices.

9.

As seen above, the University is a large and diversified institution, with a variety of goals and missions within each department, as well as collective goals for the University as a whole. The refinement of these goals and mission are highly integrated with the University's departments, faculties, and senate in terms of the planning and budgeting processes. The senate is to ensure that such integration is successful, but also relies heavily upon faculties and departments to ensure that their internal processes ensure such integration.

At the center of such integration is the academic culture, as explicated by David D. Dill (1982). The University is primarily a learning institution. This means that its main goal is to educate, and its mission should relate to the excellence and usefulness of such education. All other services and management issues are secondary and in the service of this one main aim. In refining the aims and goals of the University, this culture and how it can be integrated in reaching the goals of the University, must be kept in mind.

According to Dill (1982, p. 304), this is vital to the management process: "A necessary condition for the management of academic organizations is the assumption that they are academic communities;...

Yet academic managers do not discuss the actions by which a common set o beliefs can be maintained."
This is the main problem to be resolved in refining the mission and goals of the University. In addition to the issue of the common beliefs is the University as it functions in the competitive market. There are other Universities and academic institutions that compete for limited financial resources, students and faculty, and social prestige. While this is secondary to its academic function, the competitive marketplace is also integrated with the academic nature of the University.

Dill (p. 305) suggests that academic institutions should act as market-based businesses in this regard. In this way, the University is involved in issues such as strategic planning, marketing, and management control. The financial officers integrate with the senate in allocating a certain budget for marketing and recruiting students and faculty. These resources ensure sustainability and growth for the University.

To ensure the management of both the academic and the business aspects of the University effectively, the senate focuses its efforts on the umbrella of meaning, as explicated by Dill (p. 315). Meaning relates to the history and original purpose of the University. The institution was established fifty years ago. Since then, it has grown in excellence and size, currently catering for thousands of students on a state of the art campus.

These are issues that need to be maintained, promoted, integrated and expanded as the student body grows. The focus of the University is therefore its meaning as integrated with its purpose of education. Through effective planning at all levels of leadership, it is envisioned that the future of the University is favorable for both faculty and students. In order to maintain such insurance, all staff are required to be continuously aware of its mission and purpose as these relate to its students.

Sources

Bensimon, Estela M., Neumann, Anna and Birnbaum, Robert. "Higher Education and Leadership Theory.

Birnbaum, Robert. (1989, Jul). The Latent Organizational functions of the Academic Senate: Why Senates do not work but will not go away. The Journal of Higher Education. 60 (4).

Dill, David D. (1982). The Management of Academic Culture: Notes on the management of meaning and social integration. Higher Education, 11.

Downey, James (1996, Winter). The University as Trinity: Balancing Corporation, Collegium, and Community. Higher Education, Vol. 21, No. 2.

students lecturers students lecturers students lecturers

Departments

Departments

Departments

Departments

Faculty

Faculty

Faculty

Faculty

Dean

Senate