The games institutions play - or the impact of university incorporation on the attitudes, beliefs and perceptions of college lecturers

Abstract

This study gauges the impact of the incorporation of a college into a university on the attitudes, beliefs and perceptions of staff members who were not appointed in posts at the receiving institution. It is an account of the anger, fear and bias college lecturers experienced during the process of incorporation. Former college staff acted as both interviewers and interviewees in this innovative research design. The question asked during the free attitude interviews was: `How did the incorporation of the college into the University affect you as a College lecturer?' The subsequent data analyses and reporting were composed by the interviewers. The data indicate that the lecturers experienced emotional phases similar to those described in Kuebler-Ross's `stages of grief' model. The need for a more humane approach to incorporation processes has implications for the successful transformation of higher education institutions.