Compromising Strategy and Performance of Academic Staff in Chartered Private Universities in Uganda: A Review

Abstract

Chartered private universities in Uganda stand out as one of the biggest changes in the country's higher education system over the past four decades. This expansion has provided a significant degree of extension in access to tertiary learning, but at the same time has raised new significant challenges around academic staff performance. This review examines large chunks of empirical evidence cited in recent investigative studies in Ugandan chartered private universities to look at the many factors that affect the strategy and performance of academic staff in these institutions. The review pinpoints 5 key compromising factors, namely rigid structures with too high a level of centralisation and bureaucratic control; poor and inconsistent performance monitoring systems; poor compensation, resource constraints; insufficient focus on demographic variations of qualifications, experience and gender; and poor-quality assurance systems. The review shows that the interaction of various structural, motivational and demographic factors revealed the complexity of the factors which can systematically limit the performance of academic staff based on Administrative Management Theory, Expectancy Theory, Human Capital Theory and Herzberg's Two Factor Theory. The review finds that changes to how things are done, in terms of governance, performance management and human resource processes is needed in the private university sector in Uganda to improve the situation.