Read Integrative Case 4.2: Employee Retention and Institutional Change at PIGAMU. Then, answer the questions below.

1. How would the presence of an HR department have made a difference in the implementation?

2. If you were the President, how would you have implemented the changes differently?

3. What conflict resolution systems would you have instituted during the implementation phase?

4. How would you have minimized resistance to the changes?

5. What is the role of societal culture in the case?

6 .If you were invited by the Governing Council as a consultant, what would you recommend to the Governing Council and to the new President?

Integrative Case4.2Employee Retention and Institutional Change at PIGAMUDavid B. Zoogah(Morgan State University)

The President of PIGAMU, an academic institution in Ghana, has sought to initiate institutional change toward an employee retention system based on performance. However, employees who were dismissed brought legal action, triggering a series of disputes that ended up with the President's resignation.

PIGAMU is an academic institution in Ghana, an emerging economy located in Africa and bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the south, Cote d'Ivoire in the West, Togo in the East, and Burkina Faso in the North. As a former colony of Britain, Ghana's name was changed from the Gold Coast to Ghana after independence in 1957. Even though the period after independence was marred by a series of military coup d'etats, the country has been democratic since the late 1980s.

Ghana has a population of 23 million, 58% of which are between the ages of 15 and 64 years, and 48% female.Life expectancy at birth is 57 years. Economic activity measured by industrial productivity is $13.31 billion (2000 US dollars). Manufacturing contributes about 7% of GDP. GNI per capita is US$670. The human development index (HDI), a comparative measure of life expectancy, literacy, education, and standard of living for countries worldwide, indexes the well-being and the impact of economic policies on quality of life. It shows where each country stands in relation to specific goalposts, expressed as a value between 0 and 1. Ghana has an HDI of 0.526, which is relatively higher than other sub-Saharan countries, but far lower than Western and some Asian economies.It has an education index of 0.622. Adult and youth literacy rates are 60% and 71%, respectively.

Organizational Setting

Located in Ghana's capital city Accra, PIGAMU was established in 1961 as a joint Ghana Government/United Nations Special Fund Project. Originally it was an Institute of Public Administration with the objective of developing the public administrative system and producing civil servants with administrative and professional competence to plan and administer national, regional, and local services. PIGAMU's activities over the last 47 years have been guided by a series of mandates beginning with the first Legislative Instrument of 1961 to the current Act of 2004 (Act 676). It is one of several public sector organizations in the country that depended on government subventions, and until 2000 was in need of drastic reform. Consequently, it was selected, as part of the World Bank-funded Public Sector Reform Program in 1999/2000, to be taken off government subvention. Its status as an institution of higher learning was converted to that of a university. It was also given privileges to extend its services to the private sector. Thus, the institution's clientele and stakeholders now range from politicians and bureaucrats to mid-level personnel from the public and private sectors and civil society as well as local and international (African) organizations. All these stakeholders attend a variety of courses in leadership, management, business and public administration.

Vision and Mission of the Institution

PIGAMU's vision is to be a world class center of excellence for training, consultancy and research in leadership, management and administration consistent with the economic and development objectives of Ghana. As a result, it sought to use competent and motivated staff along with state-of-the-art facilities to fulfill its mission of continuous enhancement of the capabilities of middle and top level executives in public and private sectors as well as nongovernmental organizations in Ghana, Africa, and other parts of the world. Its objective is to facilitate human capital development in Ghana. This is to be achieved through the training, research and consultancy expertise of the institution in line with its core values of academic excellence, superior professional standards, speedy response to clientele and stakeholders, purposefulness in national character, conformity to global organizational standards, honesty, hard work, integrity, transparency, innovation, and accountability.

PIGAMU has undergraduate degree programs for working adults in public and business administration including marketing, human resources, accounting and finance, banking and finance, hospitality management, economics, entrepreneurship, and information technology. It is structured into four semi-autonomous units:

• (i)

Public Services unit focusing on training of civil and other public servants;

• (ii)

Governance, Leadership and Public Management, which is a graduate school;

• (iii)

Business School modeled after the US business school system; and

• (iv)

Technology School.

The Business School has Executive Masters Programs in Business Administration (EMBA), Public Administration (EMPA) and Governance and Leadership (EMGL). As of 2005, there were about 1,300 students enrolled in its programs. It also has a Center for IT Professional Development (CIPD), a Center for Management Development (CMD), a Consultancy unit, and a Distance Learning Center.

As shown inExhibit 1, Schools and Centers are headed by Deans, who reports to the President (Rector). The President reports to the Governing Council. Even though the institution is semi-public, governmental influence seems very limited. A new Parliamentary Act in 2004 (Act 676) granted academic and financial autonomy to PIGAMU under an 11-member Governing Council. The autonomy enables PIGAMU to function consistent with the demands of tertiary institutions.

Exhibit1 Structure of Leadership in PIGAMU

Council Registrar Rector Dean Dean Dean Dean Dean Business Law Information G LLIH Pubic School School Technology School Services Lab Center French Resource Dev't Gender BA CE ICT LLB EMGL EMPA EMBA Heads of Department