Minerals processing and technology research at the University of Johannesburg : strategy for sustainability

M.B.A.This study was conducted to investigate the strategy for sustainability of the Minerals Processing and Technology Research Group (MPTRG) of the University of Johannesburg. The background of the study established that a new institution, University of Johannesburg (UJ), was formed mainly from the merger of the previous Technikon Witwatersrand (TWR) and the Randse Afrikanse Universiteit (RAU). These two institutions had different vocations: career oriented and academic directed respectively. The merger has created a new institution with new needs, a new environment and new challenges. For a research group, each as the MPTRG, which existed in one of the merging institutions before the merger, to survive and to be sustainable, relevant strategies have to be designed and correctly implemented. The aim of the study was to develop a strategy for MPTRG's sustainability in terms of assisting the faculty of engineering and the built environment of the UJ to achieve its strategic objectives of higher levels of postgraduate students, community, industry and government service quality and productivity in research. The literature review investigated the research activities at university with focus on their sustainability, quality of services rendered (i.e. students trained, research projects conducted , reports drafted, stakeholders' satisfactions deriving from the above etc...) and the number and quality of research output generated. Particular emphasis was placed on the impact of people management in the quality of university research. This was with the assumption that the technology requirement was fulfilled. A mainly qualitative research design was used as the primary methodology in this study and a deductive approach was adopted. As a result, Ulrich's (1997) conceptual model depicting the role of human capacity in assisting the organization to achieve its strategic objectives was used to formulate the study's theoretical propositions. The findings from the literature review revealed that the role of the MPTRG as a strategic partner, is central to the achievement of higher levels of postgraduate students service, research training quality and research productivity. It is therefore recommended that the MPTRG must fully align with the corporate strategy of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment. The following sequential steps must be undertaken: The MPTRG manager, together with his team, should conduct an organizational diagnosis of the group's organizational architecture, which specifies systems that constitute the Faculty. These include the organization's shared mindset and culture, research staff competency levels, systems and standard for progressive assessment and evaluation of postgraduate students performance, assessment of the standards to use to benchmark progressive and final group research output etc... A formal integrated strategy including human capital, technology, relations (i.e. local and international collaborations with industry, as well as other institutions) must be developed which shall provide alternative and or supplementary actions and practices for each of the factors that were identified in the organizational diagnosis. The qualitative and quantitative findings lead to conclude that the MPTRG is currently active in mainly administrative tasks including hiring postgraduate students, arranging their registration, securing scholarships, drafting reports and applications, following up on order to procurement etc... In order to enable the MPTRG to assist the Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment to achieve its strategic objectives, the MPTRG must engage itself with direct research oriented tasks, writing more publications, engaging with community outreach projects, engaging with professional body activities etc.... It is therefore recommended that the MPTRG must shift its focus away from administration in order to create scope and capacity to perform activities over and above administrative and transactional tasks. Complementary strategic research staff be recruited, appropriate research equipment be procured, number of postgraduate students be increased, number of postdoctoral fellows be increased, visiting scientists be attracted, collaborative projects with industry be expanded etc... This would require a high level of assistance from support and service departments (postgraduate student registration, research office, administration, finances, procurement, transport, secretary, etc...)