Akusavumi kutsi ngithule

IAFTER THOUGHTS GUESSTIWBRIYITAER have been quietly stewing and watching the evolution of the sad events at the University of Eswatini (UNESWA). I held back on commenting on the issue because I am too close to the issue to remain objective in my analysis, but I promise to remain objective in my opinion and I pray my conscience keeps me true.

Problems facing university

The COVID-19 pandemic dealt a huge blow on the academic integrity of the university. As any institution in the country, the university was not ready for the pandemic, and sadly it struggled to mitigate. Presently the institution is struggling to re-align to the normal academic year (August – March). The world has now moved to post-pandemic years and the university is still stuck in the pandemic era disruptions, it is struggling to close an academic year within the confines of the almanac or year planner. The political unrest in the country added fuel to the fire with regard to the institution’s woes, which further disrupted operations compounding the problems within the university. This is an institution that is often plagued by students’ strike actions and now staff problems, which have become too difficult to contain, are also contributing to disruptions in operations. It is also common knowledge, we all gather through the news, that the institution is also in a financial quagmire, which inhibits efficient operations.

Loss of academic integrity

All these factors contribute to the loss of academic integrity as it becomes difficult for one to argue a case for the products of the university. Industry and all end users of the product of the university are likely losing faith in its output. Rating and ranking agencies are also likely downgrading the ranks occupied by the university. This is a direct attack on public education, inclusive education, human resource development and will have dire impacts on economic growth and development in the medium to long-term. The lower middle class and the poor, who cannot afford to pay for private college education, will suffer the most and will likely be stuck in the poverty trap. Long-term development goals will suffer because of lack adequately trained human resources to spur growth.

X-efficiency wanting

I stand on the fringes and marvel at the apparent lack of astute leadership or management of the university. Crisis after crisis the institution has been left wanting for an adequate mitigation response; it seems the university has had to absorb the full brunt of the crisis I mentioned in the preamble and none of it was mitigated. This, in managerial economics, points to a lack of x-efficiency. This is a scenario where the leadership seems inadequately capacitated to lead the institution and the decision-making is wanting of the right acumen to ensure that the decisions are adequate to catapult the institution forward.

If x-efficiency is wanting, it follows that technical efficiency and resource allocation efficiency will also be deficient because x-efficiency has an overarching role of oversight on operations, financial management and resource allocation within the institution. Sadly, even in situations where the problems are outside of management’s control, the bark stops with management and the outside world and staff look up to it for direction. At times the best decision is to let the cards fall wherever they fall and start on a re-build; the hole patching approach without a proper turnaround strategy only postpones the eminent.

Public policy response

The university is a public good institution, it is also a big institution in the country for government to seemingly not take proactive action to see to it that the institution solves its problems. The sad reality in economics is that some institutions are too big to fail, hence governments across the globe are known to bail out even private companies whose collapse would be catastrophic for the whole economy. Standing as an analyst on the fringes, I contend that government’s actions are not as swift as one would expect. We urge the Ministry of Education and Training to take swift action and get the university to tidy up its affairs.

Bail out or place under administration

At present I see only two policy options available for exploitation, which could be executed in mutual exclusivity or as a combination. Government can place the university under administration; that is government can take over and run the institution through the Ministry of Education and Training. This would give government control over the financial and technical resources of the university with the aim of pushing the institution to a sustainable and efficient path. This should be a timed response as the institution deals with the underlying issues resulting in these inefficiencies while the public purse underwrites operations. Alternatively, government can bail out the institution and leave it to its own vices, but the risks with this approach is relapse as we have seen with all institutions that have been bailed out. Bail outs remove the incentive to fix the underlying causes of the issues, which often fails to culminate in a turnaround strategy. Operations remain the same while the taxpayer foots the bill. Executives get higher emoluments and pay.

This is simply to show that there is a relationship between the happiness of the employee and that of the customer and to keep the customer happy, good service is very important.

There is power in the word of mouth. One customer’s experience is the experience of 10 other people, and probably more, because a customer’s bad experience is what he or she will tell to the next 10 people he or she comes across. If the experience shared is good, then your business has gained 10 new potential customers and an extra 10 for the people who the original 10 people will tell. On the other hand, when the experience is bad then you have lost 10 customers because every time someone mentions your product or asks about it, their experiences will taint the possibility of gaining those customers who will in turn re-share those encounters. This is to show that an employee is not just an employee, but they are the face of your business and their happiness ensures that they are able to love their job and enjoy what they do and similarly they will be able to apply their best manners and joy for every customer that they encounter.

As a business owner, let this be a reminder to listen to your employees and understand them that one of the pillars of leadership is serving. Serving means meeting the needs of your employees and seeing serving as a pathway to gaining authority. Authority can be gained through empathy and understanding. A leader who accomplishes this gains more than just an employee, they gain a person who will place the integrity and brand of the business first by placing every customer at the forefront of the business and making sure they want to come back again next time.