The role of leaders in building research cultures in sub-Saharan African universities

Abstract

Existing research attributes the problem of weak researchproductivity of academics in African universities primarily toinstitutional resource poverty and inadequate research skills.However, there has been little attention to research cultures andthe role of leaders in fostering productive ones. Drawing from theliterature on organizational culture, this study examines the roleof university leaders in developing research cultures. The studyexplores how institution leaders do this within the highereducation contexts in their countries. The empirical work is basedon qualitative interviews with senior and mid-level universityleaders in six countries in sub-Saharan Africa. While all of theleaders espoused clear views about the elements of a productiveresearch culture, results indicate a significant gap remainsbetween espoused values for research and the actual researchculture. Theoretically, the research extends the concept ofresearch cultures by demonstrating the complex dynamicsbetween research cultures, culture embedding mechanisms, andleader behavior within contextual constraints.