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This paper explores how performance management (PM)

The advent in universities of managerialism with its drive for individual accountability through performance management systems (PMSs) is contentious. With the implementation of a PMS at a South African university, academic heads of department (HoDs) have been key players in the performance reward component of the PMS. This study, following a qualitative descriptive research design based on in-depth interviews, explores a sample of HoDs' experiences and perceptions of the institution's performance reward system. Most of the participants are sceptical of the PMS as they view it as a business-oriented practice that is not compatible with the nature and objectives of higher education institutions (HEIs). They consider the reward strategy not only to have a limited effect in promoting high performance behaviour, but to be a cause of discontent due to implementation inconsistencies, nebulous award criteria, lack of transparency about ratings, and the negligible monetary value of the reward.

Despite the deeply entrenched belief in and practice of corporal punishment to maintain learner control in schools, a secondary school in Namibia has for a number of years proven to be an exception to this practice. This is an interpretive account of the teachers' and learners' experiences and perceptions of the influence of their school principal's leadership on learner behaviour. In-depth individual and group interviews were held with teachers and learners. Onsite observation was conducted for 14 consecutive school days and school documents were analysed. The data reveal an engaged school leadership that has created a school culture characterized by respect, care, trust, edifying relationships, a sense of belonging, praise, acknowledgement and recognition, and collaboration. By creating a collaborative school culture the school's leadership is not located in the principal alone but in a 'web of relationships'. In the view of both teachers and learners these features of the school's leadership and culture are largely responsible for the positive learner behaviour in the school. This research reaffirms the central role played by school principals in establishing and maintaining their school's culture. It also illustrates the mediating role of school culture in learner behaviour. It is significant that this occurs in a socio-economically deprived context in a developing nation.

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