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Prof Peter Rosseel: Why change in behaviour is difficult and what you can do about it?

26 July 2023 | Story Kekeletso Takang | Photo Charl Devenish

Prof Phillipe Burger, Prof Peter Rosseel and Prof Liezel Massyn — Prof Philippe Burger, Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, together with Prof Peter Rosseel and Prof Liezel Massyn, Head of the Business School, at the recent guest lecture hosted by the UFS Business School.

The business world today is confronted with continuous disruptions and uncertainty. Organisations are challenged to think about digitalisation, innovation, and transformation to remain competitive. Leaders must be able to take everyone with them on a journey of continuous change.

This is according to Prof Peter Rosseel, Director of MCR Consulting (a spin-off of the University of Leuven in Belgium) and Affiliated Professor at the University of the Free State (UFS), who gave the lecture in the UFS Business School. The title of the lecture was The Golden Triangle of Vision-Leadership-Culture: why changing behaviour is so difficult and what you can do about it? and it was aimed at challenging leaders to deal with disruptions and uncertainty, the lecture equipped attendees with the skills to do so.

Prof Rosseel challenged attendees to stretch their thinking. “Change management is not a human resource function, it is a leadership concern. Leaders who want to see a change in behaviour should create conceptual conflict.”

Conceptual conflict

Laughter was coupled with moments of silence as Prof Rosseel, a visiting professor at the University of Leuven in Belgium, took attendees on a roller-coaster ride. He alluded to five examples of conceptual conflict, statements that shook the room.

Team building doesn’t work, it is a waste of money.
Stop giving presentations, people only remember 4% of what was presented.
Take the word ‘consensus’ out of your vocabulary.
You can measure all you want; it won’t change behaviour.
Training as a strategy to change an organisation is a very bad idea.

He believes that conceptual conflict is important for the development of the culture of an organisation.

In addition to creating conceptual conflict, leaders should negotiate with their teams. “There are three ways to go about this; inform, engage/empower, and observe the change in behaviour. People want to be informed on time, people want control, and people want to know why. Meet these terms and you are well on your way to observing the change in behaviour. People can agree to change even if they don’t support it, as long as they believe it is fair.”

An attendee posed a question to Prof Rosseel: “In South Africa, we have trade unions, and this leads to a consensus approach to decision-making. How do we do away with consensus in decision-making?” Prof Rosseel responded by saing: “That’s the context within which you operate. You can’t change the context. Play the politics but never compromise the strategy implementation.”

The golden triangle of ‘vision – leadership – culture’ provides a framework within which organisations can operate. Vision is the content, while leadership facilitates the change in behaviour, and culture is created through strategy implementation and cognitive dissonance.

About the speaker

Prof Rosseel’s field of expertise covers strategy implementation, change management, cultural and digital transformation, leadership, and learning. He travels the world to help leadership teams and their organisations to change (80% of his time).

He also teaches change management, and digital and organisational culture transformation to first- and second-year students in the Master of Biomedical Sciences, third-year Bachelor of Criminology students, and third-year Bachelor of Psychological and Educational Sciences students. In 2024, he will also teach a postgraduate course to engineers on the same subject matter. In South Africa, he teaches in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (20% of his time).

Read up on more programmes offered by the UFS Business School here.

News Archive

UFS implements access control measures on our Bloemfontein Campus

2014-11-21

Photo: Hannes Pieterse

Online Application form: non personnel

Map with access gates on the Bloemfontein Campus

Accessing the Bloemfontein Campus from 3 November 2014

Access control during major events on the Bloemfontein Campus

Q&A

The University of the Free State (UFS) has been tightening security measures on its Bloemfontein Campus for quite some time now. Purposefully, we have consolidated several safety measures to keep our students, staff and visitors – the heartbeat of our university – protected.

Our most significant step in this endeavour is now in the process of implementation. All five entrance gates to the campus are being equipped with strict access control.

The first phase of the process was implemented beginning of August 2014. Gates 2 (Badenhorst Street) and 4 (Furstenburg Street) were equipped with card readers. Only persons with valid access cards can enter and leave through these gates. Existing staff and student cards are equipped to be read by the short-distance card readers at the gates in order to activate the booms.

At this stage, staff and students are swiping their cards against the card readers at Gates 2 and 4 or holding it not further than 20 mm from the reader for the boom to open. Card holders now physically stop in front of the boom in order to get access to the campus.

The duel-frequency card:

The dual-frequency cards available at the Card Division on the Thakaneng Bridge are currently out of stock. New cards will be delivered on Friday 14 November 2014.

The special offer of R30 per access card has been extended to the end of November 2014. To qualify for this offer, staff and students may pay the R30 for a dual-frequency card at the bank or cashiers on the Thakaneng Bridge no later than 28 November. The cost of dual-frequency cards will increase to R60 per card from 1 December 2014.

Please note that only people with vehicles need to apply for dual-frequency cards.

Students and staff will, however, still be able to gain access to the Bloemfontein Campus with their current cards (in the case of staff and students who haven’t purchased dual-frequency cards yet). As is currently the practice at the gates in Furstenburg and Badenhorst Streets, you will have to stop when you reach the boom, swipe your card past the card reader, the boom will open and you will be able to drive through.

Staff and students using their dual-frequency cards should:

-       Reduce speed
-       Hold the card in a vertical position at the driver’s side window, in the direction of the long-distance reader (see photo)

It is therefore not necessary to stop in front of the boom. On holding your card upright, in line with the card reader, the gate will open automatically and you will be able to drive through (keep your card outside your window; the card reader cannot operate through tinted windows).

Please note that this arrangement only applies to incoming lanes. On leaving the campus, the card has to be swiped. This is due to the number-plate recognition technology installed at exits for additional security.

If the long-distance reader does not work, the dual-frequency card can still be used at a tag reader.

Applying for your new card:

Electronic fund transfers: Absa Bank: 1 570 8500 71, Ref: 1 413 07670 0198, OR pay the R30 at the UFS Cashiers, Thakaneng Bridge. Please note that the price of the cards will increase to R60 from 1 November 2014.

Take your existing personnel or student card, together with proof of payment, to the UFS Card Division, Bloemfontein Campus, Thakaneng Bridge, to have your photo taken and your new dual-frequency card issued.

Permission to access specific UFS buildings or facilities linked to your existing card, will be automatically linked to the new card.

The new card is marked ‘dual’ on the back in the right, bottom corner.

The UFS Cashiers will provide assistance between 09:00 and 14:30, and the UFS Card Division between 09:00 and 15:00.

Implementation of full access control

Full access control will be implemented on the UFS’s Bloemfontein Campus from 3 November 2014. This means that access control will be implemented at all gates on the Bloemfontein Campus.

Who is using which gate? See Q&A for more information.

Gate 3 (Wynand Mouton Drive) is earmarked for use by official card holders. These include students, staff and persons doing business on campus. Parents dropping and fetching their children for sports, as well as service providers of the UFS, such as architects, may apply for valid cards. These persons will have to provide proof that they have business on campus (complete online application form and sign declaration).

All visitors to the campus will be referred to the Visitor’s Centre at Gate 5 (DF Malherbe Drive). This include, among others, parents, family and friends of students, as well as conference delegates. It is estimated that the Visitor’s Centre will be completed at the end of November (note that the gate at DF Malherbe Drive will be operational by 3 November 2014). Visitors will sign in at the Visitor’s Centre and, depending on the business they have on campus, they will only be allowed on campus for a certain period of time.

•    Lane 1 at Gate 5 will be used by visitors and service providers to enter the campus. Only card holders will be able to use lane 2.
•    Buses and trucks can also enter the campus through Gate 5.

The construction at the Main Gate at Nelson Mandela Drive is to build one extra lane for incoming traffic. The project is estimated to be completed at the end of October 2014.

•    For outgoing traffic, lane 1 (furthest from the guardhouse) and lane 2 will only be used by card holders and lane 3 (closest to the booth) will be used by service providers.
•    For incoming traffic, lanes 2 and 3 were set aside for use by only service providers. Lanes 1 and 4 will be used by only card holders.

Pedestrians

All gates for motorists will also be equipped with a pedestrian thoroughfare on completion of the project. Persons using these pedestrian gates also need to use their cards to get access to the campus.

Pedestrians who are visitors, but aren’t in possession of a valid access card, should please go to the Visitor’s Centre at the gate in DF Malherbe Drive where they will be helped.

More information

For more information on access control at the UFS, please watch our videos and read the Q&A or e-mail your enquiries to accesscontrol@ufs.ac.za.

Issued by: Lacea Loader (Director: Communication and Brand Management)
Tel: +27(0)51 401 2584 | +27(0)83 645 2454
E-mail: news@ufs.ac.za

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