Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

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

King Moshoeshoe comes alive on national television

2004-11-02

Honourable Bethuel Pakalitha Mosisili, Prime Minister of Lesotho, and his wife; King Letsie III of Lesotho and Dr Ezekiel Moraka, Vice-Rector: Student Affairs at the UFS during the première of the film at the Royal Palace in Lesotho

The ground-breaking documentary film on the life and legacy of King Moshoeshoe, the founder of the Basotho nation, will come alive on Thursday 4 November 2004 when it is screened on SABC2 at 21:00

The film, called Moshoeshoe: The Renaissance King, forms part of a larger project by the University of the Free State (UFS) to honour the Moshoeshoe legacy of nation-building and reconciliation and to explore his role as a model of African leadership. It was produced by the well-known journalist Mr Max du Preez and commissioned by the UFS as part of its centenary celebrations.

The SABC2 screening was preceded by a première in Bloemfontein last month, and was attended by provincial political leaders.

This past weekend there was a première at the Royal Palace in Lesotho, which was attended by King Letsie III, the prime minister, the chief justice, judges, the president of the senate, cabinet ministers and directors-general.

“Through this documentary film the UFS commits itself to developing a shared appreciation of the history of this country and to the establishment of the Free State Province as a model of reconciliation and nation-building. King Moshoeshoe is also a strong common element, and binding factor, in the relationship between South Africa/the Free State, and its neighbour, Lesotho,” said Prof Frederick Fourie, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS.

“Not all people in South Africa know the history of Moshoeshoe. Many Basotho – but not all – are well versed in the history of Moshoeshoe, and his name is honoured in many a street, town and township. Many white people know little of him, or have a very constrained or even biased view of his role and legacy. In Africa and the world, he is much less known than, for instance, Shaka,” said Prof Fourie.

“King Moshoeshoe did a remarkable thing in forging a new nation out of a fragmented society. He also created a remarkable spirit of reconciliation and a remarkable spirit of leadership,” said Prof Fourie.

According to Prof Fourie we already benefit from his legacy: the people of the Free State share a tradition of moderation and reconciliation rather than one of aggression and domination. “For the UFS this is also part of real transformation – of creating a new unity amidst our diversity,” said Prof Fourie.

“We also find in the legacy of King Moshoeshoe the possibility of a “founding philosophy”, or “defining philosophy”, for the African renaissance. To develop this philosophy, we must gain a deeper understanding of what really happened there, of his role, of his leadership. Therefore the UFS will encourage and support further research into the history, politics and sociology of the Moshoeshoe period, including his leadership style,” said Prof Fourie.

Media release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Media Representative
Tel: (051) 401-2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl.stg@mail.uovs.ac.za
2 November 2004

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept