Management of Institutions within Thomas’s Analytical Framework: A Ugandan Higher Education Case

Abstract

The management of higher education institutions (HEIs) is quite a complex phenomenon. Many 
times, higher education institutions have become arenas of political betting rather than places of knowledge, skill generation and skill development. There is a great assumption that institutions 
exist to achieve rational ends. In the light of Thomas’s analytical framework (2003:27), this paper, through examining the four perspectives – the rational professional view, political view, agency 
of capital view and the magic/religion view – indicates that management in institutions of higher 
education cannot be explained by only one perspective. The paper overlays Thomas’s framework on to the management of selected higher institutions in Uganda to generate a theoretical meaning of how management in these institutions can be comprehended. The paper is theoretical with practical illustrations of what management actually entails in higher education institutions in Uganda