The Management of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) has held a three-day retreat to develop a strategic medium-term to a long-term plan to enhance the quality of academic programmes.
The management through a catch-ball process between leaders of the various faculties, departments, and directorates developed a five-year plan for the period spanning the 2023 – 2027 academic year.
The retreat deliberated on plans to provide the needed infrastructure to develop the institute in enhancing quality education and the welfare of its students and staff under the theme: “Agenda for Transformation.”
The Rector of the Institute, Prof. Samuel Kwaku Bonsu, said the purpose of the retreat was to engage and come up with actionable activities that would ensure the effective implementation of the plan.
“Quality education is the hallmark of the institute, and therefore, the strategic plan would help to provide the needed human resource and direction to achieve the set goals,” he said.
Chairman of the Strategic Planning Committee, Prof. Ebenezer Adaku, emphasized that the vision and mission of the new strategic plan were underpinned by the GIMPA Act, (Act 676) and thus refocuses the Institute on its main object.
He also called for unity and commitment towards achieving an excellent goal for the nation adding that the welfare of the institute should be the priority of all management, to be able to achieve the mandate entrusted.
Dr Esi Eduafowa Sey, the Project Director of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) at GIMPA and an Organizational Development expert who took the team through the six strategic pillars of the Plan and the appropriate work culture on which these pillars are built, stressed the need for a culture of efficiency and measurement of individual and collective output for the growth of the institute.
She noted there is the need for systemic thinking, indicating that ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and that the system is only as strong as its weakest link.
“The team can only achieve this five-year plan through team building in a healthy organizational culture and behaviour,” she said.
Mr K. Rockson Dogbegah, the President of the Institute of Directors–Ghana, who also happens to be a member of the GIMPA Governing Council, encouraged frequent and open communication among the leaders to foster a sense of trust and accountability adding that celebrating both small and big success will reinforce the collective responsibility towards achieving the strategic goals.
Present at the retreat were the Rector, Deputy Rector, Secretary of the Institute, all Deans, Directors and Heads of Departments.
Participants were educated on how management intended to inculcate an institutional culture through what is modelled, rewarded, and sanctioned.
