Abstract:

It is commonly accepted within soundly governed corporations, public sector institutions and thus institutions of higher education, that the “only value driver” for members of boards and committees is the best interest of the institution (Institute of Directors Southern Africa 2016). Consequently, it is expected that members of these bodies will always “avoid using their position and title to perpetuate sole self-interest or mere private gain” (Cavico & Mujtaba 2009: 9). The expectation of avoidance of conflicting interests in corporate decision making is imbedded in a rich literature on business ethics and corporate governance (De Cremer, Van Dick, Tenbrunsekl, Pillutla & Murnighan 2011:S1). Conflict of interest in corporate meetings is usually associated with the decision-making powers of a particular body, and the possibility that a member’s decision in that committee be impaired by the member’s personal or private interest. A crucial question, however, is whether conflict of interest is possible within a committee with no decision-making powers, and if so, what the nature of that conflict is. The purpose of this paper is thus to report on a study of the possibility of conflict of interest experienced by members of an extended management committee of a selected higher education institution. Although the particular committee is mainly a non-decision-making consultative forum for the Executive Management of the institution, a self-assessment study has shown that the confidence level of committee members to “properly manage potential conflict of interest” within the committee, is at an “extremely low level” (BMR 2015:1).

This paper reports on a phenomenological study amongst members of the particular extended management committee to understand their perceptions of the concept ‘conflict of interest’ within the context of this committee, their lived experiences of the potential conflict of interest within the EMC, as well as their understanding of what the properly managing of this phenomenon entails. The analysis of the interview records revealed that the committee members’ understanding of the concept ‘conflict of interest’ is closely related to the agenda of the meetings. An agenda, as a metaphor, as well as the actual structure of the committee’s meetings, encapsulates both the explicit (open) and the hidden (tacit) elements as perceived by the interviewees, with regard to the things to be done and the matters of ritual in the committee. The paper reports on the findings of the interviews, its interpretation in terms of the relevant literature and final conclusions on the possibility of conflict of interest within a non-decision-making management committee.

Keywords:

Higher education, corporate governance, conflict of interest, university management, hidden agenda.