Conflict of interest: The case of a non-decision-making committee at a South African public higher education institution

IF 0.2 Q4 SOCIAL SCIENCES, INTERDISCIPLINARY TD-The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa Pub Date : 2021-06-28 DOI:10.4102/td.v17i1.878
J. Wessels, E. Sadler
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Abstract

The avoidance of a conflict of interest within private and public institutions is closely associated with good corporate governance. This study departed from the question of whether a conflict of interest is possible within a non-decision-making institutional committee. For this purpose, a high-level non-decision-making committee within a South African public higher education institution was selected as a case study. This article reports on an exploratory qualitative study consisting of qualitative content analysis of the constituting and operational documents of this committee, as well as on a study of the perceptions and lived experiences of the selected committee. It was found that the selected committee was established to be a high-level consultative body for the executive management committee of the university on decisions of strategic operational nature. This committee does not have any decision-making duties. Conflict of interest is perceived by committee members in terms of either the explicit or the hidden agenda metaphor. According to the explicit agenda metaphor, a conflict of interest within a non-decision-making committee is not possible, whilst the hidden agenda metaphor holds that a conflict of interest is the reality of members’ lived experiences. This article provides a comparison of the two perspectives according to three defining attributes of the concept and shows a need for a logical and principled definition of the concept ‘conflict of interest’ within the context of higher education and the public sector at large.
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利益冲突:南非公立高等教育机构非决策委员会的案例
避免私营和公共机构内部的利益冲突与良好的公司治理密切相关。这项研究偏离了非决策机构委员会内部是否可能存在利益冲突的问题。为此,选择了南非公立高等教育机构内的一个高级非决策委员会作为案例研究。本文报告了一项探索性的定性研究,包括对该委员会的组成和运作文件的定性内容分析,以及对选定委员会的看法和生活经历的研究。研究发现,该专责委员会是大学执行管理委员会就战略运作性质的决定设立的一个高级别咨询机构。这个委员会没有任何决策职责。委员会成员通过明示或隐藏的议程隐喻来感知利益冲突。根据显性议程隐喻,非决策委员会内部的利益冲突是不可能的,而隐性议程隐喻则认为利益冲突是成员生活经历的现实。本文根据这一概念的三个定义属性对这两种观点进行了比较,并表明需要在高等教育和整个公共部门的背景下对“利益冲突”概念进行合乎逻辑和原则的定义。
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来源期刊
自引率
0.00%
发文量
23
审稿时长
27 weeks
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