Governance of South Africa’s Higher Learning Institutions : complexities of internal stakeholder engagement in universities

Abstract

This article argues that governance of South Africa’s higher learning institutions through stakeholder engagement is a complex phenomenon, rendered protracted by the wide-ranging diversity of interests and, more often than not, contradictory mandates of the multiple actors. Institutional systems for the management of the complex interactionism of the multiplicity of actors have largely been overcompensated by informal processes that reward patronage and partisanship at the expense of good governance. Modern governance systems require that the chain of management operation in organisations be based on stakeholder engagement. These stakeholders are by virtue of their existence in organisations required to work together in order to avoid conflicts which may emanate from silo operations. The article uses literature to argue that the different mandates held by individual stakeholders in institutions of higher learning in South Africa make the attainment of good governance intractable. This article concludes that only a common ground of mandate that can be established for various stakeholders can ensure successful governance through inclusive stakeholder engagement in institutions of higher learning in South Africa.