A lecturer at the University of Johannesburg, Ms Sadi Senyama, delivered a presentation entitled “Amenable Performance Management in Higher Education: Integrating Agency and Stewardship Theories” in May 2016 at the International Conference of Socio-Economic Researchers in Serbia, to examine a holistic view of institutional performance management.
Ms Senyama is a lecturer in the Department of Somatology, with in the Faculty of Health Sciences.
“Performance management is currently one of the most contentious issues in higher education. This paper conceptualises performance management in higher education using agency and stewardship theories,” said Ms Senyama.
“There is evidence that agency theory may be an appropriate mechanism to achieve explicit accountability, and to monitor and enhance performance. However, it is fraught with problems within academic contexts, explains Senyama.
“The findings demonstrated limitations of agency theory with regard to the stewardship of academics, highlighting he need for the retention of approaches underpinned by stewardship theory.”
“This paper makes a contribution in terms of providing a proposition for an analytical framework that integrates agency and stewardship theories in researching performance management in higher education. Central to this proposition is working within a continuum of these theories to mediate the apparent tension between control and collaboration/collegiality,” concluded Senyama.
The conference provided opportunities for the delegates to exchange new ideas and application experiences face to face, to establish business or research relations and to find global partners for future collaboration.
The International conference on Economics and Social Sciences (ICESS) is aimed for scientists, scholars, engineers and students from the Universities all around the world and the industry to present ongoing research activities, and hence to foster research relations between the Universities and the industry.
