Governance in public universities: an Upper Echelon Theory approach

Abstract

Purpose: Public governance uses leadership, strategy, and control mechanisms, so good governance practices are necessary for university management. Thus, the heterogeneity of characteristics would aggregate broader sets of knowledge. In this way, our objective is to identify how the diversity of the attributes of top management team influences the quality of governance in Brazilian public universities. Design/methodology/approach: This is an explanatory study of a quantitative nature, using the ordinary least squares method for the regression of panel data. We collected the identification of the management team on the universities' website and we identified the governance situation in Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts survey. Findings: The results indicate that the diversity of managers' titles had a positive influence, and age diversity had a negative effect.  Research limitations/implications: The research informs public policymakers and managers about the best composition of management teams, aiming for better performance. Furthermore, based on results, we observed the importance of training programs to improve the skills of managers of newer Higher Education Institutions. This study's results are specific to Brazilian public universities. Originality: Governance in public universities is a topic that has little explored and the most of the studies found are limited to analysis the level of adherence to good governance practices. Different from previous research, we seek to identify factors that motivate the variations in the quality of governance. This study is pioneer in exploring the Upper Echelons Theory in the management of Brazilian public universities. 

Purpose: Public governance uses leadership, strategy, and control mechanisms, so good governance practices are necessary for university management. Thus, the heterogeneity of characteristics would aggregate broader sets of knowledge. In this way, our objective is to identify how the diversity of the attributes of top management team influences the quality of governance in Brazilian public universities.

Design/methodology/approach: This is an explanatory study of a quantitative nature, using the ordinary least squares method for the regression of panel data. We collected the identification of the management team on the universities' website and we identified the governance situation in Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts survey.

Findings: The results indicate that the diversity of managers' titles had a positive influence, and age diversity had a negative effect.

Research limitations/implications: The research informs public policymakers and managers about the best composition of management teams, aiming for better performance. Furthermore, based on results, we observed the importance of training programs to improve the skills of managers of newer Higher Education Institutions. This study's results are specific to Brazilian public universities.

Originality: Governance in public universities is a topic that has little explored and the most of the studies found are limited to analysis the level of adherence to good governance practices. Different from previous research, we seek to identify factors that motivate the variations in the quality of governance. This study is pioneer in exploring the Upper Echelons Theory in the management of Brazilian public universities.