Whither Good Governance? Beyond the Current Malaise in Higher Education

Abstract

This paper outlines a model for governance based upon mutual respect among organizational stakeholders, which it calls rational and reasonable governance. The first section describes some of the inherent or unmet needs in many governance structures, sources of irrational or unreasonable governance, or more simply anti-governance. The second section describes several sources of rationality and reasonableness for the self-understanding of higher educational professionals. These sources of better governance address the inherent needs. The third section sketches a model of governance that reduces the sources of anti-governance and opens up synergies for academic professionals who choose to collaborate through revisioning and renewing their interactions. The paper concludes with a comment on the relationship between a rational and reasonable model of governance and institutional trust.