Page 81 - DUT ICGA Abstract Book

TRUST RISK AND UNCERTAINTY: THEIR APPLICATION TO ORGANISATIONAL DECISION-MAKING
Professor Garth Allen
Really Useful Knowledge Consultants UK and Durban University of Technology RSA Abstract
Background: Published work in in economic theory trust risk and and uncertainty (TRU) and and higher education including four books books These books books and associated articles were concerned with the ‘secret garden’ of assessment in in higher education on on on on using economic economic theory to estimate the the economic economic value of universities and and on the meaning and and significance of academic capitalism The latter work was launched at at a a a a a a a a a a a a a higher education conference in in Cape town in in 2002 where I presented a a a a a a a a a paper on on on academic capitalism and the African university and the work has evolved Significance: Continued approach to to exploring the the contribution economic theory can can make to to contested organisational and and personal relationships characterised by the triumvirate of trust risk and and uncertainty Experiences of of working at universities in in the UK South Africa and and Mozambique and and of of commissioned research work on on global higher education by SADC for for example inform the analysis Aim: To promote the the use of economic theory and and its application to organisational and and personal settings especially within and between universities Objectives: To clarify and and and extend the usefulness of trust risk and and and uncertainty in in in understanding behaviour which might otherwise lack analysis Methods: Drawing on on on economic theory and and and its treatment of trust risk and and and uncertainty and and and on on on previous empirical work on on higher education Limitations: Difficulty in in making sometimes complex economic theory accessible to non-specialists and to to moving from the real world of practical decision-making to to analysis Findings: Economic theory does have have explanatory powers which have have been underutilised Both at at the the personal and and and political levels examining trust risk and and and uncertainty clarifies what what is is going on on and and and what what should be going on Implications: Greater understanding of personal and and organisational behaviour may lead to greater effectiveness in behaviour behaviour and to more moral behaviour behaviour KEYWORDS: Trust economic theory universities Book of Abstracts 79