New unit tackles good governance

To improve cross-school interface and research, the School of Economic and Business Sciences (SEBS) and the School of Accountancy (SoA) have over the past two years established a research unit to collaborate on research pertaining to strategic issues in business.

This effort resulted in the formation of the Strategic Forecast Research Group (SFRG) which, in collaboration with international researchers and academics, essentially focusses on researching good governance and social responsibility.

“Since the international financial crisis started in 2008, the issue of good governance has become prominent in the search for ways to improve financial management; corporate governance and social responsibility, both locally and internationally,” says Prof. David Coldwell, Head of Division of Management and Human Resources Management in SEBS.

“Although considered ‘soft issues’, governance and the business case of social responsibility are very important issues. We need fewer tycoons and more statesmen who have a vision beyond simply their own personal aggrandizement. We need people who can make a contribution to society. There was a recent period in the West when it was considered that ‘greed is good’. But there is no future in that kind of egotism. The 2008 financial crisis can partly be attributed to that kind of thinking of greed and conspicuous consumption,” he adds.

The formation of the SFRG has also been in line with Wits University’s strategy to combine areas in which research has not been very high and generate more research products of international standard and published in the best journals in the world.

“We are looking at new regulations on aspects such as audit quality; risk management; business ethics concerned with how to deal with financial crisis and how to intervene in that situation to minimize damage to the company; social responsibility in term of leadership; and corporate shared values. We have already produced a large number of international papers, some in top journals, and a large number of conference papers, both national and internationally,” Coldwell says.

The SFRG is one of the ways researchers can get rid of the silo-thinking mentality. “Cross-disciplinary research emphasizing different aspects in accordance with those particular disciplines is important because it generates a group think tank rather than just one or two people working together. This helps both developmentally by producing new researchers and it increases productivity across the board. And it is in line with the University’s Vision 2022: to be firmly embedded in the top 100 universities in the world by 2022,” he adds.

Coldwell says it is also important to be a research unit that has direct strategic impact internationally and that finds solutions to problems in South Africa. The unit has a strategic forecast aspect to identify issues which are likely to develop, and to research problem areas to find possible solutions. It also takes a critical stand towards existing socioeconomic situations and gives some scholastic input to them. The unit incorporates both empirical and conceptual research.

According to Coldwell this is an exciting time for the unit especially because of the high caliber of young researchers who participate. The core aim of the unit is to build a body of research that has proven impact in society.

This is done by the collaboration between Wits researchers and postgraduate students from the two Schools, as well as with researchers and academics at other South African universities and at universities across the globe.

Members of the SFRG include:

• Prof. David Coldwell (SEBS), who manages the unit;
• Mr Chris Callaghan (SEBS);
• Dr Michael Samuel (SEBS);
• Ms Tasneem Joosub (SoA);
• Mr Warren Maroun (SoA);
• Prof. Elmarie Papageorgiou (SoA);
• Prof. Jill Solomon (Kings College, London/Henley Business School, UK);
• Prof. Gabriel Eweje (School of Management, Massey University, New Zealand);
• Dr Andrea Fried (Chemnitz University, Germany and Linköping University, Sweden);
• Dr Ayande  Alpha (School of Business and Management. University of Quebec, Canada);
• Prof. David King (Ohio State University, Ohio, USA).