The medical university-governing board: an investigation of critical factors in the board performance in Iran
Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education
ISSN: 2050-7003
Article publication date: 13 August 2020
Issue publication date: 15 December 2020
Abstract
Purpose
A university of medical sciences (UMS) is governed by a board that serves analogously as a board of trustees or a governing board in the western countries. In Iran, however, such boards operate under the broad leadership of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MoHME) but still wield enormous power over their universities. Given the influence boards have in the affairs of an UMS, the question remains how the medical university board can be improved so as to improve the overall effectiveness of these institutions. The purpose of this article is a response to this question by focusing on criteria necessary for reviewing board performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a qualitative approach, the study solicited data from 37 key informants that were purposefully chosen from 52 medical science universities across Iran. Semi-structured face-to-face and phone interviews as well as a review of relevant document were the main means of the data gathering. We performed the framework analysis using software ATLAS-ti (version 5).
Findings
The analysis identified 32 overlapping indicators that must be considered in a board performance. These indicators were reclassified and summarized into six categories, including trustees, trustees' leadership, board structure, board process, board output (short-length results) and board outcomes (long-length results).
Originality/value
Our study findings confirmed the role of the context and its relationship with the effective board performance. Here, the governing arrangement of all institutions including UMS is shadowed by the social, economic, cultural, political and technological status of the country. So, special attention is recommended to identify what should be considered to evaluate the performance of the board given the context.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Authors wish to thank the Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran for financial support of this work which was part of PhD dissertation (grant number 1390/628). We also tank study participants for their contribution.Conflict of interest: Authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Citation
Sajadi, H.S., Maleki, M. and Michael, S. (2020), "The medical university-governing board: an investigation of critical factors in the board performance in Iran", Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, Vol. 12 No. 5, pp. 1281-1301. https://doi.org/10.1108/JARHE-05-2019-0118
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited