Faculty participation in university governance and the effects on university performance

This paper examines the relationship between faculty participation in unive rsity decision-making and university performance. Using an aggregated measu re of faculty participation, McCormick and Meiners [The Journal of Law and Economics 31 (1989) 423] find that increased faculty control in decision-ma king is associated with lower levels of institutional performance. Building on the existing university governance literature, this paper argues that t he optimal level of faculty participation varies by decision type. Disaggre gating the data by faculty participation into different decision types prod uces results that are consistent with this hypothesis. Increased faculty pa rticipation may be good or bad; the effects vary by the type of decisions i n which faculty participate. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights rese rved. JEL classification: G3; I2; L3.