| Summary: | Anecdotal evidence, personal experience and existing literature suggest that staff members of development organisations experience a conflict between their personal and organisational values arising from the neo-liberal paradigm that underpins their activities. If not addressed, such conflicts can affect staff members’ commitment to institutional goals, encourage them to work at cross purposes and create a dissonance between the goals set by the organisation and the results it actually achieves. This study explored how Higher Education Professionals working for an African development institution experience this conflict and whether they consider the Bohm-Isaacs model of dialogue as a potential way of managing the conflict. In this study, the conflict of values was discussed with regard to the commercialisation of higher education. The research adopted a case study approach and spanned a period of one year. It involved a group of 11 purposively selected Higher Education Professionals, who were invited to go through three stages of the study. In stage 1, participants were asked to complete a semi-structured questionnaire on how they experience the conflict, if any, between their personal and organisational values and how they have attempted to address any conflict. Stage 2 was an open discussion and dialogue in a workshop, based on the theoretical propositions that guided the formulation of research questions. The Bohm-Isaacs model of dialogue was adopted for the discussion in stage 2. In the third stage of the study, participants were individually interviewed to obtain their perspectives on how useful the regular use of the dialogue modelled in stage 2 could be in addressing the conflict, if any, between their personal and organisational values. The data collected during this study was analysed thematically to obtain answers on: (a) whether Higher Education Professionals in the research site experience the conflict between their personal and organisational values; (b) how Higher Education Professionals in the research site experience the conflict between their personal and organisational values; (c) how they have attempted to address the conflict; and (d) whether they consider the Bohm-Isaacs model of dialogue as a potential way of addressing any such conflict. The findings of the study revealed that 7 of the 11 Higher Education Professionals that participated in the study reported some form of conflict between their personal and organisational values. They claimed to experience this conflict in complex and dialectical manner as shown by the themes that emerged from the study: Core academic values versus consumerism; Equity versus sustainability; Quality assurance versus profit motive; and Good Governance versus role differentiation. The study revealed that for cultural reasons, most of those who experienced the conflict avoided addressing it. Most of the respondents stated that they experienced the conflict in a procedural rather than substantive manner. The findings also suggest that, unless carefully managed, addressing the conflict between personal and organisational values can be sensitive and challenging, especially in the African context, where the articulation of personal values that might conflict with organisational values is problematic because of deeply held cultural values about hierarchies. It was, therefore, proposed and confirmed by the study that, as opposed to simply persuading staff members to adopt different values, adopting an instrument or way of working such as the Bohm-Isaacs model of dialogue can be useful in proactive conflict management. The result of the study revealed that all the research participants interviewed considered the Bohm-Isaacs model of dialogue as a useful way of managing the conflict between personal and organisational values, especially if used proactively. Although this study suffers from the lack of generalisability which is characteristic of case studies with a small number of participants, it is hoped that it will help to create an environment for proactive management of values conflict in the institution where the research is based.
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