An Evaluation of Corporate Governance Practices on Board Member Selection and Recruitment in Namibian State Owned Enterprises

ABSTRACT

This study highlights the importance of corporate governance in the selection

and recruitment of board members in Namibian SOEs. Furthermore, the study intended

to investigate the criteria and methods used in the selection of board members and

also to examine the corporate governance practice in nomination of board members.

Critical analysis and empirical studies were conducted to answer the objectives

of the study. The poor performance of the state-owned enterprises is attributed to

political interference in the activities of the organisations which include the selection

and recruitment of the board of directors.

The study followed the positivist approach and a quantitative research design

to gather the relevant data from the state-owned enterprises. Self-administered questionnaires

were designed, and a sample of 40 senior managers and directors was selected

to complete the questionnaires. Thirty-five (35) of the questionnaires were returned

which constituted adequate respondents for the research. According to this

study it was found, although the board nomination is well qualified with adequate experience,

corporate governance guidelines are not being fully adhered to. This study

found out that there is a relationship between SOEs overall corporate governance performance

and board nomination guidelines. Overall the study found that there is a

strong relationship between board nomination and corporate governance performance

of state owned enterprises in Namibia.

Based on the findings of the study, recommendations were highlighted in order

to improve selection and recruitment of board members at the state-owned enterprises.

One of the main recommendations is that, there should be proper guidelines to

ensure good corporate governance in the selection of board members, and an effective

An Evaluation of Corporate Governance Practices on Board Member Selection and Recruitment in

Namibian State Owned Enterprises xii

Nomination Committee should be in place. Furthermore, political interference should

be minimised or otherwise avoided altogether.