Does management make a difference in goal conflict? Evidence from South Korea

Theoretical discussions have emphasized the role of public management, and evidence from various contexts globally supports the idea that public managers must cope with competing and conflicting goals. This study empirically tested the hypothetical relationships between goal conflict and management using a multiyear, large-N dataset. The research setting was the relationship between teaching and research goals in Korean higher education institutions, a well-known case of goal conflict in the literature on both public management and higher education. The results show that teaching performance is positively associated with research performance if the university has high-performing management; otherwise, the two performance indicators can be negatively associated with each other. The results demonstrate that management plays a significant role in the relationship between teaching and research performance. Future studies are expected to comprehensively test the management – goal conflict link.