Governance hotspots for conflict and complaints

This is a list of several hotspot areas in your governance arrangements that can quickly become the source of complaint and conflict:

• Your leadership— leaders not being seen as having the authority, legitimacy and credentials to lead and represent their people
• Your governing body—a lack of capacity, fairness and honesty; conflicts of interest; a lack of experience in setting directions and developing policy; poor communication and consultation with members; interference in the daily management of an organisation or giving direct instructions to staff contrary to stated policy and plans.
• Your decision making—it is not fair, consensual, legal, informed, consistent, and transparent; decisions are not implemented and reported on
• Your members—identifying who are the ‘right’ members of your community, group or nation, to the exclusion of others; having particular families take over the running of an organisation or project to the exclusion of others; competing or overlapping rights and interests; politicised factions
• Your managers and staff—taking over the role and authority of the governing body without delegation; a lack of capacity, fairness and honesty; lack of clarity about roles and responsibilities; not operating under policies and instructions
• Your assets and finances— money, resources and benefits are not correctly secured and distributed; service delivery and government funding are inadequate
• Your external stakeholders—a failure in the capacity, fairness and honesty of governments and their officers; differing views between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups, governments and private sector partners about what constitutes ‘good’ governance, financial management and leadership.