Title: Governance as Leadership: Reframing the Work of Nonprofit Boards / Edition 1
Author: Richard P. Chait, William P. Ryan, Barbara E. Taylor
ISBN-10: 0471684201
ISBN-13: 9780471684206
Governance as Leadership offers trustees and executives a new and practical framework to govern nonprofit organizations more effectively. The book provides ideas, tactics, and examples that enrich the work of trustees and enhance a board’s value to the organization it governs. The authors reframe the purpose and practice of nonprofit governance by drawing on theories that have reshaped the concept and practice of leadership. In contrast to conventional advice that unwittingly urges trustees to think and govern like managers, the authors’ new approach invites boards to think and govern like leaders. Governance as Leadership describes three modes of governancefiduciary, strategic, and generativethat together enable effective trusteeship. While the first two are more familiar to most boards, trustees often overlook opportunities to be a source of leadership as well as a source of advice, expertise, and fundraising. Most important, the book explains the power and payoff to organizations and boards when trustees govern in the generative modethe most neglected yet most consequential type of work a board can do. When trustees gain proficiency in all three modes, the board practices governance as leadership. The trustees discover and do meaningful work, and the organization derives maximum benefit from a previously underutilized resource. Written by noted researchers and consultants, Governance as Leadership introduces a fresh way to think about governance with sensible guidance to turn these ideas into concrete actions. It will be particularly valuable to trustees and senior staff of professionally managed nonprofit organizations, as well as many others, including foundation officers, donors, consultants, and students of nonprofit organizations who are interested in improving nonprofit governance.
