August 26, 1999 | Read Time: 1 minute
The Policy Governance Fieldbook: Practical Lessons, Tips, and Tools from the Experiences of Real-World Boards
Edited by Caroline Oliver
For board members considering or using the “policy governance” approach — a rigidly structured, top-down management strategy — this book presents the experiences of eight non-profit organizations, one small business, and two municipal agencies that employ the practice.
“Policy governance” is the 20-year-old trusteeship theory developed by the author and consultant John Carver. The model is based on the premise that board members must assume a more-authoritative role in running things, as if they were the owners of an organization and not merely its managers.
Individual chapters examine how to decide if “policy governance” is right for one’s organization; how boards can limit the chief executive’s control over an organization (a key component of the model); and how to put in place policies to insure that boards maintain accountability.
For example, the Vermont Land Trust invited a judge, an economist, a legislator, a farmer, and a writer to a roundtable discussion on conservation in Vermont. That meeting established a link between board members and the people they served, and it helped to define the mission of the organization, write the guide’s compilers.
Other case studies include the San Francisco AIDS Foundation; the Weaver Street Market, in Carrboro, N.C.; and the City of Bryan, Texas.
Publisher: Jossey-Bass, 350 Sansome Street, San Francisco 94104-1310; (415) 433-1767 or (888) 378-2537; fax (800) 605-2665; http://www.josseybass.com; 242 pages; $29.95; I.S.B.N. 0-7879-4366-5.
