I am Yvonne Harrison here from
the Department of Public Administration and Policy at the University at Albany.
In this video, I interviewed Professor Vic Murray, a co-instructor,
in this course about the elements of board effectiveness that underlie the course,
our guidebook, and the tool that you'll be
using to assess the performance of boards through the semester project.
So let's start over here on the far right hand side,
the right hand side box,
which attempts to list all the different ways that boards can have
an impact on the effectiveness of the organization.
So they include things like this: The board's work can have
an impact on the achievement of the organization's mission,
they can certainly have an impact on the financial condition of the board,
the efficiency of the organization,
the ability of the organization to learn and innovate,
that's a very important requirement for organizations these days,
the morale and motivation of staff and
volunteers in the organization, and very importantly,
the satisfaction of external stakeholders,
and the reputation of the organization in the community.
So those are the ways that organizations
may have an impact on the success of the organization.
Now how does it do that?
We group the answer to that question under
two headings: The basic board responsibilities in the governance process,
in the middle box here,
and factors that influence that governance process,
on the far left hand box.
Let's go to the middle box.
Here, we're talking about issues that relate to,
for example, the overall clarity of the board's responsibilities.
One of the biggest problems is
boards that aren't clear about what they're supposed to do or have
a different view of that from managers and external stakeholders.
A very crucial responsibility for boards is planning
and setting very broad general policies to guide the organization,
planning for its future.
Third crucial area of board responsibility
has to do with meeting its due diligence requirements,
ensuring those for whom they are trustees that the organization is being run in
a fiscal and legally responsible manner and not
engaging in risks that are a detriment to its future.
Finally, there is the board area of responsibility dealing with its role in fund raising.
Always a very difficult and controversial sort of area.
So those are the things the board mostly has to focus on being responsible for it.
The next question is well,
in what ways does their ability to carry out
these responsibilities and what ways are they affected by the way they operate?
Factors that influence the governance process.
Here, we see issues grouped into five categories, five groups.
The first has to do with the overall formal structure
of the board and its formal operating procedures.
So all the nonprofits,
at least those that are formally organized and recognized by
states or provinces or countries that they must have certain by-laws,
they must have certain positions such as President,
Chairman of Committees, treasurers, etc.
And they usually, although not all,
have committees, and it's a question as to how well those committees work?
Are they the right ones? Are they performing well?
The next group of factors that influence performance
has to do with a very important matter of the board meetings.
Sometimes it seems as though board meetings are the only thing that boards do.
In fact they do a lot of other things that are not in meetings,
but having effective meetings is certainly very important.
Then there is the question of having the right mix of people on the board,
the composition of the board and how well the board
learns engages in training and development of itself.
Let's talk about, in the literature and less aware in the minds of many people,
is the fact that boards do develop informally their own culture,
that is to say,
taken for granted, attitudes, perceptions,
views of the world that color the way they talk and think and make decisions,
very important to be aware of that.
And when we look at what influences culture,
two of the most important aspects are
the leadership provided to the board by two crucial roles,
the CEO and so far as there is
a paid professional manager or if not one it's a small organization,
a volunteer to place that role and the chair of the board.
These are two of the most important leadership factors.
So to just review,
boards are trying to have an impact on the organization.
They have to do this by engaging a certain number of responsibilities,
certain kinds of responsibilities,
and if they don't do certain aspects of the process well,
then the whole thing could come apart.
Finally, not that we're going to be able to go into great length on this in the course,
but one must be aware that there are influences on all three of these boxes,
we call them contingency factors.
So the fact that a given organization is made
up of a certain set of individuals who are of a certain age,
certain gender, a certain experience,
certain racial or ethnic background,
having varying amounts of time,
different kinds of personalities can have quite an effect on all these issues.
There are also certain characteristics
that the organization of which the board is a part,
its size, it's age,
it's particular mission, its financial situation, its history.
All of those can also have an impact.
And finally, there are very important characteristics of
the organization's external environment.
These are allies, potential allies or regulators,
clients, the public in general.
All of whom can have certain characteristics at a given point
in time and can also have a big impact on
how these three boxes connect and come to a final impact on the organization.
We won't be able to go into all of those.
We're going to focus on the things that can be done by
boards by themselves to improve their own performance.
But our research, which you'll be hearing about,
does try to trace the way
these contingency factors influence these other aspects of board functioning.