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This article describes the relationship between governing boards' effectiveness in private colleges and the specie factors that motivate trustees to join and serve on boards. Far more often among members of effective rather than ineffective boards, trustees' motives are institution-specific and institution-centered, springing from deep affection and a sense of connection to the college. Research results are analyzed in terms of three motivational frameworks, none of which is capable of reflecting the differences in motivation that distinguish members of effective boards. We offer a rudimentary new framework for differentiating boards on the basis of the extent of trustees' identification with the institution. About 48,000 volunteer trustees are responsible for governing America's more than three thousand colleges and universities (Association of Governing Boards ... , 1986). Trustees' motivation to serve on boards is of interest both to scholars and, as a practical matter, to those who want to ensure committed board members and effective trusteeship. As one trustee said when we interviewed her as part of the study we describe in this paper, &dquo;This is a volunteer position, and all of us do it for the satisfactions it brings.&dquo; These satisfactions, or motives for participation, are the subject of this paper.While the question of what motivates group participation has been studied extensively (McClelland, 1987), research has shed little light on the relationship, if any, between the motivation of individual participants and the quality of their participation. In other words, is better performance associated with particular sources of motivation-material, altruistic, or whatever?The view that character of individual motivation is unrelated to quality of participation is consistent with the tenets of social exchange theory, which suggests that commitment to a given exchange relationship is a function of Note: The contents of this paper were developed under a grant from the U.S.

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