Governance in the UK Public Sector: the Involvement of the Governing Board

Abstract

Governing boards are a prominent feature of many public sector organizations today. These boards have been modelled on the private sector board of directors. Like company boards, one of their main functions is to provide strategic leadership and policy direction for the organization. The role of managers and chief executives is to implement this. This paper examines the extent of involvement of one public sector board, the school governing body, in strategic activity. Using empirical evidence from a number of semi-structured interviews conducted in schools, its findings indicate that governing bodies are not involved at a high level in strategy within schools. Rather, headteachers are more likely to be undertaking this activity.Reflections are made about the relevance of the 'board of directors' model for both governing bodies and the public sector more generally.

Corporatisation and the Emergence of (Under-Managered) Managed Organisations: The Case of English Public Hospitals

“…Specifically, this leads us to hypothesise that: In addition to this, it might be argued that public services undergoing corporatisation will face similar pressures to business units in divisionalised organisations to re-focus 12 management work on more strategic activities. In part this follows from the points made earlier about the shift towards more 'complete' organisations, which replicate private firms in terms of their governance structures, for example, with the creation of executive boards (Cornforth 2003;Farrell 2005). A demand for more resources to be devoted to strategy may also be exaggerated by the need to plan services in a more uncertain, competitive environment, and the enhanced performance demands generated by control from the centre (Bilodeau et al 2007).…”

Board of directors within public organisations: a literature review

“…This lack was further confirmed by different scholars, such as Hodges et al (1996), Cornforth and Edwards (1999) and Farrell (2005), who underline the organisation's board or governing body as a particular object of interest because of the increasing relevance of board control in a very wide range of public sector services and organisations. Thus, as Skelcher (1998) already pointed out, it is expedient to carry out an in-depth analysis of their internal and external functioning.…”

School Governing Bodies in England Under Pressure: The Effects of Socio-economic Context and School Performance

“…Dean et al (2007) reported that, perhaps unsurprisingly, governing bodies in the cases in their study felt happier supporting rather than challenging. Farrell (2005), in a small-scale study, reported that governors rarely challenged the headteacher or changed headteachers' decisions. These findings are supported by the national survey of governors by Balarin et al (2008), which showed that governors ranked supporting the headteacher as top of list of 10 governing activities undertaken in the previous year and challenging the headteacher eighth.…”

“…These findings are supported by the national survey of governors by Balarin et al (2008), which showed that governors ranked supporting the headteacher as top of list of 10 governing activities undertaken in the previous year and challenging the headteacher eighth. Farrell (2005) also asserted that, while policies have empowered governors to take up a strategic role, the regulations issued over the years hinder governors' involvement in strategy. This view echoes that of Earley (2003).…”