The vice and virtue of conflict in boards: A longitudinal study into the effect of conflicts and cohesion on the task performance of supervisory school boards in the Netherlands

Abstract

The increased diversity and autonomy of schools calls for a more professional approach to school governance. In response, attention has been directed to the structure of school boards in the Netherlands. However, previous research indicates that the effectiveness of governance is not so much about structure as it is about behaviour. Conflict, in particular, appears to be an important underexposed factor in the effective behaviour of school boards. In a longitudinal research design, a survey using Likert‐scale items was distributed in 2016 and 2017 to executive directors of schools in the Netherlands to gauge their assessment of conflicts within the supervisory school board. Hierarchical regression analyses and moderator analyses were used to test the hypotheses. An increase in task‐related conflicts were found to have a clear positive effect on the task performance of supervisory boards. An increase in numbers of relational conflicts had a negative effect on the control task performance, while an increase in process‐related conflicts had a negative effect on the advisory task performance. The cohesion within a supervisory board proved to be an important moderator of the effect of task‐related conflicts and relationship conflicts on the control task performance. The results from this research underline the need for a multidimensional conceptualisation of conflict in supervisory boards. The need for further research on the interaction between cohesion and conflicts is underscored. Boards should make room for substantive debate and even for the inevitable friction and irritation that is sometimes inherent in being effective in managing schools.