Board governance and strategic orientation in nonprofit sport organisations with a dual board system

Publication Type:
Thesis
Issue Date:
2008
Full metadata record
Miles and Snow's (1978) model which incorporates four strategic types (defender, prospector, analyser, and reactor) was employed to examine the relationship between governance and strategic management. It was found that board gender, age, tenure, educational level, size and independence were not related to strategic orientations. Strategic orientations could only differentiate directors and supervisors by occupations. In addition, strategic orientations could be distinguished by directors' roles associated with 'Manage Vision & Purpose', 'Board Duty', 'Stakeholder Focus', and by supervisors' roles related to 'Monitoring Results' and 'Board Duty & Process'. Board members generally had sport knowledge and were coaches, referees, retired players, local representatives, physical educators, lecturers/profes~ors in sport-related subjects and sport lovers. Directors with little sport knowledge were on the board to be resource providers, head members or bring business skills to the board. Business people or politicians were generally usually elected as the chair because of their substantial financial resources or influential powerbase. A large board was able to bring resources and provide various advice to nonprofit sport organisations. However, conflicts between board members and difficulties in arranging board member meetings were drawbacks of a large board. BoS roles could be compromised when supervisors had close relationships with directors, when supervisors were recommended by the chair/general secretary, or when funds were personally provided by the chair. There wa~ a consensus that the dual board system was generally viewed as a good system because board members who distribute and use funds were kept at arms length from supervisors. This research contributes to the body of knowledge concerning the director/ supervisor governance of nonprofit sport organisations. Specifically, it articulates the identification of board roles, and the examination of the relationship between director/supervisor governance and strategic orientation. Directors and supervisors' roles can be viewed in the context of agency theory, resource dependency theory, institutional theory, stewardship theory, managerial hegemony theory, and stakeholder theory. To survive in a competitive environment, nonprofit sport organisations with a dual board system need to consider appropriate strategic governance in which the board of directors governs the organisation by providing strategic leadership and the board of supervisors monitors the governance performance of the board of directors.
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