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Show moreThe role that leaders perform in governing nonprofit organizations has confounded practitioners and scholars since the time of the early settlers, when the functions of governance were first separated. Is governance the role of the board, management, or both? Today, little has changed. Public and private nonprofit organizations, almost all of which are governed by boards of lay citizens and by professional executives, continue to define the gap between what the board's role is and what the chief executive officer's (CEO) role is. Organizations such as BoardSource (formerly the National Center for Nonprofit Boards), The Aspen Institute, the Independent Sector, and the Foundation Center fund, publish and disseminate research and reports in an attempt to educate, explain, and understand the complexity of nonprofit governance. This present study is based on empirical data of quantitative surveys, qualitative interviews, and policy statements from 18 board-chairmen and CEOs with nonprofit electric co-operatives.1 The study describes the perceptions of their roles in governance. Our findings suggest that boards and CEOs recognize their overlapping role in governance. Hence, they put in place systems, processes, and boundaries to facilitate schemes of joint engagement. Furthermore, our results describe practices of engagement as a means of managing complexity and tension between boards and CEOs. The operatives can facilitate joint engagement between boards and CEOs. The results highlight implications of good governance and dimension of joint engagement for practitioners-boards and CEOs, as well as for scholars.
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Show moreA leadership crisis in the nonprofit sector is portended by sector growth, turnover at the top and a smaller cohort of leaders coming up from behind. Crossovers from the corporate sector present an alternative source of CEO talent, but a dearth of empirical research about top executives who cross the boundaries of sector, organization, and, at times role, stymies our understanding of the transition process of for-profit to non-profit leaders. In depth interviews with U.S. nonprofit leaders – both crossover CEOs and CEOs hired from within the nonprofit sector - compared and contrasted transition experiences. Rather than significant differences between the two groups, our research revealed surprisingly striking similarities in early work approaches. Findings revealed factors other than origin influence non-profit CEO success. Implications for candidates making more informed career choices to boards and search committees striving to improve selection and induction processes are noted.
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