Trigger events and change agents: how non-profit boards improve their governance

Abstract

Despite active research on the performance of boards of directors, very little scholarship exists on how they intentionally recognise and act on the need for governance change. This gap has resulted in weak conceptual guidance for researchers and practitioners alike who are interested in change management. This article employs a multiple case study phenomenological analysis of member-serving organisations based in the United States that achieved substantive change at the board level, sometimes reshaping their boards and cultures in profound ways. Focused on the catalysts, agents and processes of governance change, the findings generally support the prevailing contingency theory perspective by describing patterns of change, stakeholder behaviour and goals that varied considerably from case to case. A change management lens is weakly supported in finding limited patterns in how leaders made change happen. A discussion follows of other potential conceptual lenses that may help explain successful strategic change management in non-profit boards.