Boards That Make a Difference: A New Design for Leadership in Nonprofit and Public Organizations (Jossey-Bass Nonprofit Sector Series) [Hardcover]

John Carver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1990 | ISBN-10: 1555422314 | ISBN-13: 978-1555422318 | Edition: 1st

This book provides board members with a new understanding of their leadership role, enabling them to get down to their real business of governance, making policy, articulating the mission of the organization, and sustaining its vision. It helps boards to concentrate their energies on the overall purpose of their organization and guides them in working with managers to accomplish that purpose. It also sets forth procedures for evaluating the executive staff, delegating authority to management, making decisions as a board, and establishing bylaws for the board's governance of itself. This book advocates principles that boards of organizations of all sizes can apply to keep them on course toward their long-term goals.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"When I came upon Carver's book, I threw away everything I had collected on the subject of boards." (NRB, July/Aug. 2002) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"This book should be in the library of everyone who serves—or aspires to serve—on the governing board of any organization, large or small, nonprofit or corporate. Better than any other available resource, it tells what the roles of board members are and what they must and shouldn't do. An indispensable guidebook to leadership excellence." —George Weber, secretary general, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Geneva

"John Carver's book is important reading for chief executives and directors alike. This book's sound premises regarding proper role delineation and its practical advice about how to affect due diligence combine to provide an invaluable resource to any board dedicated to efficiency and high-quality performance." —John R. Seffrin, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, American Cancer Society

"John Carver's Boards That Make a Difference was required reading for board members of the Calgary Philharmonic Society. It provided a clear and concise road map with which we carried out significant governance restructuring of the society." —James M. Stanford, president & CEO,, Petro-Canada, and past chairman of the Calgary Philharmonic Society, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

"Boards That Make a Difference should be required.... The book explicates the model, which is simple, powerful and, above all, successful." —W. H. Hann, executive director, Association of IndepAndent Schools of Western Australia --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 242 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass Inc Pub; 1st edition (June 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555422314
• ISBN-13: 978-1555422318
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,253,985 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Carver is internationally known as the creator of the breakthrough in board leadership called the Policy Governance model and is the best-selling author of Boards ThatMake a Difference (1990, 1997, 2006). He is co-editor (with his wife, Miriam Carver) of the bimonthly periodical Board Leadership, author of over 180 articles published in nine countries, and author or co-author of six books. For over thirty years, he has worked internationally with governing boards, his principal practice being in the United States and Canada. Dr. Carver is an editorial review board member of Corporate Governance: An International Review, adjunct professor in the University of Georgia Institute for Nonprofit Organizations, and formerly adjunct professor in York University's Schulich School of Business.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential for public boards seeking to lead strategically, January 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Boards That Make a Difference: A New Design for Leadership in Nonprofit and Public Organizations (J-B Carver Board Governance Series) (Hardcover)

After 5 years on a local Board of Education I finally found a book that describes everything I know is wrong with board management practices in schools and nonprofit organizations. But that is the easy part. Carver offers sound alternatives to current practices that put the responsibility and the capability for strategic leadership right where it belongs--on the board.

I winced as I read Carver's description of reactive boards trapped in the "approval syndrome" in which boards rely on staff to bring issues and recommendations to them for approval. This pervasive practice not only takes board members out of the driver's seat, but it confuses the lines of accountability between the board and the CEO for the organization.

Carver offers a framework for changing all that by forcing the board to rethink all of its policy with an eye toward board-determined policies that operate at the highest level possible. In Carver's approach only four types of policies need to be set by the board: 1) "Ends" policies (board expectations), 2) Executive Limitations (the "don'ts" for the organization), 3) Board process policies and 4) Board-CEO relationship policies. *Everything* you need to be involved in can be fit into one of these four categories.

Want to learn how to stop working at the staff level and how to help your organization find a true sense of direction? Carver's book offers practical and straightforward ways of getting there.

72 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Idealistic, June 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Boards That Make a Difference: A New Design for Leadership in Nonprofit and Public Organizations (J-B Carver Board Governance Series) (Hardcover)

The carver style of governance is a tad idealistic and perhaps overly optimistic. I have read everything Dr Carver has written concerning this field and enjoy this material at an academic level. But when it comes to operationalizing this model in boardrooms I've seen it fail time and time again. Not to say that the model is flawed because in fact the model is normative and conceptually complete. However it doesn't capture that element of reality from which, in my experience, the model requires - practicality and real-world application. Dr Carver's notion that Boards can do without Finance and Audit Committees is very naive. Most consultants from the chartered accountant genre are saying the complete opposite. In fact most government policy initiatives are moving toward more control of financial affairs of organizations for boards from charts of accounts to fiscal policy. So I don't think the elimination of Finance and Audit Committees is realistic nor is it a terribly bright suggestion. I guess my only crticism is that the carver model is far to idealistic and philosophical for a practical application in the form Dr Carver suggests. Sorry but a hybrid model of traditional Board governance and the carver model may work given the commitment required from directors to follow-though on everything suggested in that system of governance,

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every CEO or Administrator and every Board should read it!, July 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Boards That Make a Difference: A New Design for Leadership in Nonprofit and Public Organizations (J-B Carver Board Governance Series) (Hardcover)

What a great model for Board excellence! I have struggled for 4 years trying to make sense of being Chair of a Board in my volunteer work and Chief Admin Officer in my occupation. This book solidifies all my doubts and frustrations AND THEN gives implementable solutions. Mr. Carver - Thank you!