Antecedents to board member engagement in deliberation and decision-making

Fostering active participation of board members is both difficult and important because limited engagement by board members can result in poor oversight and inferior strategic choices, which are related to weak and ineffective organizations (Smallman et al. 2010). Nonprofit executives identified board member vitality or active participation as among the top five things board members should do (Brown and Guo 2010) and many expressed frustration that board members need to be more engaged in their role. A review of empirical research provides modest specification of optimal behaviors for individual board members and limited identification of antecedents. There is a growing number of studies that systematically examine what board members actually do, but there remains a substantive need for additional clarity and definition (Dulewicz et al. 1995, Van Ees et al. 2009).

Antecedents to board member engagement in deliberation and decision-making Chapter