Making the governance of public bodies work: chair-chief executive relationships in practice

David Heald; David Steel

doi:10.1080/09540962.2015.1047266

Making the governance of public bodies work: chair-chief executive relationships in practice

David Heald, David Steel

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)

34 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The importation, over the last 30 years, of private sector governance mechanisms into public sector bodies at arm’s-length from government has brought greater focus on the relationship of part-time Non-Executive Chairs and full-time Chief Executives. This paper explores this relationship in 14 UK public bodies, based on in-depth interviews with Chairs, Chief Executives and, as triangulation, Audit Committee Chairs. The findings concern: the negotiated differentiation of roles; the effects of the Chief Executive’s separate authority as Accounting Officer on internal governance; the management of external stakeholders; and how crises can affect roles and relationships. Improved processes of training and mentoring are proposed.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	257-264
Number of pages	8
Journal	Public Money & Management
Volume	35
Issue number	4
Early online date	13 May 2015
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2015.1047266
Publication status	Published - 2015

Bibliographical note

The authors gratefully acknowledge a grant from the British Academy (SG10591) and an award from the University of Aberdeen Knowledge Exchange and Transfer Fund.

Keywords

Public sector corporate governance
Chair-Chief Executive relationships
Accounting Officer
public bodies
quangos

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Heald-Steel PMM Chairs-Chief Executives typesript
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Public Money & Management on 13/05/2015 available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09540962.2015.1047266
Accepted author manuscript, 453 KB

Cite this

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abstract = "The importation, over the last 30 years, of private sector governance mechanisms into public sector bodies at arm{\textquoteright}s-length from government has brought greater focus on the relationship of part-time Non-Executive Chairs and full-time Chief Executives. This paper explores this relationship in 14 UK public bodies, based on in-depth interviews with Chairs, Chief Executives and, as triangulation, Audit Committee Chairs. The findings concern: the negotiated differentiation of roles; the effects of the Chief Executive{\textquoteright}s separate authority as Accounting Officer on internal governance; the management of external stakeholders; and how crises can affect roles and relationships. Improved processes of training and mentoring are proposed. ",

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Making the governance of public bodies work: chair-chief executive relationships in practice

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

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