The Policy Governance® Model was developed by Dr. John Carver to empower boards of directors to meet their obligation of accountability for the organizations they govern. The model enables the board to develop a vision for the organization, to focus on the larger issues, to delegate with clarity, to control management's job without interfering, to rigorously evaluate the accomplishments of the organization; and to truly lead their organization. Policy Governance is a conceptual model created by John Carver to enable strategic leadership by governing boards. The board governs on behalf of its identifiable "ownership", deciding the broad values of the organization.

These written values and perspectives are called policies and occur in four categories:

• ENDS

  Policies prescribe what benefits will occur for which people at what cost; missions and priorities are included.

  
  
• EXECUTIVE LIMITATION

  Policies describe the prudence and ethics boundaries on acceptable staff acts, practices, and circumstances.

  
  
• GOVERNANCE PROCESS

  Policies clarify the board's own role and rules, including how it connects to its "ownership".

  
  
• BOARD-CEO

  Policies describe the delegation and accountability linkage through the CEO.

  
  

These categories cover all pronouncements the board will legitimately make. The CEO is empowered by the board toward ENDS and within EXECUTIVE LIMITATIONS. This constraint approach to staff "means" enables the board to stay out of internal operation, yet control the bounds of acceptability. Budgeting, personnel, risk, compensation, and all other practices are thus controllable with little board time and very brief documents. Monitoring of CEO performance using the criteria in these policies becomes the CEO's evaluation process.

In Policy Governance the board is proactive, explicit about its values, and long range in the majority of its concerns. It avoids both meddling and rubber stamping.

The Board and CEO jobs do not become confused. Board agendas are usually shorter, the deliberation usually on long term ENDS and the mind set is on strategic leadership.

For more information, visit the authoritative website for the Policy Governance Model at www.policygovernance.com. Policy Governance ® is a registered service mark of John Carver.

To access our Source Document, please click here.