Governance as Stewardship

The practice of shared leadership within nonprofit governing boards of rural Alberta public colleges was explored in this mixed method study to reveal to what extent certain governance-related factors may impact board effectiveness and, ultimately, institutional performance. These factors included the president's governance-related knowledge and competency, the human capital composition or mix of the board, the governance-related education and training received by a board, and the board's view of themselves as stewards and listeners to the institution's voice. Approaches to the literature review, to the inclusive, integrated, interpretative, and ethnographic methods selected, and to the analyses of 16 semi-structured interviews held, documentation and artifact collection, and to the 88 survey questionnaires administered were tempered to maintain the capacity for this exploration to invoke further study among the study's interpretations. The findings from this study assert that the great benefit of taking up this study may rest more in the governance capacity development of nonprofit boards than in attempts to assess the key factors associated with shared leadership.