Women and men as board chairpersons: Their acceptance/rejection of eighteen expectations described in the nonprofit literature

Date

2013

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Journal for Nonprofit Management

Abstract

This article reports on the findings of a survey conducted to determine whether male and female board chairpersons’ accept or reject the board role expectations as expounded in the nonprofit normative and analytic literature. The roles and responsibilities and popular “do’s and don’ts” that populate the literature were synthesized into eighteen role expectations. Ninety-nine (46 female and 53 male) nonprofit board chairpersons completed an online 30-item questionnaire designed to ascertain their level of agreement about adhering to the 18 expectations. Board chairpersons’ agreements with the 18 expectations were analyzed using analysis of variance. Two findings from this study are especially intriguing: when male board chairpersons receive assistance from their executive directors, they are more apt to agree with the expectations culled from the nonprofit board literature. In contrast, women board chairpersons prefer to achieve the expectations without any help.

Description

Keywords

non-profit, nonprofit, research, board of directors, roles, expectations, survey

Citation

Block, S. R., & Rosenberg, S. A. (2013). Women and men as board chairpersons: Their acceptance/rejection of eighteen expectations described in the nonprofit literature. Journal for Nonprofit Management, 4, 33À45.

DOI