An Ethnography of Not-for-Profit Board Meetings

Scallan, Katie (2023) An Ethnography of Not-for-Profit Board Meetings. Doctoral thesis, SETU Waterford.

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Abstract

This interpretivist ethnographic study aims to expand our understanding of what boards of directors actually do. Boards of directors have taken centre stage of regulatory and academic debates in Ireland and further afield. Despite boards being paramount to the corporate governance system, what boards of directors actually do is an aspect of board life we know relatively little about (Brennan, 2021; Watson et al., 2021). Yet, what boards do matters (Nicholson et al., 2017). Until very recently, few studies observed boards, and although a novel body of literature is beginning to emerge from studies that observe boards-in-action, our current understanding of the happenings of board meetings continues to be limited. Thus, in response to calls encouraging researchers to open the black box of the boardroom (Huse et al., 2005; Leblanc and Schwartz, 2007; Parker, 2007a, 2008; Huse and Zattoni, 2008; Machold and Farquhar, 2013; Michaud, 2014; Pugliese et al., 2015; Geletkanycz and Boyd 2019; Brennan, 2021; Watson et al., 2021), this study reports a first-hand account of what transpires behind the boardroom door. The study is set in an Irish not-for-profit context. The not-for-profit sector is significant nationally and internationally, with society being both shaped and mirrored by it. Not-for-profit organisations and boards alike are community-led and focused, driven by a desire to achieve a broad social remit, responding to the needs of various stakeholders (Viader and Espina, 2014; Tucker and Parker, 2015; Benefacts, 2021; Watson et al., 2021), while operating in a commercial-like manner (Ashburner et al. 1996; Peck et al. 2004; Freeman and Peck 2007; Tacon and Walters 2016). From a research perspective, not-for-profit boards have received less attention compared to their for-profit counterparties (Cornforth, 2004; Parker, 2008; Cornforth and Brown, 2014; Zhu et al., 2016). This is surprising in light of the sector providing a rich contextual setting to broaden our understanding of boards. Accordingly, the not-for-profit sector provides a rich contextual setting to ethnographically explore boards-in-action, with the rich thick descriptions offering the reader the opportunity to consider the transferability of the research findings across alternative contextual settings (Lincoln and Guba, 1985). This ethnography draws on an assemblage of data, including correspondence held with fifty-eight gatekeepers during my attempts to gain access to boards. The ethnographic data supporting the dissertation includes field notes, board agendas, photos of boardrooms, and reflective notes from observing forty-one board meetings with observations occurring across six boards of directors. Applying a methodological approach that aspires to allow the data to speak for itself (Hennink et al., 2020), this study uncovers the happenings of the boards’ inner workings, bringing to the surface the mystery, temporal, and emotional dimensions of board meetings. Paper One (Chapter 3) provides a practical and reflective account of my experiences in gaining access to boards to perform an ethnographic study. Drawing on my experiences of attempting, gaining, and sustaining access to board meetings, a practical account of the challenges of gaining access to boards of directors is provided. By attending to the data emerging early in the study and engaging in early theorisation, this paper uncovers the mysterious nature of boards. This paper reveals the circumstances that cause boards to actively shield, mask, and mystify their internal workings to allow them to function in private. Paper Two explores the temporal nature of board roles. Drawing on conceptualisations from Lee (1998), Virilio (2002), Fisher (2014), and Augé (2015), this paper considers the performance of board roles during board meetings. Applying a temporal lens perspective, this paper reveals that boards of directors perform their roles in accordance with three-time horizons – past, present, and future. The findings reveal that boards predominately focus on the past, with significantly less attention afforded to the present and the future. Thus, boards appear as a defensive mechanism in the corporate governance system, remaining conservative and cautious, downplaying their potential activist role, staying within the lines of statutory and regulatory obligations. In this way, this paper extends our understanding of why boards spend their time as they do while also exploring why some board roles receive more attention from boards of directors than others. Paper Three explores the emotional work of boards. Drawing on emotional labour by Hochschild (1983) and advanced by Boyle and Healy (2003), the findings of this paper reveal that board meetings are emotion-laden venues, being places of high emotions, both positive and negative. The emotional currents at play during board meetings result in board members engaging in emotional labour, with CEOs and chairpersons actively managing and controlling the emotions of others. In this way, the emotions, emotional labour, and the emotion-laden context of board meetings influence boardroom interactions. Thus, emotions influence how boards organise, process, manage and control emotional currents. Across three papers, this ethnography explores and observes boards of directors. Drawing on anthropology, philosophy, management, organisation, and governance studies, and literature on temporality and emotions, this ethnography works towards a greater understanding of what transpires behind the boardroom door (Heemskerk et al., 2017), contributing to contemporary thought on boards (Ahrens, 2021), while uncovering the lived experience of corporate governance actors (Ahrens and Khalifa, 2013).

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Boards of directors, board meetings, access, reflective, mystery, temporality, board roles, emotions, emotional labour, emotion-laden, and not-for-profit
Departments or Groups:	*NONE OF THESE*
Divisions:	School of Business > Department of Accountancy and Finance
Depositing User:	Derek Langford
Date Deposited:	21 Oct 2024 13:05
Last Modified:	21 Oct 2024 13:06
URI:	https://repository.wit.ie/id/eprint/7843

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