Understanding the decision-making process of a boardroom is one of the most fascinating parts of organizational research. We are all interested in power games, team dynamics and how the external environment could influence the decision of directors. One of the important buzzwords of today is “good governance” and many boards face a lot of societal pressure to implement best practices of governance. It goes beyond regulatory requirements and boards need to take a different perspective on integrating governance codes and best practices in their organizations. In this study, we focused on the role of individual directors in developing organizational responses to that pressure. More specifically, we looked at how directors’ own cognitive frames of governance influence the way boards choose best practices.
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In the midst of continuous health professions curriculum reforms, critical questions arise about the extent to which conceptual ideas are actually put into practice. Curricula are often not implemented as intended. An under-explored aspect that might play a role is governance. In light of major curriculum changes, we explored educators' perspectives of the role of governance in the process of translating curriculum goals and concepts into institutionalized curriculum change at micro-level (teacher-student). In three Dutch medical schools, 19 educators with a dual role (teacher and coordinator) were interviewed between March and May 2018, using the rich pictures method. We employed qualitative content analysis with inductive coding. Data collection occurred concurrently with data analysis. Different governance processes were mentioned, each with its own effects on the curriculum and organizational responses. In Institute 1, participants described an unclear governance structure, resulting in implementation chaos in which an abstract educational concept could not be fully realized. In Institute 2, participants described a top-down and strict governance structure contributing to relatively successful implementation of the educational concept. However it also led to demotivation of educators, who started rebelling to recover their perceived loss of freedom. In Institute 3, participants described a relatively fragmentized process granting a lot of freedom, which contributed to contentment and motivation but did not fully produce the intended changes. Our paper empirically illustrates the importance of governance in curriculum change. To advance curriculum change processes and improve their desired outcomes it seems important to define and explicate both hard and soft governance processes.
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Abstract: We present a ‘work in progress’ paper, based on a master’s thesis, focusing on data ownership models within data governance. The literature shows that there is a lack of practically useful aides or instruments for establishing a good, made-to-measure data ownership model for enterprises, as part of a more general data governance strategy and framework. Based on a literature review and semi-structured interviews with experienced experts in the field of data governance, we determined key concepts and factors relevant to the design of a data ownership model. Next, we designed an initial tool in the shape of a questionnaire, called ‘Ownership Model Implementation Tool’ (OMIT). Through additional expert interviews, we evaluated and finalized the instrument as well as guidelines for using it. Our main contribution is the OMIT itself, but its underlying concepts should also be useful to the data governance community. As the OMIT has not yet been tested within organizations, the obvious step for future research would be to evaluate and further refine the tool in practice.
