| Abstract: | Good governance depends entirely on the abilities and experience of individuals in the Board and Management and the effectiveness of their collaboration in the organization. Ineffective Board Management relationship is a product of factors that create tension between the Board and Management. It is characterized by ineffective communication, lack of trust, lack of respect, lack of clear roles and responsibilities, undefined expectation from Board and Management, lack of shared vision etc…
The overall objective of this study is to bring out an overall picture of Board management relationship in the Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia (FGAE) and know the extent of its effectiveness or ineffectiveness. The study also puts forward some recommendations as a way out for promoting effective leadership, transparency, accountability and good governance.
The study used both primary and secondary data. Secondary sources of information includes review of previous assessment reports, relevant published documents including books, project documents, monitoring & evaluation reports, audit reports, consultants report in the area of governance & management etc. Policy and procedural manuals and guidelines are also among major documents have been reviewed. Primary sources of information collected by using checklist based interview with selected Board members, management members, staff members and volunteers. Focus group discussion and self administered questionnaire was also used for primary data collection. The total sample size for the study was (planned 70, actual 73) i.e. the sample sizes for administering checklist based interview (planned 22, actual 22), for focus group discussion (planned 18, actual 18) and for self administered questionnaires (planned 30, actual 33).
The study revealed some key findings such as:
• Efforts needed to avoid role confusion between the Board, EXCO and Management;
• Need for shared vision among all stakeholders;
• Urgency to develop and issue some important policy and procedural documents in the area of Governance and Management;
• Necessity to design clear accountability and responsibility for Area EXCO and volunteers at Work Unit levels;
• Attention needed to attract influential, charismatic, and competent volunteers to the Governance of the Association;
• Much attention needed in identifying, recruiting, orienting, involving and evaluating competent volunteers in the Association;
• Necessity to embrace dynamism and innovation from the leadership side;
• The need to comply to IPPF’s policy by ensuring Youth and Gender composition in the National Board;
• The need to promote openness and transparency in Board/EXCO election/selection;
• Urgency to cultivate and strengthen trust, respect, collaborative action, information processing, and focused action from the side of Senior Management;
Finally, a number of recommendations are forwarded in order to enhance the effectiveness of Board/EXCO Management relationship in the Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia. System development to create clear accountability and responsibility lines and to promote transparency, capacity building both for Governance & Management, redirection of focus from routine to strategic issues by the Governance, vision sharing among all stakeholders are among some major recommendation based on the study results. I strongly believe that the Governance and Management of the Association would positively accept the study findings and implement the recommendations forwarded. |
