A Behavioral Perspective for Governing Bodies: Processes and Conflicts in Public Organizations

This article provides a framework and investigates how conflicts in the boardroom may be different from other conflicts in public decision-making groups. Five distinct perspectives are adopted in the conceptual framework: the agency, stakeholder, and board strategic involvement perspectives for the first level of analysis, and the administrative behavior and public value perspectives for the second one. The study contributes to advancing research on the processes and the behavioral dimensions that influence the actions and the decisions of public boards. The results of the study suggest that the elements that provide a fundamental role to a governing board in leading public organizations are relationships with both the external and the internal actors and conditions that enable the board’s decision-making processes to carryout its own tasks effectively.