John Carver is internationally known as the creator of the Policy Governance model of board leadership. It was in 1979 that he first publicly presented his ideas on Policy Governance - in a keynote speech at the National Council of Community Health Centers' annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

USA organisations that have adopted Policy Governance include the City of Bryan (Texas), Colorado Association of School Boards, Parkland Health District and the Vermont Land Trust.

The concept of Policy Governance is John Carver's conceptual model for leadership by boards of directors - a universal paradigm composed of certain logically derived principles and concepts. The term is a registered service mark of John Carver.

Boards That Make a Difference, John Carver, 2006

Carver has proposed 10 core principles of Policy Governance:

Principle 1: The Trust in Trusteeship
Principle 2: The Board Speaks with One Voice or Not at All
Principle 3: Board Decisions Should Predominantly Be Policy Decisions
Principle 4: Boards Should Formulate Policy by determining the Broadest Values Before Progressing to More Narrow Ones
Principle 5: A Board Should Define and Delegate, Rather Than React and Ratify
Principle 6: Ends Determination Is the Pivotal Duty of Governance
Principle 7: The Board's Best Control over Staff Means Is to LImit, not Prescribe
Principle 8: A Board Must Explicitly Design Its Own Products and Processes
Principle 9: A Board Must Forge a Linkage with Management That Is Both Empowering and Safe
Principle 10: Performance of the CEO Must be Monitored Rigorously, but Only Against Policy Criteria

In Principle 1: The Trust in Trusteeship the board represents the ownership of the organisation - owning the organisation on behalf of the owners to which the board is answerable. This trusteeship is the foundation of Policy Governance and depends critically on the board establishing, maintaining, clarifying and protecting its relationship with the owners. Unlike many other organisations, in a co-operative defining the owners is quite simple.

In A Theory of Governing the Public's Business: redesigning the Jobs of Boards, Councils, and Commissions,  Carver emphasises values and perspectives: "Everything we do is a function of our values as they encounter various environmental conditions. A choice, an action, an activity, a decision, an intention.....these all are behavioral manifestations of the values that we bring to the existing circumstances. I may have little control over the environment, but my values are mine and therefore are subject to philosophical molding and conscious intentions." ( p 12)

Ownership and values are central to the governance of co-operatives and, therefore, Carver's work is particularly important to co-operatives and the development of a distinct co-operative governance.

Reinventing Your Board, John Carver and Miriam Carver, 2006

Under Policy Governance the board develops four sets of policies:

• Governance Process
• Board-Management Delegation
• Ends
• Management Limitations
  

In The Policy Governance Fieldbook, there is this comment: "John Carver identifies three types of board linkage with their owners: attitudinal, statistical, and personal. Boards might begin to forge a link by examining their own process and ensuring that it accounts for owners' needs and by seeking more information about the owners. Boards may also engage owners in a dialogue in various ways." ( p 127)

In his foreword to Corporate Boards that Create Value - Governing Company Performance from the Boardroom, Sir Adrian Cadbury wrote inter alia: "The role of the board is to govern on behalf of the owners. The board alone, therefore, determines the ends of the enterprise, its essential purpose. It deoes so in the light of the expectations of the owners and acting for the owners. How these ends are achieved is the responsibility of management and involves a choice of means. Means are delegated to management, but within bounds carefully set by the board." (pp xiii-xiv)   Sir Adrian Cadbury was Chairman of the Committee on Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance in the United Kingdom - The Cadbury Report.

Corporate Boards That Create Value, John Carver with Caroline Oliver, 2002

Policy Governance website:
http://www.carvergovernance.com

Publications:

Carver, John A Theory of Governing the Public's Business: redesigning the Jobs of Boards, Councils, and Commissions,  originlly published in  Public Management Review, Volume 3, Issue 1, March 2001, reprinted in  Carver, John John Carver on Board Leadership: Selected Writings From the Creator of the World's Most Provocative and Systematic Governance Model, Jossey-Bass, 2007

Carver, John Boards That Make a Difference: A New Design for Leadership in Nonprofit and Public Organizations, 3rd edition, Jossey-Bass, 2006

Carver, John and Carver, Miriam Carver Guide 1: Basic Principles of Policy Governance, Jossey-Bass, 1996

Carver, John Carver Guide 4: The Chairperson's Role as Servant-Leader to the Board, Jossey-Bass,1997

Carver, John Carver Guide 5: Planning Better Board Meetings, Jossey-Bass, 1997

Carver, John and Miriam Mayhew Carver Carver Guide 12: The CEO Role Under Policy Governance, Jossey-Bass, 1997

Carver, John and Carver, Miriam Reinventing Your Board: A Step-By-Step Guide to Implementing Policy Governance, revised edition, Jossey-Bass, 2006

Carver, John John Carver on Board Leadership: Selected Writings From the Creator of the World's Most Provocative and Systematic Governance Model, Jossey-Bass, 2007

Carver, John, and Oliver, Caroline Corporate Boards That Create Value: Governing Company Performance from the Boardroom, Jossey-Bass, 2002

Oliver, Caroline (Ed) The Policy Governance Fieldbook: Practical Lessons, Tips, and Tools from the Experience of Real-World Boards, Jossey-Bass, 1999