2004/12/01 by Andrew Friedman, Andrew L. Friedman, Mary Phillips · 2 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Social Sciences · #Accounting and Organizational Management #Nonprofit Sector and Volunteering #Public Policy and Administration Research
paper · doi:10.1002/nml.61
openalex publication_date 2004/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Abstract An erratum has been published for this article in Nonprofit Management and Leadership 15(4) 2005, 487 [ ]. Professional associations are operating in a context of uncertainty and change, with which their traditional governance structures struggle to manage. After describing this context and presenting a brief overview of relevant governance literature, a project aimed at supporting the redesign of governance structures and procedures among five professional associations in the United Kingdom is outlined. Three specific governance issues are examined: size of councils (council is the term used for a governing body of a U.K. professional association), their composition in relation to electoral processes, and the development of inner councils, or executive boards, within councils. Finally, we present a normative model, the cupped hands model, that has arisen from the research. This model offers a possible means of balancing the representation required by their status as membership associations with the requirement that professional associations become more strategic and proactive.