Talking Across Boundaries: A Case Study of Distributed Governance

We explore the relation between organizational culture and governance in distributed nonprofit organizations. The transmission of culture across geographic distances facilitates governance in nonprofit distributed organizations, allowing distributed members to span the boundary of the organization to accomplish organizational objectives. We suggest that boundary-spanning is a key aspect of governance in distributed nonprofit organizations. While much of the governance literature focuses on the boundary-spanning activities of nonprofit boards, we describe boundary-spanning as an activity engaged in by distributed organizational members of nonprofit organizations. Distributed workers negotiate multiple relationships at the edge of their organization, what we call talking across boundaries. We present an in-depth case study that illustrates successful governance in a distributed nonprofit organization. We identify the elements of organizational culture that contribute to governance processes and facilitate the achievement of organizational objectives.