Cooperative power relations between nonprofit board chairs and executive directors

Nonprofit organizations face increasing pressure to change their governance practices. Some scholars propose a check‐and‐balance relationship between the board chair and the executive director. However, empirical evidence for this proposition remains lacking. Employing actor‐centered institutionalism, this comparative case study analyzes the preferences and capabilities of the board chair and the executive director given environmental and organizational pressure. The article compares the results of two main and two replicated cases that underwent significant processes of governance change, which led to a replacement of the board chair and the executive director. After the replacement we observe in all cases a similar pattern in the governance power relation: This power relation is characterized by the actors' equivalent capabilities and complementary preferences. The article concludes by introducing a cooperative power relation model that specifies the concept of checks and balances between the board chair and the executive director.