Governance

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Governance is that separate process or certain part of management or leadership processes that makes decisions that define expectations, grant power, or verify performance. Frequently a government is established to administer these processes and systems.

Governance (in business) is the action of developing and managing consistent, cohesive policies, processes and decision rights for a given area of responsibility. For example, managing at a corporate level: privacy, internal investment, the use of data.

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[edit] Origin

The word derives from Latin origins that suggest the notion of 'steering'. This sense of 'steering' a group or society can be contrasted with the traditional 'top-down' approach of governments 'driving' society or the distinction between 'power to' in contrast to governments 'power over'.

[edit] General description

As a process, governance may be carried out for any size organization from a single human being to all of humanity, and it may be carried out for any purpose, good or evil, for profit or not. A reasonable or rational purpose of governance is to see to it (assure), sometimes on behalf of others, that the organization produces a worthwhile pattern of good results while avoiding an undesirable pattern of bad circumstances.

Perhaps the most moral or natural purpose of governance is to assure, on behalf of those governed, a worthy pattern of good while avoiding a truly undesirable patttern of bad. The ideal purpose, obviously, would assure a perfect pattern of good with no bad. A government, then, is a set of inter-related positions that govern and use or exercise power, particularly coercive power.

A good government, following this line, could be a set of inter-related positions exercising coercive power that assures, on behalf of those governed, a worthwhile pattern of good results while avoiding an undesirable pattern of bad circumstances, by making decisions that define expectations, grant power, and verify performance.

Politics is a means by which the governance process operates. For example, expectations may be chosen by way of political activity, power may be granted through political action, and performance may be judged through political behavior.

Conceiving of governance in this way, one can apply the concept to as large a nation state as desired, to corporations, to non-profits or NGOs, to partnerships and other associations, to project teams, and to any number of humans engaged in some purposeful activity.

[edit] Meanings

The World Bank defines governance as

the exercise of political authority and the use of institutional resources to manage society's problems and affairs.

An alternate definition suggests that governance is

the use of institutions, structures of authority and even collaboration to allocate resources and coordinate or control activity in society or the economy.

English-speakers sometimes erroneously confuse the term governance with the term government.

According to the UNDP's Regional Project on Local Governance for Latin America: "Governance has been defined as the rules of the political system to solve conflicts between actors and adopt decision (legality). It has also been used to describe the “proper functioning of institutions and their acceptance by the public” (legitimacy”). And it has been used to invoke the efficacy of government and the achievement of consensus by democratic means (participation)".

[edit] The state and politics

Some suggest that there should be a clear distinction between the concepts of governance and politics. Politics involves processes by which a group of people with initially divergent opinions or interests reach collective decisions generally regarded as binding on the group, and enforced as common policy. Governance, on the other hand, conveys the administrative and process-oriented elements of governing rather than its antagonistic ones. Such an argument continues to assume the possibility of the traditional separation between 'politics' and 'administration'. This distinction is sometimes questioned in contemporary governance practice and theory, under the premise that both 'governance' and 'politics' involve aspects of power.

In general terms governance occurs in three broad ways:

  1. through top-down methods that primarily involve governments and the state bureaucracy,
  2. the use of market mechanisms where market principles of competition are employed to allocate resources while operating under government regulation and
  3. through networks involving public-private partnerships (PPP) or with the collaboration of community organisations.

These modes of governance are often presented in terms of hierarchy, markets, and networks.

[edit] Corporate organizations

Corporate organizations often use the word governance to describe the manner in which boards or their like direct a corporation, and laws and customs applying to that direction.

[edit] Industry

The term governance also occurs in industry—especially in the information technology (IT) sector—to describe the processes to follow in a successful department, team or project. (See project governance)

[edit] Fair governance

A fair governance implies that these mechanisms function in a way that allows the executives (the "agents") to respect the rights and interests of the stakeholders (the "principals"), in a spirit of democracy.

[edit] Global governance

Global governance refers to a system-wide structure that both allows and constrains the behavior of actors in interdependent relationships in the absence of an overarching political authority. The global international system offers the best example of this.

[edit] Corporate governance

See the main article at corporate governance.

Corporate governance is the set of processes, customs, policies, laws and institutions affecting the way a corporation is directed, administered or controlled. Corporate governance also includes the relationships among the many players involved (the stakeholders) and the goals for which the corporation is governed. The principal players are the shareholders, management and the board of directors. Other stakeholders include employees, suppliers, customers, banks and other lenders, regulators, the environment and the community at large.

[edit] Project governance

See Main article Project governance.

The term governance as used in industry (especially in the information technology (IT) sector) describes the processes that need to exist for a successful project.

[edit] Global governance

see the main article at Global governance for a more detailed explanation.

In contrast to the traditional meaning of governance some authors like James Rosenau[citation needed] have used "global governance" to denote the regulation of interdependent relations in the absence of an overarching political authority. The best example of this in the international system or relationships between independent states. The term can however be applied wherever a group of free equals need to form a regular relationship.

[edit] Information security governance

See Main article Information security governance.

[edit] Information technology governance

See Main article Information technology governance.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Look up governance in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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