Leading organizational changes in public sector. Building blocks in understanding boards behaviour

Purpose Starting from public and corporate governance literature the article aims to evidence the opportunity in exploring board of directors in public organizations, where the focus is on a behavioral perspective Design/Methodology/approach Presenting two levels of analysis: a) the relationship between the board and the “external” stakeholders, and b) the relationship between the board and the managers, a framework is proposed evidencing which factors (variables, constructs, and concepts) logically should be considered as part of the explanation of boards’ role in public organizations’ innovation Findings The article provides support for a board model in public governance, evidencing both the opportunity to assume a multi-paradigm perspective and the existing similarities and differences between boards in public and corporate governance approach. It is possible, for example, to empirically apply the framework both to different national context and to different levels of public organizations Originality/value of paper The article presents theoretical perspectives on governance research, and both some pioneer studies in public sector research and some of the major contribution in corporate governance studies. All of them have been put together, introducing a new stream of research in the debate on the micro (organisational) level of governance in public sector.