Analysis of reasons for governing board micromanagement of administrative affairs in public community colleges

The purpose of this study was to analyze reasons that governing boards in public community colleges tend to micromanage administrative affairs in their institutions. Ancilliary to the process, trustee feelings regarding the effect of statutory obligations on the governance process were analyzed as a causal factor. The study was complicated by the absence of a universal definition for the term "micromanagement." For this reason, the study used qualitative methodology with snowball sampling to explore trustee perceptions of "involvement in administrative affairs" or "micromanagement" as it is commonly called in many organizations.;In-depth interviews were conducted with 11 trustees from nine community colleges. Five of the trustees were from elected jurisdictions in Missouri and one trustee was from an elected jurisdiction in Kansas due to snowball sampling: the remaining five were from appointed jurisdictions in Florida. Trustees described their feelings regarding micromanagement of administrative affairs and described instances and reasons for such occurring at their institutions.;Trustees participating in this study recognized their policy-making roles and the administering role of the CEO. In spite of this, ten of the trustees indicated involvement in administrative affairs would occur if there was a problem in their institutions. Problem areas included times of significant change, major turnover and selection of personnel, including the CEO, economic or financial conditions, and void of leadership.;The elected trustees in this study generally felt that statutory obligations impacted trustee involvement in administrative affairs. This may be due to the statutory language especially in the Missouri statutes, which may be incongruent with customary governance practices. The appointed trustees had no reason to become involved in administrative affairs because of the Florida statutes.;Trustees provided times when "involvement in administrative affairs" was necessary and expected, such as with community-related areas. Trustees suggested steps for the mitigation of micromanaging tendencies by individual board members. Many lessons were learned from the trustees in these colleges for harmonious governance in public community colleges.