Mediating the Paradoxes of Organizational Governance through Numbers

Abstract

Despite abundant prescriptions regarding what boards should do, we know little about what they actually do, especially in the face of the paradoxical goals of both ensuring control (as expressed in agency theory) and fostering collaboration (as expressed in stewardship theory) simultaneously. Drawing from the study of a co-operative over a 10-year period (including ethnographic data collection spanning 3 years), this paper shows the role of numbers in mediating paradoxes of governance. We show that numbers from very different spheres support different models of governance, prompt their change, but also their coexistence. Paradoxical control–collaboration dynamics are embraced, fed by two number-supported micro-practices: personalizing/professionalizing issues and creating new calculable spaces. These practices enable board members to both “act at a distance” and control, while they are also “kept at a distance” from the general manager, who ensures the board’s collaboration.