Community mental health center governance: a study of board chairpersons and CEOs

A study was conducted in Florida during late 1977 and early 1978 to gather data concerning how well volunteer board chairpersons of community mental health centers (CMHCs) and paid center directors agreed on major governance concepts. These factors included the need for a board, mutual trust, the role of the chairperson, the role of the board, the role of the executive, board organization, governance style, and governance climate. At the time of the study, the rescarcher had over three years' experience as a community mental health center director, three years as a mental health program evaluation and researcher for the state department of mental health, and four years as an administrative and clinical services department head in state psychiatric hospitals. Because of this experience, the researcher felt the study would be more meaningful if survey comparisons were made between chairpersons and executives and by using two frames of reference--from an actual as well as an ideal management orientation. The study was conducted by a survey mailed to 50 volunteer board chairpersons and 50 center executives representing 50 community mental health centers and clinics throughout Florida. Responses were received from 20 volunteer board chairpersons and 30 executive directors. The study was designed to determine if there existed an agreement between these two groups regarding their orientation to community mental health center governance. The two groups responses yielded significant differences. Most significant was that center executives were 2.5 times more dissatisfied with the actual present-day governance system than were the chairpersons.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)