Does governing board involvement impact strategy implementation effectiveness? The role of information sharing in the politics-administration interface

Many local authorities are governed by a dual governance structure involving a political governing board and a chief administrative officer (CAO). The question if both strategic actors should collaborate has been long debated. The politics-administration dichotomy perspective advocates independence, while the complementarity view eulogizes interdependence. But, what is the appropriate level of governing board involvement during strategy implementation? We use data of 96 Flemish local authorities’ CAOs to investigate if specific strategic board role behaviours (SBRBs) stimulate governing board-CAO information sharing and, subsequently, foster strategy implementation effectiveness. Results confirm the relevance of overseeing SBRB in combination with information sharing.