Interrogating the nuts and bolts of institutional governance

While much has been published about governance as a political question, research on governance as administrative question is still thin. This is despite the fact that institutional governance is the bedrock of sound public administration and management. When public administrative systems are described as efficient, responsive, transparent, accountable, legitimate, credible and inclusive; what in essence is assessed is the quality of institutional governance. This article fills this gap by interrogating and explaining institutional governance in terms of its rationale, conceptual tenets, evolution, precepts, and frameworks. Its cardinal questions are: What is institutional governance? How has it evolved over the years? What are its legal, institutional and value underpinnings? What is its significance in public administration and management? The article is decidedly confined to the structural or architectural dimensions of institutional governance. Its long range goal is to contribute towards the development of a body of knowledge on institutional governance as an emerging area of study in public administration and management.