It is a travesty of the truth to portray policy governance as mandating “that the board divorce themselves from the community, and only deal with the general manager, while refusing to hear the concerns of workers” and as ceding “all power to management.”
Even a cursory look at policy governance shows that it is all about ensuring that boards lead and rigorously monitor management on behalf of all the legal and moral owners whom the board has an obligation to represent.
For the real story, please see the website of the nonprofit community of practitioners, researchers, and consultants interested in policy governance and other advanced systems of governance: policygovernanceassociation.org.