This paper argues that governance and institutional purpose are related, and that proposals to make governance more efficient by reducing or limiting the faculty role in shared governance are more likely to diminish institutional effectiveness. The rationalization of governance would not only reduce faculty trust and cooperation, delegitimize the governance process, and weaken internal processes of social regulation, it would also alter the missions of academic institutions. These institutions are best served by backward looking processes rooted in culture than by forward-looking processes based on rational choice. (Contains 41 references.) (Author/SLD)