This study sought to understand how executive committee members and deans experience and perceive the process of governance within their institutions. Following a brief review of the literature, the paper reviews three models of academic governance: the academic bureaucracy, the political institution, and the collegium and discusses previous governance studies at the University of Michigan. Following, this study explores the range of governance structures and processes employed at the University of Michigan. Within-case and cross-case analyses of interviews conducted with faculty executive committee members (two at each school or college) developed 12 dimensions of governance, which were used to explore processes such as elections, agenda creation, planning, promotion and tenure decisions, and communication across various campus units. The study found that faculty authority among the campus units varies substantially; that governing faculty tend to receive only partial information about the election of executive committee representatives; that while many executive committee members are active in creating meeting agendas and in general planning, they have marginal roles in budget decisions, curricular planning, and merit pay decisions; and that executive committees tend to have considerable influence over tenure and promotion decisions and also exercise authority over other committees within their campus units. (Contains 26 references.) (CH)