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Nonprofit Organizations 1 Year After the Covid-19 Crisis: Understanding How the French Voluntary Sector is Opening up to Adaptations Related to Societal Orientation
Abstract
Non-profit organizations (NPOs) occupy a crucial place in society. This article studies the determinants of their managerial adaptations in relation to societal orientation, such as a focus on partners, an adaptation of relationships with volunteers, preventing neglect of the beneficiaries and members, and finally a redesign of internal organization. The survey of French NPOs one year after Covid-19 shows that boards have often lost their collective effectiveness and that the four adaptations associated with societal orientation were specifically explained by the access to key resources. The results demonstrate the importance of human resource dependency management and inform the decision-making process during the crisis. The contributions focus on the determinants of societal orientation, on the necessary individual and collective mobilization of human resources in non-profit governance and on the importance of a complex and paradoxical approach to decision-making. The original theoretical approach (the stakeholder resource-based theory) also offers perspectives for NPOs, in times of crisis but also in more stable circumstances.
... This statement arguably applies to NPSO board decision making given it is a vital process for this group to fulfill its roles. Contingent factors can originate from instable environments (Gee et al., 2023;Plaisance, 2023aPlaisance, , 2023b related to crises (e.g. health), resource scarcity (e.g. ...
... member associations, sport governing bodies, health authorities; cf. Plaisance, 2023a;2023b) are used to acquire information from and how to manage instable environmental conditions ripe with risk and uncertainty. ...
... At the governance entity level, studies have focused on board composition, roles, practices, performance, and capacity and development (Bradshaw, 2009;Renz and Andersson, 2014), though mostly in unitary organizations and via cross-sectional approaches. Studies at the network or alliance level have, instead, focused on a "network as organization" perspective (Stone et al., 2010) whereby "the network itself is the organization to study" (Renz et al., 2023, p. 262s); therefore, external contingencies are considered based on the broader network, subsequently impacting governance processes (Gee et al., 2023;Plaisance, 2023b). This is particularly relevant for NPSOs in a federated sport model given the increased environmental complexities (e.g. ...
Purpose
Pressures from non-profit sport organizations’ (NPSOs) external environment influence governance structures and processes. Thus, this study explores the impact of external factors on NPSO board decision making.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample of six NPSO boards (two national, four provincial/territorial), data were collected via 36 observations, 18 interviews, and over 900 documents. A thematic analysis was conducted via NVivo 12.
Findings
Results identified two external factors impacting NPSO board decision making: the sport system structure and general environment conditions. External factors impacted NPSO board decision making in terms of duration, flow, interaction, and scrutiny.
Originality/value
Results demonstrate the need for NPSO boards to engage in boundary-spanning activities whereby external information sources from stakeholders are incorporated to make informed decisions. Practically, NPSO boards should harness virtual meetings to continue their operations while incorporating risk management analyses to assess threats and opportunities.
This article examines whether accountability can contribute to the analysis of effectiveness in grassroots voluntary organizations (GVOs) in France.
Based on recent studies and stakeholder theory, hypotheses are formulated about the negative link between accountability and financial effectiveness and a positive link between accountability and non-financial effectiveness.
The findings show that accountability practices are positive determinants of financial indicators (apart from ROA) and employment of people in difficulty. In contrast, the other non-financial indicators are not explained by accountability practices.
The study points out the complexity and paradoxes surrounding accountability and highlights the risk of insensitivity to it. It thus underlines a specific French situation, close to the risks of myopia linked to accountability. One possible explanation could be the coupling and decoupling mechanisms that allow NPOs to regain power. Given the sometimes-random effects of accountability, producing nuanced theories is necessary and governance should oscillate between equilibrium and adaptation in the face of stakeholders. Finally, this article introduces the risk of insensitivity of NPOs to accountability (i.e. they act as they wish, regardless of control mechanisms such as accountability).
This study thus reveals governance dilemmas, which could be solved through less formal, more mission-oriented, more creative and therefore heterodox accountability.
The French context of mistrust of certain managerial approaches and the development of codes of governance based on a disciplinary vision are confronted with a growing and critical literature on accountability in nonprofit organizations (NPOs).
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) health crisis imposes severe pressures on nonprofit organizations, which must be resilient to respond effectively to extreme environmental tensions. We combined resource dependence theory with stakeholder theory to frame to what extent nonprofits experienced resource pressures through various stakeholder channels and the nonprofit governance responses. We empirically investigated international medical research and education nonprofits during the COVID‐19 pandemic. Our results indicate resource decreases in nearly all stakeholder channels. In response, nonprofit boards increased activity levels by mainly focusing on adapting organizational offerings and increasing support to the organization. Managerial executives also increased their activity levels, by focusing on safeguarding financial stability, planning and adapting operations to confinement measures.
Purpose
The COVID-19 global pandemic has caused significant disruptions to the non-profit sector, highlighting the issues that the narrowly focused, traditional conception of governance fails to address. The purpose of this paper is to propose a contingency-based framework with its theoretical underpinnings in the existing literature, in order to support future empirical research on non-profit governance and accountability practices.
Design/methodology/approach
From a theoretical perspective, this paper synthesizes relevant existing literature and proposes a contingency-based accountability and governance framework in the non-profit sector. This paper draws on Ostrower and Stone’s (2010) contingency-based framework on boards and Hyndman and McDonnell’s (2009) conception of governance systems. This paper engages with the New Zealand and Australia context while reviewing relevant literature and relevant regulations.
Findings
The global pandemic has caused severe worldwide disruptions both socially and economically. There have been dramatic changes to the ways in which non-profit organisations (NPOs) operate. There is an urgent need to understand how such changes in the external environment impact on NPOs’ governance and accountability practices. In this context, the contingency-based accountability and governance framework proposed in this paper has important implications for non-profit research, while opening up an avenue for future research in this field.
Research limitations/implications
This paper does not involve empirical analysis.
Practical implications
This paper contributes by facilitating better understanding on how external contingencies like the COVID-19 global pandemic affect the external and internal environment of an NPO, how they impact on stakeholders and their interplay with an NPO’s governance and accountability systems. It also suggests that regulators of the non-profit sector, umbrella support organisations, and funders proactively encourage and guide NPOs to embrace a wider scope of governance and strengthen the level of governance in the sector.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to the literature by proposing a contingency-based accountability and governance framework in the non-profit sector to support future research in this field. It also sheds light on competing theoretical debates relating to the conceptualisation and operationalization of accountability and governance.
The ability of nonprofits to weather hard times is a popular theme in the literature, yet most of the research is spent on predicting organizational closure. Unfortunately, this offers little guidance to nonprofits attempting to both survive and deliver services during crises. We use the lived experiences of 31 nonprofits—a mix of umbrella groups and direct human service providers—during the Illinois state budget impasse to understand nonprofit organization resilience in times of crisis. We establish the Nonprofit Resiliency Framework using qualitative analysis, mapping tactics in five areas: financial, human resources, outreach, program and services, and management and leadership. This study not only provides further empirical investigation of organizational resilience, but also useful advice for nonprofits on how to weather a complex financial crisis.
We start this article with the exploration of similarities between the resource-based view of the firm (RBV) and stakeholder theory at the time of their origination and then proceed with the conversation on what led to distinct developmental trajectories of the two theories. Though RBV has become a leading paradigm in the strategic management field, we argue that in its current form, RBV is yet incomplete. We suggest there are four aspects that stakeholder theory can offer to inform RBV: normativity, sustainability, people, and cooperation. Reconciling stakeholder theory and RBV is a promising path to advancing our understanding of management, and we provide a two-part guideline to management scholars and practitioners who would be willing to take this path.
This article seeks to analyze the resilience of arts and cultural nonprofit organizations in France during the Covid-19 crisis. A broad survey and multiple logistic regressions highlight the resources availability, the crisis impact, the NPOs’ needs and the reforms they conducted during the first French lockdown. This study shows that the resilience of these NPOs must be differentiated between activity continuity and organizational persistence. Resilience in culture and the arts is specific, based on reforms, and requires special support from partners.
Governance capacity and legitimacy as two important dimensions in crisis management are crucial for preparing for, making sense of, handling, and learning from crises like epidemics/pandemics. We compare governance capacity and legitimacy of the government in China in response to the SARS and COVID-19 pandemics. Our comparison of the handling processes of two pandemics suggests both positive changes and persistent inertia. Both governance capacity and legitimacy has been improved over time, and there is a tendency that they reinforce each other. Such comparisons help to facilitate learning from the past to be better prepared for the future.
How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the roles of nonprofit boards? We reflect critically on the leadership and management activities of boards to understand the implications of the current crisis on governance. Employing a contingency approach to governance, we present a model of boards of directors’ leadership and management roles under four governance configurations as organizations navigate through the stages of the pandemic. We suggest that organizations with governance configurations that are more suited to predictable environments will generally experience greater shifts between management and leadership activities as they move through the stages of the COVID-19 crisis.
A decade after key theoretical developments in strategic human resource management (SHRM) in nonprofit organizations (NPOs), we still lack a comprehensive understanding of the disparate strands of empirical evidence. Furthermore, this growing field requires integration and synthesis of new themes and conceptual developments. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review of SHRM studies in NPOs published between 2008 and 2017. Our review of 74 articles synthesizes a fragmented body of research and maps out the relationships into a more integrated whole. By mapping the research landscape, we provide insights into the tensions NPOs face between external pressures and values, highlighting the underexplored role of managerial discretion in shaping NPOs’ differing responses. Our review expands the resource orientation to include a social capital dimension and identifies new empirical manifestations of human resource management (HRM) types. We offer avenues for research on content, process, outcomes of SHRM, and discuss how the interplay across key themes can inform the development of the field.
This article explores the impacts of COVID-19 on nonprofit employees and human resource management (HRM). The pandemic is wreaking havoc on people’s health and well-being and threatening the primary institutions that support the functioning of society. For nonprofits, COVID-19 is a call to action at many levels. As the devasting impacts of the pandemic evolve, nonprofits have continued to provide essential services and help the vulnerable. At the same time, the impacts of COVID-19 portend serious and potentially crippling strains on nonprofits, which are already overstretched. Since the context in which nonprofits operate is critical to their effectiveness and the outcomes of their employment relations, the impacts of COVID-19 could shape nonprofit HRM and employees’ ability to assist people.
Nongovernmental development organizations (NGDOs) have traditionally enjoyed notable recognition and visibility within the field of nonprofit organizations. However, the situation of this sector is problematic in its need to respond to various threats whether programmatic, financial, or of social legitimacy. This study poses as a hypothesis that market orientation, as a management philosophy which many NGDOs could adopt, may be fundamental for them to deal successfully with the challenges they face. An analysis of the literature on market orientation in the nonprofit sector showed that the existing models of market orientation did not adequately capture NGDOs’ real working context, thus recommending a broader market approach based on proposals oriented to the stakeholder and to social aspects. For this reason, the objective of the study was to create a scale of market orientation adapted to the reality of the work of NGDOs. Analysis of a sample of 104 Spanish entities allowed an eight-factor market orientation scale for NGDOs to be created and validated, which reached optimal values of reliability and validity.
We answer the call that governance research should focus more on processes outside the boundaries of boards, especially for nonprofit organizations. In particular, we suggest and elaborate concrete steps with respect to the advantages of a leadership coalition perspective to focus more on the behavioral and informal aspects of governance. Through a comparative case analysis of five nonprofit organizations, we explore contingencies between characteristics of nonprofit leadership coalitions and governance quality. We identify two dimensions to classify leadership coalitions: centralized versus diffused influence and specific versus holistic influence. These dimensions are subsequently related with observed governance quality. We frame our finding in the existing literature on group faultlines, which are socially constructed dividing lines within groups, and we discuss the importance of establishing a balanced coalition between a weak or nonexisting and a strong dominant coalition to ensure high governance quality. We also present propositions on how governance quality and its various sub-dimensions can be studied as a complex, nonlinear intermediate concept between coalitional aspects of leadership groups and nonprofit organizational performance. Finally, we discuss concrete avenues for further testing and verification of our theoretical interpretation.
Market orientation is the overarching framework by which practitioners and academics make sense of the interplay between customers, competition, stakeholders, and the organization within the commercial for-profit arena and is the way the marketing concept is put into practice. Many academics have argued that market orientation would also benefit nonprofit organizations by generating more funds in an increasingly competitive environment. The purpose of this article is to conduct a systematic review of market orientation, identify gaps, and develop a research agenda for market orientation research within the underresearched nonprofit sector. This research agenda highlights the structural, human resource, and cultural challenges nonprofit organizations face if they decide to adopt a market orientation, and the need to develop a praxis framework currently missing from the literature. The article offers suggestions for researchers to extend the concept of market orientation from the commercial for-profit into the nonprofit arena.
In this article three generations of research addressing the marketing construct in nonprofit organizations are critically analyzed: (a) market orientation in nonprofit organizations, (b) societal orientation, and (c) research contributions aiming to close the existing practice-theory gap on this topic. A qualitative study among 24 nonprofit marketers is conducted in Canada and Germany to develop a construct labeled nonprofit marketing orientation. It includes the dimensions of brand orientation, supporters’ orientation, commercial orientation, and service orientation. Furthermore, the authors describe the nomological net of nonprofit marketing orientation to present interconstruct relationships and to inform future research.
This article examines some of the main limitations of research on the governance of nonprofit organizations. It argues that there are limitations in both the way governance has been conceptualized and the ways in which it has been researched. It suggests that research has focused too narrowly on the boards of unitary organizations, and ignored both the wider governance system and the more complex multilevel and multifaceted governance structures that many organizations have evolved. It also argues that the dominant research designs employed have been cross-sectional and positivist in orientation. As a result, too little attention has been paid to board processes and change and how they are influenced by contextual and historical factors. Based on this analysis, some new directions for nonprofit governance research are briefly mapped out.
The study explores organizational restructuring following the occurrence of a crisis. Restructuring activities following an intervention are considered here to be indicators of an organization's loss of legitimacy because they have lost their independent status, a basic characteristic of nonprofit human settings. The study shows that according to the Resource Based View of organization restructuring--experienced as downsizing, neglecting and abandoning of projects--organizations are affected by (a) government intervention in decision making; (b) higher demands for accountability; and (c) higher evaluations of performance gaps. On the basis of the study of a sample of 138 Nonprofit Human Services in Israel, the results show that the higher the level of restructuring, the higher the level of legitimacy. However, organization location in metropolitan areas moderates the link between restructuring and legitimacy loss. We conclude that Israel's nonprofit human services being overly dependent on goverhment funding are more prone to restructuring and losing legitimacy following organizational crisis.
This article summarizes discussions held by 23 scholars from research universities in the USA, who are committed to civic and community engaged scholarship and working to advance this work on their campuses and in their communities. This meeting was second in a series first convened by Campus Compact and Tufts University to advance civic engagement within research institutions. This statement, endorsed by the entire group, focuses on opportunities and challenges in four critical areas: engaged scholarship; scholarship focused on civic and community engagement; educating students for civic and community engagement; institutionalization. It identifies challenges to establishing and sustaining engaged scholarship presented by research university contexts, and offers a vision for fully engaged institutions, calling on colleagues to embrace this vision and work to bring it about.
The theory of market orientation, emerging from the context of for-profit organizations, has potential application and use in the nonprofit sector. This research proposes links between market orientation, innovativeness, resource scarcity, funding source, and performance related variables in the nonprofit context. Based on the empirical data from 579 nonprofit organizations in India engaged in service delivery to beneficiaries, the study shows that market orientation in nonprofit organizations improves peer reputation, beneficiary satisfaction, and innovativeness. However, market orientation alone is not enough. Innovativeness is the missing link that mediates the market orientation and effectiveness relationship. The study shows that market orientation does not help in attracting resources in the Indian context, a finding which runs counter to the evidences from previous studies carried out in the context of developed countries. The study finds that resource scarcity and funding sources do not moderate the market orientation and performance relationship. The implications for practitioners are discussed.
Keywords: market orientation; market orientation in nonprofit organizations (MONPO); innovativeness; resource scarcity; India
The market orientation concept has become one of the central issues of scientific and entrepreneurial study in the marketing discipline. In fact, the theoretical and empirical contributions to this field of research have proliferated in various contexts throughout the last decade. One domain, however, in which market orientation investigation has been relatively limited until recently, is in private nonprofit organisations. Thus, the main purpose of this paper is to delimit the market orientation concept in the private nonprofit organisation context. The alternative basic orientations adopted by these organisations are first assessed in order to specify next the meaning of market orientation from a dual perspective: as an organisational philosophy and culture, and as an organisational behaviour. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications
In this paper, we take a step towards developing a stakeholder theory of crisis management. We argue that, in the context of crises, adopting the principles of a stakeholder model of corporate governance will lead companies to engage more frequently in proactive and/or accommodating crisis management behaviour even if these crisis management behaviours are not perceived to maximize shareholder value. We also propose a mechanism that may explain why the stakeholder model may be associated with more successful crisis management outcomes. We conclude by challenging the efficacy of the shareholder view in crisis and crisis-like situations, and call for further theoretical and empirical research.
The Covid-19 crisis has placed nonprofit organizations in a new operational, human, financial and economic situation. In France, “associations” (grassroots volunteer organizations, as specific NPOs) have experienced three lockdowns and numerous restrictive measures. The study of their resilience is therefore necessary, and contributes to the knowledge of the concept. A large-scale survey of 10,926 NPO leaders showed that French organizations are still suffering one year after the crisis began. Their recovery is still difficult and their dependence on their resource-providing stakeholders disadvantages them. A cubic analytical framework is also proposed to synthesize the research dedicated to non-profit resilience.
Despite the popularity of not-for-profit organizations (NFPs) as a research topic, existing comprehensive reviews are rather limited, resulting in a large body of literature that lacks integration. In this review, we summarize prior research on NFPs, focusing on four key differences between for-profit organizations and NFPs: organizational goals, financial resources, human resources, and leadership and governance. Our aims are to delineate the major inroads that have been made—not only in theory testing, but also in theory building—and to identify fruitful avenues for continued inquiry.
The literature on nonprofit governance and boards has grown substantially during the past 50 years as researchers from a variety of disciplines and fields have studied governance systems and processes to examine how they are organized, the practices they employ, and their relations with and impacts on nonprofits. This essay offers a domain-based narrative review of the research on the governance of nonprofit organizations and how it has developed over these 50 years. Building on literature reviews and a Delphi study, we summarize the progression of nonprofit governance research, employ a multi-dimensional framework to summarize and assess the state of the field, and offer recommendations for future study. We find the increasingly multinational and multicultural literature of the field has become more rich, nuanced, and increasingly inclusive of contingency, complexity, paradox, and the diverse theoretical perspectives that will enhance our understanding of nonprofit governance.
Nonprofit organizations have somewhat different foci, contexts, and resources than typical for‐profit organizations, so may have experienced and responded to COVID‐19 in ways not covered in traditional corporate research. We investigate the influence of nonprofit organizations' communication support and use, crisis experience and preparation, and extent and impacts of COVID‐19 on their strategic responses to the crisis (from retrenchment to perseverance to innovation). Our study is a longitudinal panel survey conducted with 578 U.S. public charities, once before the pandemic and the other 6 months into it. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics to characterize the sample, and hierarchical regressions to assess the influences on strategic responses to the COVID‐19 pandemic. A major finding is that communication with external stakeholders predicted organizations' abilities to maintain core activities (perseverance) during a crisis and to pivot (innovating) on mission delivery. Practical applications for nonprofit organizations are addressed, with particular attention to COVID‐19.
The Covid‐19 pandemic offers an unprecedented opportunity to advance research on how various corporate governance mechanisms shape firms’ decision‐making, survival and success. In the short term, corporate governance research could pinpoint which mechanisms in place before the pandemic (e.g., ownership structure, board attributes, executive compensation) will shape corporate responses, thus affecting firms’ survival in the post‐pandemic period. In the long term, the crisis will trigger structural changes in governance mechanisms to enable firms to either prevent or respond to the occurrences of potentially similar events.
In the reminder of this essay, we will first discuss the peculiar nature of the recent crisis in relation to other recent crises. Then, we will analyse the impact of Covid‐19 on five key areas in the field of corporate governance (i.e., corporate purpose, ownership structure, board of directors, executive compensation and accountability) and, for each of them, we will suggest a series of research questions that contribute to redirecting and advancing the domain.
The global COVID-19 pandemic has led to spawning norms in all quarters, including the corporate boardrooms. The transformation required in boards is unprecedented in its intensity to overcome the changing challenges in the global market. A conceptual note has been developed to understand the boardroom challenges and the requirement of corporate stewards to combat the situation of health crises. The article discusses the new boardroom challenges the organization have to face such as virtual boardroom, right board composition, dynamic risk assessment, continuity and resilience. The need of the hour for corporate is to have an effective and steward board to overcome the health and financial challenges. The article also intends to give suggestions to the companies to manage the pandemic situation with a right steward attitude. Their diligent work can lead to increase in profits, which could further satisfy the shareholders with higher returns.
This commentary considers the impacts of COVID-19 on sport governance and management, given the global threat to sport services and organizations evident as a result of the disease since early 2020. To frame this analysis of the impacts and lessons to be learned, we use a Critical Realist (CR) perspective, which takes a multi-level view of reality and seeks to establish how and why something occurs in reality [Byers, T. (2013). Using critical realism: A new perspective on control of volunteers in sport clubs. European Sport Management Quarterly, 13(1), 5–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 16184742.2012.744765]. While the existing commentaries and emerging research on COVID19 have focused on a superficial level of reality (i.e. what stakeholder responses have been), a CR view encourages a more holistic account of what and why something happens. Specifically, this commentary contributes to the discussion of COVID-19 impacts focusing on sport governance, using a philosophy that encourages examination of what is happening in sport organizations, how different stakeholder’s perspectives and assessment of the legitimacy of COVID-19 may reveal underlying social structures and biases that help explain sport administrator’s responses and value systems. We hope this novel perspective on sport governance encourages readers to think of new ways of organizing and governing that is more inclusive of diversity (e.g. race, gender, disability) in sport
The adoption of business-like practices by nonprofit organizations (NPOs) has often been associated with focusing too much on markets, rather than mission. Yet, the concept of market orientation does not view profits as the goal, but rather as a consequence. This makes it highly relevant for NPOs. We argue that identifying, monitoring, and managing the relevant stakeholder groups through a market-orientation approach can enhance both the economic and social performance of NPOs. We do so by developing a preliminary scale of stakeholder-based market orientation based on survey data from Swiss NPOs and show that components of such a scale need to include stakeholder groups other than those found in the business literature. The effect of these components on organizational growth and mission achievement are examined using a structural equation model. The results suggest that adopting a stakeholder-based market orientation concept can have positive effects on organizational growth and mission achievement.
La pertinence des théories des parties prenantes et de la dépendance aux ressources est étudiée par l’analyse du fonctionnement des associations françaises face à la crise de la Covid-19. Grâce à une large enquête et une opérationnalisation des théories au filtre de l’orientation sociétale, sont mis en avant les effets positifs du maintien des dispositifs de gouvernance sur la performance de court terme, un effet positif de la dépendance aux parties prenantes sur l’adoption d’une orientation sociétale et un effet négatif pour la viabilité, ainsi que des rôles différenciés en fonction de l’horizon temporel de l’orientation sociétale sur la viabilité.
Through the lens of paradoxes, this essay understands China's COVID‐19 responses, focusing on normal and non‐normal governance, competing values, expertise and politics, centralization and decentralization, public and private, and technology and institution. Preliminary lessons are drawn regarding pandemic governance: embedding resilience into all aspects of governance; developing a public value framework for pandemic governance and improving individuals' ethical capacity; institutionalizing policy capacity on pandemic governance and requiring expertise in relevant positions; balancing centralized coordination and decentralized responses with a stable and ready‐to‐work commanding center; enabling businesses and nonprofits for pandemic governance but regulating them appropriately; and enacting technologies to revolutionize pandemic governance with proper institutional safeguards.
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Effective delivery of services for the public good involves a multiplicity of organizations and actors, including those from the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. In some cases, service delivery is accomplished using programs that directly engage volunteers, including key public services like community-based and nonprofit volunteer fire departments. Volunteers in fire departments—often highly engaged volunteers with specialized training—provide vital services for a substantial portion of the United States, allowing local governments to realize considerable cost savings. Thus, issues of volunteer retention are a critical challenge for fire departments. Existing research has addressed issues of retention in a variety of settings; we argue that the challenging and particular context of fire departments is worthy of focused research. This article is an exploratory study of the predictors of voluntary firefighter retention in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. We use data from a web-based survey of volunteer firefighters to examine the factors that influence volunteer retention, focusing specifically on volunteer management practices and broader job-related concepts. Results indicate that volunteer training, performance management, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment influence both short- and mid-term intent to remain, indicating that management practices and programs, as well as other contextual factors that shape satisfaction and commitment, are important in retaining volunteers.
This study examines strategies used by the nonprofit sector in response to the 2008 economic crisis. Drawing on resource dependency and resource-based view theories as frameworks for analysis, we explore the impact the use of numerous strategies on nonprofit organizational performance during this time. We analyzed 280 surveys from the Nashville MSA where nonprofits reported on their strategic response to the economic crisis. Survey items were used to calculate human resource capacity, levels of resource dependency, firm performance, and a visibility index. Findings indicated that nonprofits that had fewer funding sources were more likely to have a lower level of strategic response. However, a website presence and visibility of a board of directors were significantly related to a nonprofit reporting that its resources stayed the same or increased. Experience in the market and firm size did not appear to be significant predictors of the strategic response level. Implications of the findings for how nonprofits can position themselves with the best strategic responses during an economic crisis and recommendations for future research are discussed.
Although nonprofit organizations deal with multiple stakeholders, most nonprofit market orientation-organizational performance research to date has focused exclusively on client/customer market orientation in a single nonprofit subsector. This study investigates orientation towards client/customer and government funder markets in multiple nonprofit subsectors. Overall results, based on data collected from 453 nonprofit organizations in Canada and analyzed using structural equation modeling, confinn that nonprofit organizations hold multiple market orientations, that these orientations are independent constructs that vary substantially in strength across organizations, that orientations towards different markets impact different performance dimensions, and, finally, that different resource structures affect market orientation-performance relationships. Results also indicate that the implementation of the marketing concept provides different benefits in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors.
This paper questions the validity of applying the market orientation construct, which was developed ostensibly for and in large multinational organizations, to a sector whose characteristics differ greatly. Instead, this paper argues for a new approach to the operationalization of the marketing concept in the nonprofit sector. The components of this 'societal orientation' are delineated, as are the organizational imperatives, antecedents and the potential consequences and benefits associated therewith.
The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between the concepts market orientation and organizational performance for nonprofit organizations. To understand the nature of this link in the nonprofit context, the authors will discuss and elaborate on the applicability of both concepts to nonprofits. They will develop multidimensional notions of “societal orientation” and “nonprofit organizational performance,” which fit the specific operating environment of nonprofit organizations engaged in the provision of health and social services. The authors also propose a conceptual framework that relates both notions and present the main underlying propositions. They conclude by suggesting items to empirically measure both constructs and venues for future research.
There has been considerable interest of late among nonprofit practitioners in market orientation and the extent to which its adoption might be linked to enhanced organisational performance. Preliminary studies have typically employed instruments such as MARKOR to measure market orientation in this setting and found tentative support for the existence of such a link. In this paper it will be argued that these approaches are fundamentally flawed. The market orientation construct represents the operationalisation of the marketing concept in the for-profit sector. Since the concept is defined differently by nonprofit academics and practitioners there is a need to develop a new measure of its operationalisation specifically in this context. A review of the literature suggests that this might best be termed societal orientation. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications
The use of market orientation in the nonprofit context has captured researchers’ attention in the last decade for its importance
in perceiving an organization’s strategic behaviors toward the designated markets. Extant research however highlights different
issues. Inspired by the notion that nonprofit organization delivers services that satisfy individual and societal needs, this
paper set out to conceptualize the use of market orientation in the US nonprofit arts context. A key postulate central to
the argument is that market orientation in the nonprofit arts setting has been embedded in a stakeholder environment. Organization’s
sustainability would depend on its capability in aligning strategic behaviors with stakeholders’ interests through organization
life. To engage with stakeholders, arts executives need not only to exploit the advantages of current programs but also to
explore new opportunities to attend to the underserved stakeholder networks.
Boards play a crucial role in ensuring that public and nonprofit publicly accountable and perform well. Following various failures and scandals they face increasing scrutiny, pressure and expectations. Serious questions have been raised about the ability of boards to govern effectively. Such concerns have stimulated a renewed interest in organizational governance, and a growing literature on the subject. Much of the current literature, however, has been criticized for underestimating the constraints and conflictions demands that boards face and recommending unrealistic solutions. There have been relatively few detailed empirical studies of what boards do in practice. This book fills that gap by bringing together analyses based upon some of the best recent empirical studies of public and non-profit governance in the UK. Using a new theoretical framework that highlights the paradoxical nature of governance the book throws light on the questions at the heart of recent debates about nonprofit boards: * Are boards publicly accountable or is there a democratic deficit? * Are boards able to exercise real power, or does management run the show? * What do boards do? Are they effective stewards of an organization's resources? Can they play a meaningful role in setting organisational strategy? * What effect are regulatory and other changes designed to improve board effectiveness having? The book will be essential reading for academics and students with an interest in the governance and management of public and nonprofit organizations. It will also be of value to policy-makers and practitioners who wish to gain a deeper understanding of how boards work and what can be done to improve their performance.
Marketers have traditionally evaluated products and practices on the basis of whether something could be sold. It is also important to evaluate products and practices from a societal perspective, “Should a product be sold?â€\x9D The first idea reflects a managerial orientation and what must be done to sell a product; the second idea reflects a societal orientation and the impact of selling a product. In relation to the second idea, the societal marketing concept was introduced in 1972. There has been little advancement in our understanding of a societal orientation since that time. The current study presents a conceptualization of a societal orientation based on a review of literature and qualitative interviews. The construct was conceptualized as “attention to the long-term well-being of individuals and society at large by enhancing positive impacts from and reducing negative effects associated with production and consumption of a product.â€\x9D Five domains comprising a societal orientation are proposed: physical consequences, psychological well-being, social relationships, economic contribution, and environmental consciousness. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2007
La France Associative en Mouvement-20ème édition
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How does digital governance contribute to effective crisis management? A case study of Korea’s Response to COVID-19. Public Performance & Management Review
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The influence of financial management and governance in the provision of social services in non-profit organizations
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