Organizational Identity in Nonprofit Organizations: Strategic and Structural Implications

Organizational identity is what is central, distinctive, and enduring about an organization. This article argues that clarity and consensus about organizational identity are essential elements in setting successful long‐term strategy and making structural choices in a nonprofit organization. Four classes of nonprofit organization are examined here: grantmaking foundations, federated fundraising organizations, nonprofit academic centers, and social enterprises. In each case, alternative identities are described and the implications of each identity for organizational strategy and structure are analyzed. The article suggests that examination of identity should become an integral part of organizational development for nonprofit organizations and a subject for continued research.     

Evaluating a private foundation's health program

Public policy decisions in health are increasingly difficult and expensive. Although there will never be enough information available, private foundations can help to bridge the most important gaps in knowledge. Larger foundations may also wish to respond to those who doubt the value of foundation activities. This article reviews the experiences over the past eight years of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in employing evaluation and related social research procedures in the planning and implementation of a major philanthropic effort to improve the health and medical care of Americans. Discussed are the still evolving Foundation evaluation framework, the unanticipated problems in undertaking specific evaluations, and the substantive findings of some of the studies.     

Stories of Non‐Becoming: Non‐Issues,Non‐Events and Non‐Identities in Asexual Lives

In contrast to conventional models of positively “becoming” an identity through social interaction, this article explores the inverse, negational process of “non‐becoming,” whereby actors start but do not continue along an identity career trajectory. Through cumulative attrition, interactions and encounters at key moments create an overall pattern of non‐progression. Using asexuality as an example, we identify three main trajectory stages of non‐awareness, communicative negation and non‐consolidation, each involving interactional contingencies. With a wider applicability to other repudiated identities, this model shows how even negational symbolic social objects (non‐issues, non‐events, and non‐identities) are constituted through social interaction.     

Making it Work: Supporting Group Representation in a Liberal Democratic Organization

Providing oppressed social groups with rights of representation is one suggestion for counteracting bias towards privileged groups in society. In order to counteract a bias towards their white, male, heterosexual, able‐bodied membership, a number of trade unions have provided social groups with resources to self‐organize and represent their group interests to mainstream decision‐makers. However, enabling group representation at the same time as individual representation is problematic in trade unions that are organized along liberal democratic lines. This case study of UNISON shows that while the union supported the self‐organization of oppressed social groups, these groups were excluded from matters affecting pay and working conditions. The article argues that this outcome reflects the difficulty of reconciling the representation of social groups with the representation of individuals in a liberal democratic organization. The implications of this organizational framework are illustrated by contrasting the organizing strategies of two women's self‐organized groups. While one strategy (the organization of women shop stewards) fits the prevailing organizational structure, the other (the organization of all women) attempts to be different and may have more potential for counteracting the bias towards privileged groups in the future. The article argues that a radical organizational framework is required if oppressed social groups are to gain real power within trade unions.     

Managing Organizational Social Capital through Value Configurations

Nonprofits are said to serve as places for the reproduction of social capital. However, little is known about how to manage social capital in a nonprofit. This article presents a theory‐based perspective on how to plan, execute, and measure social capital production in a nonprofit organization. By using the concept of value configurations as a method to analyze and describe the creation of organizational social capital, bonding and bridging social capital can be managed in alternative ways. In a value shop framework, the participants are more homogeneous, and growth is heavily based on referrals and reputation as well as the quality of the members. Organizations managed as value shops will foster bonding social capital. In contrast, a value network framework incorporates more likely heterogeneous, multilevel participants that add legitimacy to the network. Organizations in this framework will strengthen the evolution of bridging social capital.     

Contemporary organizational theory: The demographic,relational, and cultural perspectives

We review three perspectives—demographic, relational, and cultural—that have dominated sociological research on organizations during the past four decades. These perspectives arose in reaction to the atomistic and rationalist–adaptationist assumptions of earlier perspectives on organizations. These perspectives have different conceptions of social structure and thus different conceptions of what creates opportunities for and constraints on action. The demographic perspective holds that social structure is constituted by distributions of social actors along salient dimensions of social and physical space; the relational perspective, by webs of social relationships; and the cultural perspective, by widely shared and patterned understandings of reality and possibility. These perspectives also have different conceptions of identity and therefore motivations for action. For demographers, identity derives from position, absolute or relative, along salient dimensions of social life; for relational scholars, from ties among individuals, groups, and organizations; and for cultural scholars, from social interaction. All three perspectives have been applied to explain behavior at five different levels of analysis: the individual, group or organizational subunit, organization, industry or organizational population, and field. Up to the 1990s, these perspectives were generally applied separately, but over the past two decades, studies have increasingly used multiple perspectives.     

Social Media Management

Do foundations effectively use social media to engage stakeholders? Do usage and engagement vary by foundation type? This article has been written to stimulate discussion and research about social media use and user engagement by foundations beyond measuring social media presence. We analyzed Facebook usage and stakeholder engagement for three types of foundations: community, corporate, and independent grant‐making foundations. We found that although community foundations are more likely to have a social media presence, corporate and independent foundations are more likely to use Facebook and to effectively engage stakeholders. Findings illuminate the need to understand social media usage and engagement in addition to presence. We discuss potential benefits of social media use and provide practical communication management recommendations for nonprofit practitioners.     

Fashioning Futures: Life Coaching and the Self‐Made Identity Paradox

Contemporary processes of individualization push people to construct single‐handedly their own identities. This urge runs counter to a fundament of sociology, which proposes that identities are social products that must be validated through social relations. Based on participant observation and in‐depth interviews with life coaches and their clients, I investigate life coaching as a social institution that aims to resolve the paradoxical nature of the desire for self‐creation. Locating life coaching in the larger identity‐fashioning market, this article illustrates how the artificial nature of outsourced social relations reconciles two apparently contradictory desires: the “need for help” and “wanting to find it on my own.” Three mechanisms are involved: creating an independent social space where identities can be crafted away from significant others; deliberately deemphasizing the coach and intentionally underwriting personal authorship; and encouraging clients to root identities in the social world while promoting an instrumental view of sociality. The article discusses the blurring of boundaries between intimate social relations and utilitarian market logic, and the implications of the ongoing outsourcing of identity support that reinforces the privileged ideal of self‐made identities.     

Strategic philanthropy and its challenges in India: A multiple case study of grantmaking organizations

Grantmaking organizations in the United States play an increasingly important role in philanthropic giving toward international development issues. Champions of strategic philanthropy have encouraged grantmakers to set clear goals, use evidence‐based strategies, and monitor programs. This exploratory study delves into grantmaking in one of the largest emerging economies; India. Although India is a major recipient of private philanthropy, it continues to perform below average on various socio‐economic indicators. The impact of grantmaking has been unclear. We conducted in‐depth interviews with managers and leaders (n = 9) engaged in decision‐making within U.S. based grantmaking organizations, including nonprofit intermediaries and philanthropic foundations. We examine how the concept of strategic philanthropy is operationalized by participant organizations. Although the participants acknowledge the importance of starting out with a well‐defined strategy, they also face several challenges. We identify some of these challenges, outline how they are being addressed, and discuss implications.     

COLLECTIVE IDENTITY IN THE STRAIGHT EDGE MOVEMENT:

Although social movement scholars generally study movement organizations, a great deal of significant collective action occurs in diffuse, noninstitutional contexts. This article uses the straight edge movement to explore the less structured aspects of movement activity and discuss the roles collective identity plays in diffuse movements. The straight edge collective identity promotes individual action within the context of a commitment to a strong identity. This paper shows how a strong collective identity is the foundation of diffuse movements, providing "structure," a basis for commitment, and guidelines for individualized participation. Finally, the article demonstrates that organizational conceptualizations of social movements fail to capture important avenues of cultural protest.     

How can stigma contribute to our understanding of the formation and mobilization of collective identities in health social movements?

Scholars across several theoretical traditions have become increasingly interested in understanding the underlying factors and mechanisms that contribute to the formation and mobilization of collective identities in health social movements (HSMs). In this essay, I make the case that stigma can serve as a useful theoretical and conceptual framework in understanding the processes through which collective identities emerge and mobilize around health‐related issues. I begin by introducing the concepts of HSMs, collective identity and stigma and reviewing how scholars have defined these concepts. Next, I establish theoretical, conceptual, and empirical links among stigma, collective identity, and HSMs. I conclude by further specifying how and why stigma can serve as a unifying framework for medical sociologists, social psychologists, and social movement researchers to advance scholarship on HSMs.     

Why engage?

Foundations, consultants, and nonprofit managers have become interested in learning more about how to create effective strategies and interventions to strengthen nonprofit management and organizational capacity. In this article, we examine the extent to which organizational theory can explain the motivation to engage in different types of capacity‐building efforts. Using data gathered from focus groups and interviews with nonprofit executives, foundation executives, and capacity‐building professionals, we illustrate that while different organizational theories can explain the incentive to engage in capacity building, no single theory can truly capture the complexity of the decision‐making process. We show how a multitheoretical approach not only allows us to explain the evolution of capacity‐building efforts over time, but also helps us to identify and explain the problems that can be created by misinterpreting the incentive to engage in building individual and institutional capacity.     

Creating Cohesion from Diversity: The Challenge of Collective Identity Formation in the Global Justice Movement*

Collective identity formation is important because it plays a crucial role in sustaining movements over time. Studying collective identity formation in autonomous groups in the Global Justice Movement poses a challenge because they encompass a multiplicity of identities, ideologies, issues, frames, collective action repertoires, and organizational forms. This article analyzes the process of collective identity formation in three anti‐capitalist globalization groups in Madrid, Spain, based on 3 years of ethnographic fieldwork. The author argues that for new groups practicing participatory democracy the regular face‐to‐face assemblies are the crucial arena in which collective identity can form and must be both effective and participatory in order to foster a sense of commitment and belonging. The article raises the possibility that scholars should consider what seems to be an oxymoron: the possible benefits of “failure” for social movements.     

Teaching Successful Community Practice in Social Work

ABSTRACT

This article identifies and addresses a severe problem in the management of community practice projects of students in their second and third year in the Undergraduate Social Work program at the University of Haifa School of Social Work; namely, the current binary evaluation method based on total success or failure of the project.

Using a systems approach, this study creates a framework by which to ensure effective and positive outcomes for community practice projects carried out by undergraduate social work students (Freund, Arkin & Saltman, 1999). This framework is unique in that it draws on knowledge gained from organizational and community theories, as well as instructional theories for teaching social work practice.

The proposed framework includes three components that describe the factors necessary to help transform the student's learning experience: the organization's characteristics, the student's resources, and the evaluative measures.

This inter-conceptual approach enhances the ability of the instructor, the student, and the organization to build an appropriate organizational foundation for students operating communal programs. The underlying assumption is that an integrative approach promotes a better understanding of the components essential for building and evaluating social plans conducted by social work students.     

Gangs,identity, and cultural performance

Although the notion of identity has received substantial attention from sociologists and psychologists, it has not been well developed in the gang literature. Identity accounts for a person's sense of self, which is based on meaningful social interactions and group participation, and becomes a source for publicly performing social roles. Gang membership is one such role that merits significant attention, and existing theories about identity and role performance can help explain variations in criminal behavior among members. This article applies multiple perspectives on social, personal, and collective identity to gangs and gang members. It offers principles to explain how gang identities fuel social performances that mimic, induce, or involve criminal behavior.     

You are your brand: Self‐branding and the marketization of self

Personal branding was popularized in the late twentieth century through a spate of self‐help literature which enjoined workers to take responsibility for themselves by taking an entrepreneurial approach to the self, seeing themselves as products to be marketed as a means of managing the risks of an unstable labor market. Self‐branding discourse frames the “authentic self” as a source of material value which workers can leverage to build a reputation, which they can later capitalize upon in their attempts to remain competitive as workers. This article examines the literature on self‐branding to trace its origins as a framework for conceptualizing the self. The discourse of self‐branding proposes a singular, profitable self which is at once authentic and consistent. In this review of self‐branding literature, I explore what thinking of the self as a brand does to the way individuals relate to themselves. I examine the social construction of authentic self‐brands, how branding the self on social media impacts the process of self‐presentation, and how workers experience the imperative to self‐brand.     

Postmodern Swing Dance and Secondary Adjustment: Identity as Process

In this article, the author describes activities of strategic consumption that members of a postmodern swing dance scene utilized to construct identity. He deploys Goffman's category of “contained secondary adjustment” for describing social interactions that are moments of purposeful resistance designed to usurp (while also being lodged within) organizational and/or institutional claims and constraints for identity and self. Specifically, the article describes swing dancers' presentations of unique selves, thrift store shopping, tavern socializing, and swing dancing. Swing dancers utilized these secondary adjustments to resist the dictates of corporate‐driven and mass‐mediated claims and constraints for “mainstream” consumer identities. These secondary adjustments add up to an “identity distancing,” which is the individual's and/or group's purposeful distancing and separation from other identities or groups associated with popular culture. Describing the swing dancers' secondary adjustments reaffirms the symbolic interactionist stance that identity construction is a durable social interactional process.     

Institutional Environments,Sociopolitical Processes,and Health Movement Organizations: The Growth of Self‐Help/Mutual‐Aid1

This study examines the relationship between sociopolitical processes and health social movement organization formation. Two central research questions are posed: How do self‐help/mutual‐aid institutional environments characterized by professional actors, the state, and social movements influence organizational formation, and do these influences grow stronger or weaker as the self‐help/mutual‐aid movement matures? Analyses comparing the impact of institutional factors such as physician hegemony and autonomy, professional affiliation, state spending, and political ties on self‐help/mutual‐aid founding rates reveal negative effects of professionals but positive effects of the state. These relationships tend to grow stronger as the movement matures. For example, declining professional authority increasingly eases organizational foundings during movement maturity as does the beneficial impact on formation of state expansion in health markets and political ties. Implications are discussed.     

PARTICIPANT NARRATIVES AND COLLECTIVE IDENTITY IN A METAPHYSICAL MOVEMENT

In this article we explore social movement solidarity through an examination of narratives offered by participants in a metaphysical movement. Drawing from contemporary social movement theory, we focus on how members develop a carefully built collective identity that perpetuates movement goals and ideology. Data for this project are drawn from in-depth interviews with local psychics, participant observation in various metaphysical fairs, and document analysis. We find that the movement's collective identity is centered around several narratives that help establish boundaries, identify antagonists, and create a collective consciousness. Together these narratives form a web of belief that binds members to the movement. The data we present in this article have implications for understanding other expressive movements, as well as for social movement theory in general.