A New Deal for NPO Governance and Management: Implications for Volunteers Using Psychological Contract Theory

Two major evolutions have been reported to occur in the nonprofit sector during the past decades. Both the nature of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) and of volunteering style are changing. While this creates challenges for NPO governance and management, little is known about the process or the outcomes of these two developments. We propose a two-dimensional conceptual model to explain how the aforementioned evolutions influence the attitudes and behavior of volunteers, based on psychological contract theory. More specifically, we posit that both evolutions create tensions in volunteers’ psychological contracts that could lead to contract breach. We formulate twelve propositions on the nature of this psychological contract breach and the resulting attitudes and behavior of volunteers. Finally, we offer some possible solutions that NPO boards and managers can apply to cope with these challenges.     

Understanding the Management of Sports Events Volunteers Through Psychological Contract Theory

This paper juxtaposes the expectations of event managers and sports event volunteers in a case study organisation. These are understood within the theoretical framework of the psychological contract. Results show the distinctive contribution volunteers can make to events but also the distinctive challenges they present to event managers. For event managers, volunteers bring: enthusiasm, a good relationship and empathy with the public, and they provide a cheaper labour force. But a major concern is ensuring their reliability. For volunteers, important expectations include: flexibility of engagement, the quality of personal relationships, recognition for their contribution, and a clear communication of what they are expected to do. The juxtaposition of event manager and volunteer perspectives illustrates the need for a different approach to managing volunteers in comparison to paid employees. This reflects both volunteers’ expectations and the recognition that they have greater autonomy; not being tied to a contract by financial rewards or a related career progression. More generally the results illustrate the use of the theoretical framework provided by the psychological contract but that in using this it is valuable to compare the perspectives of managers and volunteers, using a qualitative approach to understand this social relationship.     

Psychoanalytic Challenges: A Contribution to the New Sexual Agenda

Behind its conservative facade and the rigidityof much of its clinical practice, psychoanalysis retainsa disruptive attitude toward conventional discourses ongender and sexuality. This attitude derives from psychoanalysis capacity to look awry atexperience and consequently to undermine notions offixed identity, including sexual identity. Incontemporary work, much of the debate on psychoanalysisdisruptive consciousness, particularly among feminists,has centered on the contribution of Lacanian thinkingand in particular on the question of whether Lacanoffers a more rigorous alternative to object relational accounts of gender identity and sexualdifference. In this paper, the debate on psychoanalysiscontribution to the new sexual agenda isintroduced and furthered by exploration of the notion ofidentification as used first in some non-Lacanian work byJessica Benjamin, and then in a classic seminar of Lacans. It is suggested that both Benjamin and Lacan offerinsights into the provisional nature ofadoption of specific sexual identities and that acontinuing critical contribution from psychoanalysis canbe found in this work.     

Media,Politics and Climate Change: Towards a New Research Agenda

Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time, and the media have been demonstrated to play a key role in shaping public perceptions and policy agendas. Journalists are faced with multiple challenges in covering this complex field. This article provides an overview of existing research on the media framing of climate change, highlighting major research themes and assessing future potential research developments. It argues that analysis of the reporting of climate science must be placed in the wider context of the growing concentration and globalization of news media ownership, and an increasingly ‘promotional culture’, highlighted by the rapid rise of the public relations industry in recent years and claims‐makers who employ increasingly sophisticated media strategies. Future research will need to examine in‐depth the targeting of media by a range of actors, as well as unravel complex information flows across countries as media increasingly converge.     

A National Agenda for Elder Abuse and Neglect Research:

Ten researchers from a wide variety of disciplines met to formulate an elder abuse national research agenda. Their specific purpose was to identify, organize, and prioritize the most important research questions in the field of elder abuse and neglect that remain to be answered reliably. Despite extensive preparation and experience, the researchers disagreed over such basic issues as how abuse should be defined and the types of maltreatment to consider. Inconsistencies in resolving these issues are a root cause of many flaws in current research studies. Resolutions are presented that might serve as a guide to others in improving research designs. Recommendations for improving research methodology are also included.     

Argentine Psychological Research: A Review

This article presents a summary report concerning Latin American investigators performing psychological research, with special reference to work conducted in Argentina. Articles published since 1990 in Interdisciplinary Journal of Psychology and Related Sciences and in the Bulletin of the Argentine Association of Behavioral Sciences serve as the basis for the review together with some ongoing investigations. It should be noted that a number of Argentinean studies are not included in this report due to the fact that they are unknown to the authors.     

A Future Agenda for Congregate Housing Research

No abstract available for this article.     

A Manifesto for the Age-Friendly Movement: Developing a New Urban Agenda

Developing age-friendly cities and communities has become a key part of policies aimed at improving the quality of life of older people in urban areas. The World Health Organization has been especially important in driving the “age-friendly” agenda, notably through its global network of age-friendly cities and communities. Despite the expansion and achievements of the network, challenges remain in responding to the growth of inequality and the impact of economic austerity on aging policies. Against the background of these limitations, this article sets out a “manifesto for the age-friendly movement” aimed at raising the aspirations of what is now a worldwide movement. The areas covered in the manifesto are challenging social inequality, widening participation, coproducing and codesigning age-friendly communities, encouraging multisectorial and multidisciplinary collaboration, and integrating research with policy. The article concludes with a discussion on developing age-friendly work as a contribution to a new agenda for urban aging.     

Assessing the Role of Tourism in Poverty Alleviation: A Research Agenda

Understanding the tourism‐poverty link is critical if tourism is to be used as a mechanism for reducing poverty. Yet, the available empirical analysis is insufficient for this. This article proposes a research agenda for closing this gap in the literature. It argues that, while analysing the link poses peculiar challenges, models exist to do so. Second, it contends that the key question is not whether the link exists but under what conditions it is strongest. Finally, it maintains that the best way to analyse the link is to incorporate accurate diagnosis and evaluations into tourism projects, using the approaches and concepts of the literature on impact evaluation.     

The Community Asset Transfer of Leisure Facilities in the UK: A Review and Research Agenda

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - This paper reviews recent work on community asset transfers (CAT): a transfer of management of facilities from the public...     

Childhood Career Development in Mainland China: A Research and Practice Agenda

Career development in adolescence and adulthood has been widely researched; however, less is known about childhood career development, particularly in non‐Western cultures. This is especially the case in mainland China, where children grow up in a unique context. The Confucian tradition of emphasizing education as an important social ladder and parents' role in their children's development may restrict children's development of career‐planning skills. By contrast, the shift from a planned economy to a market economy enables individuals to choose careers and demands that individuals have career‐planning skills. The elementary school years could be a starting point to develop such skills by providing career guidance for children. This article considers childhood career development in mainland China, discusses the status quo of childhood career development research and practice, and considers an agenda for future research and practice.     

Integrated Organizational Identity: A Definition of Hybrid Organizations and a Research Agenda

In contemporary societies an increasing number of social needs have to be financed by market activities. In this regard, scholars started to discuss whether ‘Social Innovation’, ‘Social Entrepreneurship’, ‘CSR’, ‘Social Enterprise’, ‘Enterprising Nonprofits’, and ‘Social Business’ are able to provide solutions for financially sustainable social services. Just how these so-called Hybrid Organizations balance the tension between social and economic issues still requires conceptualization. This paper introduces the following definition based on the literature on organizational identity, civil society, and marketized nonprofits: Hybrids are characterized by an organizational identity that systematically integrates civil society and markets, exchange communal solidarity for financial and non-financial resources, calculate the market value of communal solidarity, and trade this solidarity for financial and nonfinancial resources. In other words they “Create Functional Solidarity”. Criteria to empirically observe Hybrid Organizations are also introduced and compared to similar concepts. The paper concludes with an outline of a research agenda.     

Religious Media Literacy: Toward a Research Agenda

Silk (1995) proposed in Unsecular Media that journalists operate with a limited series of topoi and that these are borrowed from religion. Silk thus claimed when journalists write about religion, they do so in a way that ultimately supports religious values. In this study, I apply topic analysis to recent news coverage of Jesse Jackson's marital infidelity to determine the extent to which the topos of hypocrisy was employed and whether this employment supported or challenged a religious (as opposed to secular) worldview.     

Co-production: The State of the Art in Research and the Future Agenda

In this introductory article to the thematic issue, our aim is to discuss the state of the art in research on co-production of public services. We define co-production, for the purpose of this article rather narrowly, as the involvement of individual citizens and groups in public service delivery. We discuss the concept along three main research lines that emerge from the literature: what are the motives for co-production? How can co-production be organized effectively? What are the effects of co-production? Secondly, we also critically assess the state of the art and discuss some conceptual and methodological issues that are still open to debate. Thirdly, we propose some directions for future research: greater methodological diversity and the need for empirical and comparative research with a specific attention for theoretical advancement in co-production research.     

COVID-19-Related Studies of Nonprofit Management: A Critical Review and Research Agenda

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - During crises such as the present coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic, nonprofits play a key role in ensuring...