Third Sector In Transition – A Question of Sustainability for Community Service Organizations and the Sector?

Third sector organizations are transitioning towards entrepreneurial and managerial models as a result of quasi‐market strategies. This paper reports on the research findings of a survey of nonprofit disability organizations in Queensland and Victoria impacted upon by quasi‐market reform. Enterprising organizations were found to have made substantial change to organizational structures and systems, whilst more traditional organizations made few changes. All organizations demonstrated commitment to a social justice ethos. However across the organizational archetypes there were reports of an organizational ‘fragility’. It is argued that the problems of sustainability of community service organizations that existed prior to quasi‐market reforms remain. This implies community service organizations will experience ongoing difficulties in the post‐market era without further rationalization and change. A conceptual framework for sustainability of the community service sector is presented at the policy and organizational level.     

Elite Interlocks in Three U.S. Sectors: Nonprofit, Corporate, and Government

This study traces elite interlocks between the economic, political, and civil sectors of the United States in the late 1990s. We assess integration and fragmentation through analyzing patterns of overlap and interaction among influential organizations and leaders in these sectors. Network analyses are conducted with UCINET 5 on the Elite Directors Database, a new data set composed of the directors/trustees for the largest organizations in the business and nonprofit sectors in addition to individuals holding positions on federal advisory committees. The complete data set contains individuals holding 3,976 seats from 100 businesses, 109 nonprofit organizations, and 98 government committees. The network structure reveals substantial linkages between organizations and elites within and across the three sectors. Major corporations and their directors are the best integrated in the intersectoral networks. In spite of the tremendous growth of the nonprofit sector, nonprofit organization linkages fail to offer compelling evidence of elite pluralism in the United States.     

Nonprofit Advocacy Organizations: Their Characteristics and Activities*

Objectives. In this article we examine political advocacy by nonprofit organizations. Relatively little is known about the types of organizations that participate in advocacy, their characteristics, the issues for which they advocate, and the resources they devote to it. This is especially the case for nonprofits that operate at the state or local level. Methods. Using data from a large survey of Indiana nonprofit organizations, we use logistic and multinomial regression to determine which organizational characteristics relate to participation in varying levels of advocacy. Results. We find that the size of the organization, its access to information and communication technology, its charitable status, and, in some cases, the field of activity in which it operates all help predict nonprofit advocacy. The age of the organization, its reliance on government funding (except when substantial), and its proximity to the state's major economic and political center do not generally help differentiate nonprofits that advocate from those that do not. Conclusions. Our findings suggest that most nonprofits are ambivalent about advocacy. Some do no advocacy at all; many participate in some form of it although it does not constitute their primary purpose or mission; and only a small minority devotes considerable resources to it. However, these patterns differ systematically by type of nonprofit.     

Strategic administration of nonprofit human service organizations: a model for executive success in turbulent times

Rapid and unprecedented changes in our modern society have created extremely turbulent environments for nonprofit human service organizations. These changes threaten to transform the very nature of our business in ways difficult to predict and prepare for. The author examines the collective views of 21 purposely sampled executive directors in the city of Baltimore, Maryland on the future of the nonprofit human services sector. In 1 hour face-to-face interviews, subjects were asked to respond to three questions. What major trends will impact the nonprofit sector in the near future? What potential impact do you see these trends having on the nonprofit sector? What strategies would you recommend that executive directors take today to ensure success of their organization in the future? Narrative responses to each question were aggregated, organized into dominant views, and summarized. Subjects identified a host of social, political, economic, and technological trends that will have major effects on the future of the nonprofit sector. Subjects recommend a variety of tactics for helping an agency respond successfully to these forces. These tactics emphasize three critical areas of strategic administration: planning, management, and leadership.     

我国非营利组织能力：资源状况检视

我国非营利组织能力和能力建设问题,较少得到重视,只有关于其较低能力的常识性看法。对资源状况的相关统计资料分析表明,与经济组织相比,我国非营利组织资源能力水平确实比较低,但存在着一定的类别差异,特别是层次差异极其明显。     

Linking Perceived External Prestige and Intentions to Leave the Organization: The Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction and Affective Commitment

ABSTRACT

The present study examines social workers' beliefs about the prestige that outsiders (e.g., patients, suppliers, competitors, and the public) attribute to their organization and the way these beliefs influence the social workers' commitment to the organization they work for, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions (i.e., intentions to leave the organization). We collected two primary data sets (N = 160 and N = 489, respectively) from social workers in nonprofit social service organizations in Israel in 2001 and 2002. In general, the results show that perceived (construed) external prestige results in higher employee commitment and satisfaction, which, in turn, leads to lower levels of intention to leave the organization. The implications of these findings for research on organizational image and employee commitment are discussed, with particular emphasis on social workers in nonprofit social service organizations.     

Developing a Faith-Based Caregiver Support Partnership

Caring Together, Living Better (CTLB), a partnership of nonprofit and faith-based organizations, developed a culturally appropriate regional network of supportive caregiver services in the south suburbs of Chicago, IL. This article describes the findings of a mixed-methods evaluation that included network analysis to track network growth and development, tracking of service delivery, assessment of caregiver-related outcomes using standardized pre-post measures, and analysis of change stories elicited from project partners. Results include documentation of network expansion and statistically significant improvements in caregiving self-efficacy and adequacy of help. Story themes highlight participants’ positive experiences with CTLB and improved caregiver quality of life.     

“单位制”影响下的城市社区服务发展——以广州市D社区为个案

我国的社区服务是伴随着政府职能的转变和单位体制的改革而产生和发展起来的。时至今日,计划经济体制下形成的“单位办社会”管理格局仍深深影响着城市社区服务的发展。本文以广州市D社区为个案,从文化、组织体系、社会资本等多个角度,深入分析了单位制给社区服务带来的影响,并指出,社区服务的持续健康发展应以多元化参与为基础,在现阶段尤其应当重视非营利性社区服务组织的培育。     

Management support organizations and university partnership in nonprofit education,training and consultation

Over the last decade there has been a tremendous growth in the nonprofit sector. Local community centers and foundations are developing Leadership Institutes to educate and assist the burgeoning nonprofit sectors needs for education and consultation. Universities and colleges are also responding to the call for nonprofit education. Since 1990 there has been a 300% growth in universities offering concentrations in nonprofit education. This paper documents how Florida Gulf Coast University, the nation’s newest university, partnered with the Center for Leadership of the local community foundation to conduct a needs assessment of demand for graduate education, training, and consultation in the area of nonprofit management. The partnership began with three focus groups of key administrative personnel from local nonprofit organizations. The survey documented a preponderance of interest in marketing, fund raising and strategic planning across all agencies, regardless of size. Smaller agencies, with budgets of less than $500,000 (52% of the sample) tended to be primarily interested in education, training, and consultation activities involving fund raising and marketing. Comparatively larger agencies tended to be interested in assistance with computer technology, legal and ethical issues, and cooperation among nonprofit organizations. The survey also indicated that that was a high interest among agency staff and board members for a nonprofit management track within an academic degree program or a graduate certificate program in nonprofit management.     

Exploring characteristics of innovative nonprofit organizations in South Korea

The purpose of this study was to explore how employees of Korean nonprofit organizations perceived characteristics of innovative organizations. The social-validation method (first, an open-ended question is given; and later, ideas collected from participants are used to make an instrument) was used to collect the data. Thirteen employees representing a variety of nonprofit organizations in South Korea participated in this study. At the first stage of the study, participants were asked to generate a list of characteristics of innovative organizations. A total of 125 characteristics of innovative nonprofit organizations were summarized into the 25 most often mentioned characteristics. At the second stage of the study, all participants were asked to rate each of the characteristics on how important they were for an innovative organization. Among the highest-ranked characteristics of innovative organizations were: having a clear organizational vision and mission statement, having transparent financial and accounting processes, having a leader who is open-minded and flexible, being responsive to clients’ needs, and having employees who share the vision and mission of the organization. The pattern of agreement among participants indicated a low degree of consensus. Implications were suggested based on the findings.     

Fundraising of Nonprofit Organizations: Specifics and New Possibilities

Fundraising can be viewed as a systematic activity aimed primarily at raising financial resources for the activities of either an organization or an individual. The inconsistency of this effort usually cannot be blamed on internal factors within an organization, but rather phenomena of a macroeconomic, legislative or societal nature. In an effort to gain an insight into the measure of utilizing fundraising principles in nonprofit organizations, extensive research was conducted for the ninth time among nonprofit organizations in the Czech Republic, the sample of which consisted of 313 fully completed questionnaires. Based on the research results focusing on fundraising, measures were proposed to expand the possibilities of ensuring effective multisource funding for a selected nonprofit organization. One of these options and at the same time the current trend in marketing not only for the nonprofit sector is crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is a new concept of funding projects that has seen a significantly growing trend in the fundraising is part of marketing activities, or at least it is very closely connected with them.     

Nonprofit Governance Quality: Concept and Measurement

ABSTRACT

A nonprofit “governance quality index” was developed to enable verification and falsification of contemporary theoretical insights on social service organizations. Indicators were generated based on an extensive qualitative exploration. For the quantitative validation, a data set was composed of 526 respondents from 52 organizations. Five subdimensions of governance quality are introduced and are recommended to be used as separate scales, rather than combined into a single score on governance quality. Furthermore, the recommendation is made to rely on multiple raters per organization to assess governance quality or related concepts, given the substantial within-organization variance found.     

Personal Services in the Post-industrial Economy: Adding Nonprofits to the Welfare Mix

This article develops linkages between two separate fields of research, namely work on post‐industrial welfare states, and work on nonprofit organizations. It pays particular attention to the emphasis on personal services and the “cost disease” hypothesis found in the former, which places strong constraints on improving pay and job quality in the nonprofit sector. At the same time, it argues that the post‐industrial welfare states literature, despite its emphasis on personal services, has largely ignored the significant and growing role of nonprofits in delivering these services, and thus the potential of these organizations to shape their relevant labour markets. This poses the question about the relative weight of productivity‐related wage restraints in personal services versus the capacity for agency by nonprofits. The final section of the paper engages in a critique of the “cost disease” hypothesis to suggest that space exists to improve pay and job quality in nonprofit personal services, despite productivity‐related constraints.     

Reclaiming community: an integrative approach to human services

Taking the community rather than the service system as its starting point, a community-centered approach to service integration seeks to interweave formal and informal systems of care. Working as part of a community--negotiating and building partnerships with families, social networks, and organizations to change problematic patterns and mobilize resources--requires not only collaboration among administrators, but teamwork among front line staff. Team members need to share work, knowledge, and resources, while building collaborative relationships with their counterparts in other organizations, service users, and other residents. Ensuring congruence between new, integrative methods of practice and the way they are introduced and managed may require substantial changes in management behavior. "Resistance" is best understood in this context as feedback to management about its need to change.     

Improving Service Delivery in Education Through Collaboration: An Exploratory Study of the Role of Cross‐Sectoral Alliances in the Development and Support of Charter Schools*

Objective. This article explores cross‐sectoral alliances as mechanisms for enhancing service delivery in public education. We assess the extent to which the three economic sectors—nonprofit, for‐profit, and public—are involved in partnerships with charter schools and identify the benefits that charter schools receive from partnering with other organizations. Methods. The study utilized a qualitative approach: data collection involved interviews with charter school experts in 37 states. Results. We found that organizations from each of the three economic sectors were involved in alliances with charter schools and that these alliances offered a range of financial (e.g., facilities, salaries), political (e.g., legitimacy, credibility), and organizational (e.g., curriculum, management) benefits. Conclusions. Our findings from this exploratory study suggest that cross‐sectoral alliances have the potential to enhance the capacity of charter schools to deliver high‐quality educational services. Three hypotheses generated from the findings are also offered to guide future research on charter school alliances.     

过渡治理情境下的中国社会服务困境:基于Z市社会工作服务的研究

社会工作近十年来在创新社会治理的推动下发展迅速。本文将重点关注于社会服务组织的服务供给过程及其导致的社会服务困境。通过对治理情境的拓展分析,引入过渡治理情境概念,分析我国社会服务供给。在此情境下,本文以Z市家庭综合服务中心为例,围绕自由裁量权这一概念讨论社会服务组织的服务供给策略及其所导致的服务困境。在过渡治理情境中,消极的自由裁量权与社会工作的半专业化发展结合在一起,社会服务组织选择了“活动化”和“指标化”的服务供给,令社会服务处于创新和碎片化之间,而导致社会服务陷入困境。社会服务困境根源的解决在于建立合作的治理情境、强化本土化社工专业力量以及充分发挥第三方的社会服务供给效力。     

Organization communication regarding ISO 26000 practices in South Korea: focusing on the enlarged scope

ISO 26000, issued on November 1, 2010, has enlarged the scope of social responsibility (SR) from corporations to all types of organizations. This article examines how organizations that traditionally have not been concerned with this term, such as public or governmental institutions and nonprofit organizations, interpret this new standard and the notion of SR, especially in the South Korean context. For this research, we observed the SR-related reports and media activity of seven Korean organizations: Korean Standards Association (KSA), the Ministry of Knowledge Economy (MKE), Gangdong-gu Office (GDG), Christian Ethics Movement of Korea (CEMK), LG Electronics Union (LGEU), Collective Action (CA), and Working Together Corporation (WTCO). We also carried out interviews with experts in these organizations, who largely work on the subject. Using the organizing theory frame (enactment–selection–retention) of Karl E. Weick, we analyzed three elements of the organizational communication of these institutions: strategy, ISO 26000 messaging, and receivers of the information. ISO 26000 was first actively used in public organizations (e.g., KSA, MKE, and GDG) as a policy tool to expand the concept to all aspects of Korean society, and was later used in certain nonprofit organizations (e.g., LGEU and CEMK) as a new paradigm, creating new concepts such as union SR and churches’ SR that partially accept the international standard in different contexts. Some civil societies, such as CA and WTCO, observe the phenomenon in a passive way to see if it could promote the social values of their organizations. Lastly, in spite of the scope enlargement, we note that SR is still in the range of corporate SR, and the application process in South Korea shows that the social aspect is more easily ignored than the economic and environmental aspects.     

Generalism v Specialism in Human Services Management

The paper focusses upon strategies of adaptation to changing environments adopted by human service organizations. It analyses the influence of the task environment and of the organization's ideology upon the choice of strategies in general, and upon the issue of generalism versus specialism in particular, with respect to two particular human service organizations in Israel — Youth Aliyah and Community Service Organizations. The principal conclusion reached is that specialism is more suitable than generalism for attaining a fit between the organization and its task environment under conditions of rapidly changing, fine-grained environments.     

The meaning of nonprofit advocacy: An ordonomic perspective

Orthodox economic theories of the nonprofit sector are focused on its service delivery role but have little to say about nonprofit advocacy. This study explains nonprofit advocacy by building upon the ordonomic approach, a recently developed strand of institutional economics that explores the interdependencies between institutions and ideas. From the ordonomic perspective, the evolution of a modern society occurs through an ongoing realignment between institutions and ideas. The meaning of nonprofit advocacy is shown to be in contributing to this realignment. This leads to a new understanding of the service delivery role of the nonprofit sector. This role is shown to have a compensatory character in that it is intended to maintain a reasonable quality of human life before the time-consuming ideational and institutional adjustments actually take place.     

Meeting the change challenge: managing growth in the nonprofit and public human services sectors

The current economic climate has been particularly hard on non-profit and public human services organizations, frequently resulting in managing organizational decline. The authors believe that the dominant concern should be with fostering organizational growth. To this end, they suggest that nonprofit board members and executives, as well as public sector leaders, need to concern themselves with the concurrent management of two agendas: Running the Shop and Meeting the Change Challenge. This can be done effectively through the use of strategic issue management, which is a set of techniques that represents a blend of traditional strategic management and change management approaches.