Structural Isomorphism in Australian Nonprofit Organizations

This paper assesses the extent of structural similarity or isomorphism among nonprofit organizations in Australia. Based on neo-institutional theory, the paper explains such isomorphism in terms of these organizations subordination and dependency, the uncertainties they face, and the networks of experts of which they are a part. The analysis uses the nonprofit component of a 2001–2002 random sample of Australian employment organizations. It finds surprisingly little isomorphism in this subsample and few differences in isomorphism according to the level of the factors thought to produce similarity. The discussion of the findings focuses on the suitability of the nonprofit sector as the appropriate organizational field within which isomorphism involving these organizations is likely to be produced. Industries, which include all organizations that produce the same product or service, be they nonprofit, for-profit, or government, may be more appropriate interactional fields for the development of isomorphism.     

Web-Based Accountability Practices in Non-profit Organizations: The Case of National Museums

Stakeholder theory posits that accountability systems depend on the strength and the number of their stakeholders. This paper aims to analyze the empirical validity of stakeholder theory, focusing on accountability systems in the museum sector. Based on Wikipedia resources, we have selected all of the “National Museums” (134 museums) in the major developed countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the US. After we control for type of activity (art or other), cost per visitor and country, the results of an OLS multivariate model show that size of the museum, which is assumed to represent the strength and number of stakeholders, and the amount of funds received, which represents the power of a particularly salient category of stakeholders (donors), are the two main determinants of the accountability level. We conclude that accountability, in the absence of shareholders, is driven by the number and the power of different stakeholders, validating the stakeholder theory.     

How Funding of Non-profit Social Organizations Affects the Number of Volunteers

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - In recent decades, significant changes have occurred to how charities and non-profit organizations are funded. However,...     

Impact of the EU Structural Funds on Financial Capacities of Non-profit Organizations

To fulfil their role, non-profit organizations (NPOs) need sufficient capacities. These include, first and foremost, financial capacity. EU Cohesion Policy commands financial resources of 351.8 bn. EUR. The EU is also willing to support NPOs from this source. With such considerable funding, the research questions arise: How much money have NPOs received? What are the effects of such assistance on the financial capacities of NPOs? On a sample of 2715 non-profit organizations in the Czech Republic, we have found that EU subsidies have a positive impact on financial capacities, measured as real assets. It is caused by using EU funds for investment. We have not proved an effect on short-term financial capacities measured on revenues. Moreover, the distribution of financial support among PBOs is unequal as 4% of NPOs collected 80% of subsidies due to differences in skills among NPOs’ managers.     

Stability and Change in Nonprofit Organizations: The Volunteer Contribution

This paper reports on a study of the microprocesses of stability and change in a nonprofit welfare organization in Australia. We position volunteering and voluntarism as core constitutive phenomena in and of nonprofit organizations and the nonprofit sector more generally, and examine volunteer agency in action. Developing a model drawn from neoinstitutional theory and adopting an ethnographic approach, the paper illustrates theoretically and empirically how volunteers create and revise institutional orders operative within organizations in ways hitherto poorly articulated and understood.     

Analyzing Politics and Change in Women's Organizations

Research on women's political action too often passes over women's organizations that do not officially adopt a feminist ideology and do not explicitly set out to change gender power relations. Based on implicit notions that such women's organizations are nonpolitical (or less interesting), the research often supports a false dichotomy between feminist and nonfeminist organizations rather than illuminates women's common political ground. This study addresses women's collective action, politics and change by focusing on the case of Nicaraguan Mothers of Heroes and Martyrs - women who lost a son or daughter in the revolution or Contra War. Although some members in Matagalpa critiqued male domination, the organization itself did not set out to challenge the gendered division of labor; indeed, their collective demands relied upon and in many ways reinforced traditional gender identities. I argue that such movements are important to feminist political analysis. As I demonstrate in this article, an organization's lack of an official feminist ideology does not mean that individual members do not express interests, identities and ideals that challenge the gendered status quo. Such research, however, requires a nuanced approach, recognizing women as both accommodating and resisting gendered social structures. Thus, this study challenges the dominant feminist-feminine dichotomy by demonstrating that women's collective action is not only per se political (and politically important) but may also challenge as well as reinforce gendered power structures.     

The Density of Nonprofit Organizations: Beyond Community Diversity and Resource Availability

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - This paper examines the determinants of the density of nonprofits registered in the USA by using alternative measures of...     

Guiding Change: Using Motivational Interviewing Within Organizations

Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO) - This contribution to the journal “Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. (GIO)” portraits...     

Privatization and Income Change in the Czech Republic: Tensions in the Lives of Rural and Urban Employed Men1

In the Czech Republic, the privatization of property and the emergence of a market economy after the fall of communism created a unique “experiment in nature.” Before 1989, there was virtually no private sector and salary differences between rural and urban workers were relatively small. By the end of 1993, a substantial portion of both the rural and urban labor force had moved into the private sector. Using data from a sample of 443 men who were employed in 1989 and at the beginning of 1994, we found that urban workers who moved to the private sector had obtained larger salary increases and felt less economic pressure than rural workers and those who stayed in the public sector. Economic pressure, in turn, mediated between salary change and subsequent reports of health problems and psychological distress. Respondents also reported that the private sector offered them greater job flexibility. Job flexibility may reduce depressive symptoms by improving the match of workers' skills with the demands of the job, but private sector jobs may also be a source of uncertainty. Tensions associated with increasing rural disadvantage and with moving to the private sector are discussed.     

A Psychosocial Measure of Social Added Value in Non-profit and Voluntary Organizations: Findings from a Study in the South of Italy

Inspired by the relational framework (Bassi, in: Franz, Hochgerner, Howaldt (eds) Challenge social innovation, Springer, Berlin, pp 325–350, 2012; Donati in Ital J Sociol Educ 5(1):19–35, 2013) and designed to integrate psychological and sociological aspects, a measure of social added value (SAV) was developed and validated. A study was conducted in the South of Italy on a sample of non-profit and voluntary organization members (N?=?394) to examine the statistical validity and psychometric properties of the SAV scale. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that a third-order factor model, saturated by two second-order variables (internal and external relational goods) and eight first-order variables (sense of organizational community, quality of internal relations, influence, social responsibility towards members of the organization, users and stakeholders, organizational identification, and quality of external relations) obtained good satisfactory fit indexes. Additional analyses revealed that shared member values were positively associated with SAV and that there were differences among organizations according to their legal forms and the organizational roles available. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Beyond the Liberal-Conservative Divide: Assessing the Relationship Between Religious Denominations and Their Associated LGBT Organizations

Emerging research suggests that existing culture, including religious culture, serves to constrain and enable the rhetoric and claims of social actors in situations of conflict and change. Given that religious institutions continue to have significant authority in framing moral debates in the United States, we hypothesize that groups connected to each other through a religious tradition will share similar orientations towards the moral order, shaping the kinds of rhetoric they use and the kinds of claims they can make. To test this, we compare the official rhetoric of the 25 largest religious denominations on gay and lesbian issues, as well as their orientation towards the moral order more broadly, with the rhetoric of each denomination’s respective movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender inclusion, affirmation, or rights. We use Kniss’ heuristic map of the moral order to analyze and theorize about the patterns that emerge from these comparisons. Ultimately, we find that the existing rhetoric of the parent denomination on gay and lesbian issues, along with the broader moral stances they take, do appear to shape the rhetoric and ideologies of associated pro-LGBT organizations. This provides support for the notion that existing culture, belief, and rhetoric shape the trajectories of conflict and change.     

Managing Change in Nonprofit Organizations: Insights from the UK Charity Retail Sector

Moves toward increased professionalism are now an almost taken-for-granted aspect of change across the nonprofit sector both in the United States and in the United Kingdom. This paper uses the case of UK charity retail to explore the impacts of this move to professionalism, on managers at the local level. In doing so it seeks to develop appropriate techniques for managing change both in charity retail and more broadly, in nonprofit organizations per se. The professionalization of charities' trading activities has resulted in a series of changes at the local level; these include the introduction of new forms of staff, changes to policies regarding the sourcing, pricing, and presentation of stock, and an increased emphasis on sales targets, league tables, and incentive schemes designed to motivate managers to increase sales. These policies set at head office level have had significant impact on the day-to-day working experiences of branch managers. This paper explores managers' reactions to these changes and examines the extent to which such policies could be said to be successful. To conclude, recommendations are made as to the most appropriate approaches to professionalizing charity retail operations. These conclusions are broadened to offer insights into appropriate techniques for managing change in nonprofit organizations.     

Beyond Denialism: Think Tank Approaches to Climate Change

Sociologists have done important research documenting the key role that think tanks play in the climate change denialism movement in the United States, which has sought to mislead the American public about the realities of global warming. Sociologists have not, however, assessed the full range of ways that think tanks are responding to – or planning for – global environmental change. This article proposes a typology of elite responses to global warming, which goes beyond denialism to include (i) limited climate mitigation, (ii) climate adaptation/privileged accommodation, and (iii) climate opportunism. Ultimately, this article provides insights on ways to build upon previous research in both environmental and political sociology to study the interface between elite‐driven policy, climate change, and capitalism.     

A Popperian View of Change in Innovative Organizations

The cognitive model used by theorists andpractitioners to understand organization change is mostlikely based on Kuhn's paradigm scheme of normal (i.e.,the routine verification of the dominant theory in any historical period) vs. revolutionary(i.e., the abrupt development of a rival paradigm thatcan only be accepted gradually by the scientificcommunity) science. This perspective suggests thatscientific revolutions are rare. However, this articlecontends that changes are occurring so rapidly ininnovative organizations that Kuhnian notions ofscientific revolutions do not adequately describe thisphenomena. Rather, these changes are more congruent withSir Karl Popper's concept of revolution in permanence.The conclusions of this research should alloworganization stakeholders to better understand (1) the process of change in innovative organizations,and (2) how to facilitate these changes.     

Resource Dependence In Non-profit Organizations: Is It Harder To Fundraise If You Diversify Your Revenue Structure?

This article explores how fundraising efficiency is affected by changes in diversification of revenues in non-profit organizations. It uses random effect regression and Arellano–Bond models to study this phenomenon in a sample of 10358 US non-profits during the 1997–2007 period. We find a negative impact on fundraising efficiency when NPOs alter their locus of dependence and change their pattern of diversification. This effect is impacted by organizational size and industry. Previous studies have suggested that income heterogeneity is associated with organizational stability and financial strength. Using a change (versus level) model of funding diversity, our work shows that increased diversification leads to a higher operational inefficiency that could be penalized by potential donors.