The propensity of governing boards to plan

This article examines the relationship between board characteristics and formal organizational planning in forty-four nonprofit organizations. The study found that ongoing and beginning planners were more likely than those with no planning experience—or those that had abandoned planning after an initial experience with the process—to have well-understood missions, boards that concentrated on higher-level policy issues, and boards that had clear structures for decision making. The data suggest that a coalition consisting of top management and board members needs to exist if a move toward the formalization of organizational structures and processes is to be sustained.     

Use of Scanning Research in Decision Making: An Examination of the Environmental Imperative and Power-Control Perspective

Environmental uncertainty provides the context for public relations practices. Arguably, environmental uncertainty leads to greater organizational responsiveness to those environments through strategic planning. This survey of 505 American Public Relations Society of America members indicated, however, that perceived environmental conditions were less important to management decision-making than how those conditions were translated or packaged as decision-making inputs through formal environmental scanning mechanisms. Environmental uncertainty had no impact on decision making, once the mediating influence of formal scanning was controlled.     

A Model of Strategic Nonprofit Human Resource Management

This article presents a model of strategic nonprofit human resource management (SNHRM) that draws from resource-based view and resource dependence theory, to explain the determinants of strategic human resources management (SHRM) in nonprofit organizations. Three guiding principles, strategy types and propositions are presented to explain the complex interactions and processes in the SNHRM system. The article lays a foundation for future research and offers managers a framework for SHRM planning and implementation in nonprofit organizations.     

Innovative Use of Computers for Planning in Human Service Organizations

Summary

This paper deals with the question of why some human service organizations are more innovative in their use of computers than others, particularly in the area of strategic planning. Rather than focus upon the technology, per se, it explores the propensity for and context within which human service managers apply computers to matters of strategic importance. It begins with a summary of the two dominant theoretical traditions within which organizational behavior has been viewed. These contrasting perspectives are then applied to the extensive body of empirical findings related to organizational innovation. The result is a discernment of key variables or variable clusters, which provide the basis for alternative accounts of innovative behavior. The emergent use of computers for strategic planning serves as the focus of the study.     

A Strategic Planning Process for a Small Nonprofit Organization: A Hospice Example

Strategic planning is an essential part of management. However, planning processes can consume great amounts of time and resources that small, nonprofit organizations may lack. Moreover, the process that is used can be tedious and may result in plans that are discarded before or during their implementation. In this article, a strategic planning process is presented that incorporates a Policy Delphi group technique and Situation Structuring, a computer program that assists participants in structuring or defining the problems to be addressed in the plan. The organization to which the process is applied is a small, nonprofit hospice. Both the planning process and an evaluation of the implementation of the resultant strategic plan are examined.     

Strategically creative: A case of the library planning process

Abstract

Best planning day ever, green, fun, play, flexible … are terms not usually associated with strategic planning. At the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), plans to open a new library building in 2016 have ignited discussions about the library of the future, its meaning and role in a digital world, and the implications of further rapid changes. The Library's strategic planning process in 2010 was an opportunity to take the collective energy further by involving library staff in the strategic thinking and planning. The process aimed to provide conditions for open conversation through Gadamerian play, and creative modelling based on ideas of revealing and imagineering. The planning started with a playful engagement to generate ideas and promote divergent thinking, and moved through several stages of increasingly convergent thinking to arrive at strategic actions, which were created and supported by all participants. The formal goals of strategic planning were maintained throughout the process and resulted in a client-focused annual plan. This article considers issues of organizational creativity and strategic planning, and relates them to experiences with the strategic planning at the UTS Library. It argues for a systematic approach to fostering creativity and innovation in libraries.     

Entrepreneurial NPOs in Russia: Rationalizing the Mission

Nonprofit organizations in Russia are introducing for-profit activities as a means of gaining autonomy from external donors, and as instruments of strategic planning and sustainable development. This study focuses on organizations that work with welfare provision and explores how they reconcile entrepreneurial activities with their social mission. More specifically, we interrogate how two institutional logics, business and nonprofit, are defined and reconciled in organizational identities, structures and hierarchies. Socially oriented nonprofits define their mission through service to beneficiaries, through personal and professional dedication to beneficiaries’ well-being, and through making an impact on public policies and the society at large. They mimic a business approach in strategic planning and meticulous reporting, but subordinate profit-seeking to social mission by integrating entrepreneurial activities into already existing organizational structures, or by separating them into independent entities.     

The process is the plan: defining strategic community futures

This case study describes the application and assessment of a community-based strategic planning model to a faith-based organization. The United Jewish Communities of MetroWest New Jersey is responsible for programming, raising and allocating funds to serve a mission both global and local. A board-sanctioned process opened planning and allocations to a broader audience of community and service agencies, resulting in both dynamic synergy and conflict for the organization and its beneficiaries. This article looks at how a more strategic and inclusive planning process shaped decision-making and program evaluation. With input from professional staff and lay leadership, we consider lessons learned in the context of profound challenges facing non-profit, philanthropy-dependent organizations.     

From comparative advantage to damage control: Clarifying strategic issues using swot analysis

The principal ingredient of strategic planning is SWOT analysis—the assessment of organizational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. SWOT can be either a powerful management tool or a superficial and even misleading exercise. Much depends on the care with which decision makers integrate their analyses of internal and external factors affecting the future of the organization. This article presents a simple yet powerful framework for identifying and clarifying four types of strategic issues facing nonprofit organizations.     

Contending Stories: Narrative in Social Movements

Study of stories and storytelling in social movements can contribute to our understanding of recruitment that takes place outside formal movement organizations; social movement organizations' ability to withstand strategic setbacks; and movements' impacts on mainstream politics. This paper draws on several cases to illuminate the yields of such study and to provide alternatives to the overbroad, uncritical, and astructural understandings of narrative evident in some recent writings. It also urges attention to the role of literary devices in sociological analyses of collective action.     

What Affects Hispanic Volunteering in the United States: Comparing the Current Population Survey, Panel Study of Income Dynamics, and the AIM Giving and Volunteering Survey

This study examines Hispanic formal volunteering and the cultural, social, and community context factors that affect their decision to volunteer. Using data from three surveys in the United States, the study finds that religious attendance, cultural background, and education are the most consistent and significant predictors of Hispanic formal volunteering. Religious attendance has a stronger positive impact on Hispanic volunteering than on non-Hispanics. The impacts of income, social resources, and community characteristics on Hispanics’ volunteering vary by surveys. Secular organizations serving children and youth and religious organizations are the favorite organizations for Hispanic volunteers.     

Stakeholder Performance Measurement in Nonprofit Organizations

According to recent findings, nonprofit organizations should address the relationships of nonprofit service quality, satisfaction, loyalty, and organizational identification when planning and evaluating donor surveys. This article presents a donor satisfaction barometer that can be used to gain insights into the strength of these key relationships and thereby establish a basis for calculated relevant indices. With such indices, nonprofit organizations can compare stakeholder performance over time and benchmark themselves against other organizations. Data from 2,599 blood donors to one section of the German Red Cross, collected through the proposed donor satisfaction barometer, show that service quality drives satisfaction, and donor satisfaction and organizational identification both exert significant positive effects on donor loyalty. Therefore, nonprofit organizations should use a combined strategic approach that improves both donor satisfaction and organizational identification to increase donor loyalty. The successful application of the donor satisfaction barometer also suggests its value for other nonprofit industries and offers important insights for managers.     

Toward a Model of Environmental Scanning

Scanning is the communication activity through which organizations learn about trends and events in their environment. In this exploratory study, I examined how individuals from many different departments, including public relations and human resources, conduct environmental scanning in 16 large U.S. organizations. Specifically, I examined the formality of environmental scanning in 16 organizations and its relation to the number of issues monitored and the length of time those issues are monitored. I also considered the role of organizational culture and environmental complexity in shaping the structure of environmental scanning efforts. Findings indicate that organizations with formal environmental scanning systems tend to monitor a larger number of issues in their environments for shorter periods of time, when compared to organizations with informal environmental scanning systems. In addition, findings suggest that although both organizational culture and environmental complexity are related to the structure of environmental scanning efforts, culture is more strongly related to scanning efforts than is environmental complexity.     

Strategic Thinking about Employee Communication Behavior (ECB) in Public Relations: Testing the Models of Megaphoning and Scouting Effects in Korea

In public relations, employees are regarded as one of the most important strategic constituencies because they interact with external publics on a daily basis. However, employees' communication behavior (ECB) has not been extensively researched in public relations. The purpose of this research was to conceptualize and develop concrete measurements of ECB that can help theoretical development and strategic planning in public relations. In particular, the study identified two unique aspects of ECB—megaphoning and scouting—that refer to employees' voluntary efforts to collect and circulate strategic information externally and internally. In addition, a new concept, microboundary spanning, based on the two aspects of ECB is conceptualized. In this study, symmetrical internal communication and employee-organization relationships were posited as antecedent variables to the proposed ECB variables. A survey research was conducted with 300 employees in different types of organizations in Korea.     

International NGOs and National Regulation in an Age of Terrorism

This article examines the regulation of international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, and Japan to answer two questions. First, to what extent has the domestic institutional context facing INGOs changed following dramatic attacks by transnational terrorists on Western liberal democracies? Second, what effect has new counterterrorism legislation had on the organizational and strategic decisions of INGOs, and thus their locations and operations, since 2001? We argue that formal regulations on non-profits have changed less than expected, given widespread alarm about counterterrorism legislation in non-profit communities around the world. However, a new climate of uncertainty has hampered INGOs ability to adjust appropriately to their new institutional environment. Counterterrorism regulations have thus generated unintended consequences, including inefficiencies, redistribution of resources, and self-censorship that may outweigh the benefits for national security given the limited nature of much of the regulatory change.     

The World Wide Web as a public relations medium: the use of research, planning, and evaluation in web site development

The World Wide Web is viewed as a desirable medium for public relations by many organizations. Given the evolving nature of the Web and the mixed findings about commercial successes of Web sites, little is known about the managerial aspects of Web site research, planning, and evaluation. This study found that, in many cases, Web site planning is done by trial and error based on subjective knowledge and intuition, with little or no formal research and evaluation.Interviews with persons responsible for making Web site decisions for organizations revealed that competition and the desire to establish an Internet presence were the driving forces in deciding to develop a Web site. Very little research about present effectiveness is done, but there is a strong belief that Web site communication will be increasingly important in the future.Candace White is assistant professor of public relations in the School of Journalism at The University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Niranjan Raman works for The Burke Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio.     

To be,or not to be: Paradoxes in strategic public relations in Italy

There is a paucity of empirical studies of public relations in Italy. This study sought to assess whether public relations departments are managed strategically in Italy and whether public relations contributes to the strategic management of organizations. Using the four generic principles that deal with strategic management, this study gathered data from public relations professionals working in the three major types of organizations: corporations, government agencies, and non-profits. The study found that regardless of the type of organization, few public relations practitioners are represented in the senior management of their organizations. Senior managers of non-profits tended to value public relations more than the other two sectors. Symmetrical communication again proved to be normative. By using a conceptual framework and research instruments that have been employed in studies conducted in other parts of the world, this study has generated data that can be used to compare strategic public relations in different socio-cultural environments – thus contributing to building a global theory of public relations.     

Predicting the Financial Vulnerability of Charitable Organizations

This article describes a model that can be used to predict which nonprofit organizations are vulnerable to financial problems. The model is based on financial indicators developed by Tuckman and Chang (1991), adapts methodologies that have been developed in the for‐profit sector to predict financial vulnerability, and was empirically tested using a multiyear Internal Revenue Service database provided by the National Center for Charitable Statistics. Both internal and external stakeholders can use the model when making allocation decisions during the strategic planning process and in evaluating financial risk.