Donative labor effect of the nonprofit pay: A multilevel explanation

Studies on the nonprofit pay differential find that nonprofit workers in the child day care industry earn more than comparable for‐profit workers, whereas nonprofit lawyers earn less than lawyers in for‐profit firms. Are nonprofit day care center workers less altruistic than for‐profit day care workers or nonprofit lawyers? The answer is yet to come. The study aims to test the donative labor hypothesis, which is derived from altruistic motivation. To estimate the donative labor effects on the individual level, I apply cross‐classified multilevel modeling to disentangle the confounding effects on the industry level and occupation level. Data are pooled from Census 2000 and American Community Survey 2005–2016 to provide individual, industry, and occupation information. Industries are cleaned based on the Statistics of Income data from the National Center for Charitable Statistics. My analysis finds that nonprofit workers earn 4.3% less than comparable for‐profit workers net of industry and occupation effects. The study contributes to elucidating the explanatory levels of different theories. The random‐effects modeling has established an exhaustive inventory of nonprofit pay differential across industry and occupation levels.     

Should St. Merciful Hospital Become CorpHealth,Inc.?: Ownership and Quality in U.S. Health Care Organizations

In this article, a review of empirical research on ownership and quality of care suggests the existence of a quality gap between for‐profit and nonprofit firms in some health sectors, depending on the prevailing type of financial payment for health care. Results of a theoretical model incorporating quality of care suggest that the nondistribution constraint is a simple and powerful explanation for a higher level of patient care quality at nonprofit health care facilities when reimbursement for health services is fixed prospectively. Analysis suggests that review of future conversions of health care facilities from nonprofit to for‐profit status should take into consideration the implied effects of the conversion on patient outcomes.     

Performance evaluations of for‐profit and nonprofit U.S. hospitals since 1980

This synthesis of studies examines whether the published literature shows an evidence‐based consensus on performance differences between private for‐profit and nonprofit hospitals in the United States since 1980. The author systematically and comprehensively surveyed peer‐reviewed publications to clarify this question. The author's second objective was to learn what proportion of all research assessing for‐profit and nonprofit health care providers is devoted to hospitals compared to all other providers. The third goal was to discover how any trends in observed performance differences among hospitals compare with trends among other provider types. Computerized bibliographic searches of all relevant databases yielded seventy‐five studies (ninety‐three assessments) that compared the performance of for‐profit and nonprofit hospitals on four performance criteria: access, quality, cost or efficiency, and amount of charity care. The author coded findings on performance in one of three ways: for‐profit superiority, nonprofit superiority, or inconclusive. Most studies (60 percent) reported that nonprofit hospitals have better relative performance than for‐profit hospitals, clear evidence of their organizational effectiveness. Thirty‐one percent were inconclusive, and 8 percent reported that for‐profits were better.     

What Nonprofit Executives Want and What They Get from Board Members

In theory, nonprofit boards of directors exist to perform mission‐setting and oversight functions that help to ensure organizational accountability. Yet there is evidence that board behavior often falls short of this ideal. Using survey data from a sample of 241 executive directors of nonprofit agencies, we investigated whether nonprofit boards are meeting executive directors’ expectations, and if not, what factors explain this? We find that although board behavior tends to align closely with executive directors’ preferences for involvement in administration and management tasks, there is a greater disconnect between board behavior and executive directors’ preferences for involvement in mission‐setting and oversight duties. Factors that mitigate this gap include organizational professionalization and stability, whereas more extensive reliance on government funding exacerbates it. Female executive directors experience a greater disconnect in their preferences for board involvement and actual board involvement than male executive directors. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for both theory and practice.     

Hospice of the Red River Valley: A nonprofit's response to for‐profit competition

Research of nonprofit versus for‐profit competition points to potential quality and access advantages of the nonprofit, tied to shared community values leading to enhanced social capital and legitimacy, whereas the for‐profit is known for cost and scale advantages. However, the prevailing mode of thinking in mixed‐form competitive contexts urges nonprofits to become “more businesslike” and imitate for‐profit attributes. This qualitative study of a nonprofit organization facing new for‐profit competition illustrates that while it is possible and advisable to learn from for‐profit competitors, it is not necessary or even desirable for the nonprofit to abandon its own unique advantages. Although nonprofits should be increasingly sensitive to cost and scale advantages, they do not have to imitate for‐profit attributes and play the low‐cost game. A competitive response to for‐profit challenges that is carefully crafted and executed based on the unique advantages of the nonprofit organization can truly win the day.     

Managing the donation service experience

This article examines the implications for nonprofits of managing donation exchanges using customer relationship management and service blueprinting. It presents a case study of one U.K.‐based nonprofit and identifies a range of issues that might make managing donation service exchanges more complex than occurs in the for‐profit setting. In particular, the fact that there are multiple simultaneous exchanges means that it may be difficult to separate donation processes from other organizational activities such as membership and campaigning. We explore the utility of service blueprinting in aiding the management of this complexity.     

Wage Inequality and Performance in Nonprofit and For‐Profit Organizations

This article examines the effects of several forms of wage inequality on service quality and employee effort. We suggest that two popular theories, tournament and fair wage/equity, are not necessarily competing. Each theory accurately describes aspects of employee behavior, but because of sectoral differences in organizational objectives and employee attitudes, tournament theory's predictions are relatively stronger in the for‐profit sector, while fair wage/equity theory's predictions are relatively stronger in the nonprofit sector. Using an employer–employee matched data set of nursing homes linked to a federal regulatory database and a resident survey, we found that ownership moderates the relationship between wage inequality and service quality. Although wage inequality positively affects service quality in the for‐profit sector, the reverse is true among nonprofit organizations. We also found that overall wage inequality in the workplace has a more pronounced influence on employee discretionary effort than does the employee's place in the distribution of wages.     

Nonprofit association CEOs how their context shapes what,how, and why they learn

This qualitative study explored the learning experiences of twelve national nonprofit membership association CEOs using a phenomenological research design. While the professional context of an organization's chief executive is considered unique from other executive positions, the impact of this context on what and how CEOs learned was unclear. The findings describe association CEO learning as being affected in significant ways by the politically charged context in which the nonprofit association CEO operates with his or her board of directors. Power imbalances with staff and the board make learning through traditional organizational dialogue a less useful learning process for the CEOs. Furthermore, the feelings of isolation and vulnerability that are generated from the nonprofit association CEO context often cause CEOs to use private reflection and dialogue with their spouse as primary learning mechanisms. The study concludes that the association CEO context uniquely and profoundly shapes what, how, and why CEOs learn. Perhaps lacking the financial security of lucrative severance payments, which are often specified in employment contracts of for‐profit CEOs, the nonprofit association CEO will often temper his or her actions to avoid personal vulnerability with a politically charged board of directors.     

Human capital inflow in nonprofits: Entry‐level employees’ sector shift

Although recruitment and retention of qualified employees are some of the biggest challenges in the nonprofit sector, nonprofit organizations must maintain human capital inflow due to its significant impacts on organizational success. Through person‐organization value fit, this paper explores the factors that influence labor shifts from the public or for‐profit sector into the nonprofit sector in the South Korean context. Specifically, the effects on the likelihood of employees switching to the nonprofit sector from the perspective of eight job satisfaction measures and three education–job match measures are investigated. Two groups of employees (those whose career started in the for‐profit sector and those starting in the public sector) are compared. Results indicate that there is substantial variation between the two groups. In particular, intrinsic job satisfaction has completely different effects on those working in the for‐profit sector than on those working in the public sector regarding their likelihood of having experienced an intersectoral shift into nonprofits. The more public employees are satisfied with intrinsic job rewards, especially job reputation, the more likely they are to move to nonprofits. These results suggest that when employees in the public sector are satisfied with intrinsic rewards they tend to pursue greater intrinsic satisfaction in the nonprofit sector. This paper also reports that education–job match is only significant for those whose first job was in the for‐profit sector.     

Facility Ownership and Resident Satisfaction with Assisted Living

Abstract

Although the majority of assisted living facilities operate as for-profit organizations and serve increasingly frail elderly populations, little is known about the impact of ownership on the quality of care in assisted living. This study examines the relationship between facility ownership and the quality of care in assisted living, using resident satisfaction as a quality indicator. The assessed aspects of satisfaction include health care, housekeeping, physical environment, relationships with staff, and social life/activities. The relationship of facility ownership to resident satisfaction is examined controlling for resident psychological well-being, functional ability, facility size, and staff resources. Data were collected in personal interviews with 156 residents, including 96 residents in eight for-profit facilities and 60 residents in five nonprofit facilities in Maryland. Residents in the sampled nonprofit facilities were more satisfied with assisted living than were residents in the for-profit facilities. In particular, residents in nonprofit facilities were more satisfied with health care, physical environment, and social life/activities in the facility. Better understanding of the relationship between facility ownership and resident satisfaction can help administrators create environments that maximize resident satisfaction in both nonprofit and for-profit facilities.     

The Board as a Monitor of Organizational Activity: The Applicability of Agency Theory to Nonprofit Boards

Monitoring, as an important function for boards of directors in both the private and nonprofit sectors, receives widespread attention throughout the empirical (Chait, Holland, and Taylor, 1996; Eisenhardt, 1989; Golden‐Biddle and Rao, 1997; Kosnik, 1987) and normative literature (Axelrod, 1994; Block, 1998; Carver, 1997; Houle, 1997; Ingram, 1989). Despite the consensus about the significance of this crucial board responsibility, scholars know little about the ways in which a nonprofit board actually performs its monitoring function. In this article I report on an empirical study of the monitoring behavior of twelve nonprofit boards of directors. Agency theory provides the framework for this analysis. I show that the way in which individual board members define their relationship with the chief executive and understand the scope of the monitoring function influences how, or if, they monitor agency action. The findings also show that, given ambiguous rules of accountability and unclear measures of performance, nonprofit board members tend to monitor in ways that reflect their professional or personal competencies rather than paying attention to measures that would indicate progress toward mission‐related goals and initiatives.     

Managerial Control and Strategy in Nonprofit Organizations: Doing the Right Things for the Wrong Reasons?

This article presents the second stage of a study that engages with the debate that has occurred within the nonprofit literature about the propensity and relative merits of nonprofit organizations adopting for‐profit approaches to management. Specifically, this qualitative investigation examines the ways in which nonprofit organizations use management control when implementing their chosen strategies. Although this topic has been the subject of considerable attention in the management accounting research, it has rarely been explored within a nonprofit context. This is surprising not only because of the considerable social and economic impact of this sector, but also because of the apparent trend toward sectoral convergence in many structural and processual respects, including strategic behaviors and approaches to control. Based on interviews with CEOs and senior executives in thirty‐two Australian nonprofit organizations, we find that the relationship between strategy and control in nonprofit organizations is similar to that in for‐profit organizations, but quite different reasons underlie nonprofit organizations' exercising of management control.     

Uncharted Waters: Exploring the Relationship between Strategy Processes and Management Control Systems in the Nonprofit Sector

The way in which strategy and management control combine has been the subject of much research attention, but rarely, within a nonprofit context. This is surprising, not only because of the considerable social and economic impact of this sector, but also in view of the apparent trend toward sectoral convergence in many structural and processual respects, including strategic behaviors and approaches to control. In this article, we explore the extent to which the relationship between management control and strategy, as found in for‐profit organizations, may prevail within a nonprofit context. Based on questionnaire responses from 182 Australian nonprofit organizations, we find that this relationship in nonprofit organizations is similar to that in for‐profit organizations, thereby lending support to the “convergence” argument. We reflect on the reasons for these similarities and advance an agenda for further research in this area.     

Changing Relationships Between Nonprofit and For-profit Human Service Organizations Under the Long-Term Care System in Japan

In Japan, a nonprofit organization system enacted in the late 1990s and the later introduction of privatization policies in human services were expected to overturn government dominance of nonprofit organization activities. By focusing on the long-term care insurance (LTCI) system, which privatized public human services for the first time in the country, this study empirically examines whether, and to what extent, nonprofit–government relationships in Japan have actually changed as a result of this new system. In addition, because LTCI newly allows for-profit organizations to provide services, the influence of such organizations were incorporated into the analysis. The outcomes of this study demonstrate that the government continues to extend its sphere of influence over nonprofit and for-profit organizations through LTCI. In addition, for-profit organizations appear to be more successful than nonprofit organizations, in that the former organizations have overcome their lack of experience as public service providers by taking over the roles that nonprofit organizations have traditionally occupied.     

Past work experience and organizational assimilation in nonprofit organizations

This study compares seven dimensions of organizational assimilation (OA)—familiarity with coworkers, familiarity with supervisors, recognition, acculturation, involvement, job competency, and role negotiation—into nonprofit, for‐profit, and governmental organizations incorporating the role of similarity of past work experience (magnitude of transition [MoT]). An online survey of 294 employee newcomers (tenures of 3 months or less) revealed differences in OA between those entering nonprofits and those entering for‐profit, and governmental organizations. Compared to newcomers entering for‐profit and governmental organizations, nonprofit newcomers reported higher levels of job competency, involvement, acculturation, and role negotiation. Interactions between organization type and MoT from past work to current roles were examined for effects on OA. When MoT was low, nonprofit newcomers were higher on acculturation and involvement than for‐profit newcomers; governmental newcomers with high MoT were significantly higher on role negotiation than for‐profit newcomers. Theoretical and practical implications for nonprofit organizational management, trainers, and nonprofit newcomers are discussed.     

Training Policy Governance in Nonprofit Boards of Directors: The Views of Trainer‐Consultants

Although scholars widely discuss John Carver's (1990) Policy Governance model for nonprofit organizations, they have conducted little formal research on the implementation of the model. For this study, the researchers surveyed ninety‐two trainer‐consultants who graduated from Carver's Policy Governance Academy. The goal was to learn three things from their experiences: (1) whether trainer‐consultants maintain the model as a coherent whole or teach only parts of it; (2) what they perceive as the major challenges for nonprofit boards in implementing the Policy Governance model; and (3) what contextual factors, if any, they feel affect implementation of the model across nonprofit boards with different characteristics. Survey responses indicated that (1) consultants predominantly teach the model as a whole, (2) particular policy areas appear to be problematic for nonprofit boards of directors that implement the model, and (3) two contextual factors may negatively affect the ability of a board of directors to successfully implement Policy Governance boards larger than fifteen members, and organizations with no hierarchy, where the board also functions as staff. Overall, consultants' responses indicated that they feel Policy Governance is far superior to other models, but they recognize the problems and challenges that boards face in trying to implement it.     

Succession planning in nonprofit organizations

Executive leadership is a critical component in the success of nonprofit organizations. An upcoming period of leadership transition is anticipated as substantial numbers of baby boomers, now at the peak of their careers, reach retirement age. With nonprofit organizations growing in both size and number, an impending leadership deficit is a concern. To help prepare for these important transition events, this study focuses on planning for executive succession. A survey exploring details of succession planning was undertaken of executive directors of 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofits and CEOs of 501(c)(4) cooperative organizations—the more business‐oriented user‐owned and controlled nonprofit organizations prominent in agricultural, utility, and finance sectors. We found that planning and preparation do not match the level of interest and concern for executive succession. Although the replacement of long‐serving leaders is acknowledged as difficult, few proactive steps are undertaken.     

A Collaborator Profile for Executives of Nonprofit Organizations

This study involving ninety‐two nonprofit executive directors who engaged in separate interorganizational collaborations investigated the relationship between a select number of individual characteristics (personality and demographic) and perceived collaboration outcome (successful or unsuccessful). The collaborator profile that resulted suggests that directors who are predisposed to perceiving their respective collaborations as successful are extravert, feeling males who have high role ambiguity and low role boundary occupational stress. Given the increasing need for nonprofit organizations to collaborate with other organizations, it is important for nonprofit executives and their boards to be cognizant of some key factors that can lead to successful interorganizational collaborations.     

Nonprofit organizations in between the nonprofit and market spheres: Shifting goals,governance and management?

In spite of the belief instilled by the New Public Management reforms that nonprofit organizations (NPOs) can benefit from more management, more measurement and more market practices, systematic knowledge on the organizational effects of NPOs incorporating business practices in their day‐to‐day functioning remains absent to date. This research note addresses this limitation by reviewing 49 research articles. The focus lies on the redefinition of nonprofits' mission and income streams, changing governance arrangements and shifting management practices. We find that, despite numerous detrimental effects cited in the literature, (a) generating commercial income can contribute to the financial stability of NPOs, and (b) hybridization towards the market domain can strengthen the organizational legitimacy of NPOs, suggesting that imitating for‐profit enterprises might contribute to nonprofit functioning in perception, rather than in practice.     

Women in the Workplace:

This study examined the influence of employee sponsored child care service on employee stress level and job satisfaction. The findings revealed that women who used company sponsored child care services manifested significantly lower levels of stress and higher levels of job satisfaction than women who were not utilizing this service. In addition, a higher level of satisfaction with child care arrangements was associated with women involved in company sponsored child care service compared to women who had to make their own child care arrangements.