An Inductively-Derived Process Model of Nonprofit Leadership Behaviors and Mechanisms

Abstract

Because nonprofit organizations solve many social problems yet are discouraged by funders from engaging in critical fundraising and marketing activities, we sought to generate a model of successful nonprofit organizational leadership. Drawing from 32 in-depth interviews with high-ranking nonprofit leaders, we developed a model of nonprofit leadership. Our inductive process revealed three key nonprofit leader behaviors linked together by three collective emergent states. Specifically, and contrary to existing for-profit leadership models, interviewee accounts revealed that successful nonprofit leaders actually began their leadership process by engaging in inclusive conduct, which was reported as increasing member psychological freedom which, in turn enabled leaders to interrogate organizational reality. When leaders interrogated reality, they challenged the status quo which led members to have a favorable outlook toward risk, which, in turn, enabled the leader to focus the mission outward, boost collective efficacy and ultimately organizational performance. Our model primarily contributes to nonprofit leadership research by uncovering the specific behaviors and emergent states involved in the nonprofit leadership process, however, our model also contributes to research on leadership more generally.