Managing for Social Outcomes: Diverse Value Rationalities and Financial Control

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This article evaluates the use of monetary accounting and other financial management tools in the governance of nonprofit organizations. Drawing on Weber’s insights on monetary accounting, the article elaborates structural differences in the financial management of nonprofit and business organizations. The article demonstrates that the accounting and budgeting technologies used by business cannot offer substantively rational guidance to managers of nonprofit organizations. It is argued that managing for social outcomes requires nonprofits to experiment with organizational structures and processes that promote coherence between the diverse value rationalities which underpin their service aims and the allocation of the unit’s financial resources.