Non-profit Sector Organizations Research Articles

Organizational Commitment across Three Sectors: Public, Non-profit, and For-profit

This study examines organizational commitment of workers in three sectors: public, non-profit and for-profit. Previous work in this area has been limited to the study of organizational commitment in one sector, or a comparison between only two sectors. In order to examine organizational commitment across the three sectors, 228 employees in public sector, non-profit sector, and for-profit sector organizations were surveyed. The results indicate that for-profit workers were the most committed to their organizations, followed by non-profit employees. Workers with the lowest levels of organizational commitment were those in the public sector. Explanations for and the significance of these findings are discussed.

Financing the social economy: a case study of Triodos Bank

AbstractNonprofit and voluntary sector organisations are taking an increasingly sophisticated approach to their financial management, including their banking requirements. While there have been signs that the mainstream commercial banks have been responding to those needs, recent years have also witnessed a number of initiatives taken by organisations with roots closer to the nonprofit and voluntary sector. One such organisation is Triodos Bank.This paper seeks to explain what Triodos Bank does, paying particular attention to those unusual features of its operations which are likely to be of interest to managers of nonprofit and voluntary sector organisations. It is suggested thatwhatTriodosdoesisbothinterestinginitself and indicative of ways in which social economy financing might develop in the future. Copyright © 2001 Henry Stewart Publications

Reactance:

Frequently, public sector marketers seek to persuade individuals to engage or not engage in certain forms of behavior. However, research examining reactance suggests that certain choice-restricting messages that are conveyed in public sector promotional campaigns may actually result in promoting more of an undesired behavior or less of a desired behavior. Thus, an understanding of factors associated with reactance arousal may be critical to the overall success of promotional efforts undertaken by public sector marketers. In this paper, these factors are reviewed, and implications of reactance theory for designing promotional campaigns of non-profit and public sector organizations are discussed.

The third wave: Current trends in regional governance

AbstractThe past emphasis on structural regionalism, rendered infeasible by political considerations, has given way to a third wave, characterized by cross‐sectoral alliances. Sustained by rich networks of affiliations among public, private and nonprofit sector organizations, this new approach to regionalism is being acknowledged and nurtured by several state and federal initatives.

In search of the non-profit sector. I: The question of definitions

In this paper we argue that the lack of attention to the third sector historically is primarily a result of the weakness and limitations of the concepts that are used to define and describe it. The purpose of this article is to remedy this situation by developing a general definition of the sector that can be used in comparative research. To do so, the article first identifies four alternative types of definitions that are potentially available and evaluates each in terms of three basic criteria. On this basis it concludes that the most useful definition is the ‘structural/operational’ one, which includes in the non-profit sector organisations that share five basic characteristics. These are: formal, private, non-profit-distributing, self-governing and voluntary. The basic definition is then tested against the realities of three disparate countries and found to perform quite well. On this basis we recommend the structural/operational definition, particularly for comparative, crossnational research.

Measurement of human service staff satisfaction: development of the Job Satisfaction Survey.

The development of the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS), a nine-subscale measure of employee job satisfaction applicable specifically to human service, public, and nonprofit sector organizations, is described. The item selection, item analysis, and determination of the final 36-item scale are also described, and data on reliability and validity and the instrument's norms are summarized. Included are a multitrait-multimethod analysis of the JSS and the Job Descriptive Index (JDI), factor analysis of the JSS, and scale intercorrelations. Correlation of JSS scores with criteria of employee perceptions and behaviors for multiple samples were consistent with findings involving other satisfaction scales and with findings from the private sector. The strongest correlations were with perceptions of the job and supervisor, intention of quitting, and organizational commitment. More modest correlations were found with salary, age, level, absenteeism, and turnover.

An empirical investigation of the appropriateness of the product life cycle to municipal library services

A set of longitudinal data for each of 25 major U.S. cities was extracted from the U.S. Bureau of the Census publicationCity Government Finances. This was used to compute municipal libraries' market share of total city expenditures. The data were graphed and exhibited the characteristics of a product life cycle curve. The findings of the study suggest that the product life cycle concept can be usefully applied to non-profit public sector organizations. Specifically the findings indicate that library administrators should give serious attention to market stretching or recognize that decline in their market share in the next few years appears likely. It is also suggested that recognition of the product life cycle concept has implications for managerial strategy and skills in the library service, particularly in the field of personnel selection.