Robert D. Herman

Theses on Nonprofit Organizational Effectiveness

This article draws from the general literature on organizational effectiveness and the specialized literature on nonprofit organizational effectiveness to advance six theses about the effectiveness of public benefit charitable nonprofit organizations (NPOs). (a) Non-profit organizational effectiveness is always a matter of comparison. (b) Nonprofit organizational effectiveness is multidimensional and will never be reducible to a single measure. (c) Boards of directors make a difference in the effectiveness of NPOs, but how they do this is not clear. (d) More effective NPOs are more likely to use correct management practices. (e) Nonprofit organizational effectiveness is a social construction. (f) Program outcome indicators as measures of NPO effectiveness are limited and can be dangerous. The article concludes by considering three possible futures for NPO effectiveness research.

Multiple Constituencies and the Social Construction of Nonprofit Organization Effectiveness

Based on the social constructionism perspective and a multiple constituency model, this study investigates stakeholder judgments of nonprofit charitable organization effectiveness. ThestudyalsousesaDelphiprocesstoidentifycriteriathatsomepractitionerw-experts regard as objective indicators of effectiveness. Data on various stakeholder judgments of organizational effectiveness and on the objective indicators were collected for a sample of 64 organizations, allowing for examination of the extent to which stakeholder judgments are consistent and for examination of the extent to which judgments are related to objective indicators. Among the major results of the study are that practitioner-experts define objective effectiveness as employing correct procedures; stakeholders frequently vary substantially in their judgments of the effectiveness of the same organization; stakeholder judgments of effectiveness seldom are related to objective (correct procedures) effectiveness; and differenttypesofstakeholdersusesomeofthesame-mostnotably,boardeffectiveness-as well as different bases for making effectiveness judgments. Conclusions and implications are discussed.

Board Practices of Especially Effective and Less Effective Local Nonprofit Organizations

This study reviews evidence in support of the hypothesis that nonprofit organizations’effectiveness is related to the effectiveness of their boards of directors. It also asks whether various recommended board practices and processes affect board effectiveness. The study focuses on a subset of especially effective and less effective nonprofit organizations from a larger sample. The results show that the especially effective organizations (as judged by multiple stakeholders) have more effective boards (as judged by different multiple stakeholders) and that the more effective boards use significantly more of a set of recommended board practices. The results also show that nonprofit organizations using more of the prescribed board practices are also more likely to use other correct procedures. The results support the practical implication of urging the dissemination and adoption of the recommended practices.

Methodological Issues in Studying the Effectiveness of Nongovernmental and Nonprofit Organizations

Many theoretical and methodological difficulties have limited the develop ment of research on the effectiveness of nonprofit organizations. After reviewing contemporary approaches to the task of defining and distin guishing among voluntary, nonprofit organizations, this article suggests several workable indicators that can advance research into effectiveness, especially if they are used in combination. It also presents and illustrates the uses of Boolean algebra as an analytical technique that promises to enhance comparative case study research.

Critical Events in the Management of Nonprofit Organizations: Initial Evidence

Interviews with forty-five chief executives of nonprofit organizations in the Kansas City area provide evidence about the nature of man agement in nonprofit organizations suggesting, first, that adapting programs to shifts in funding patterns has been a major challenge and, second, that fundraising and board-executive relations-issues generally regarded as distinctly characteristic of nonprofit organiza tion management-are often experienced as critical.

Nonprofit Organization Effectiveness: At What, for Whom, According to Whom?:

In their stimulating article in this issue of NVSQ, my colleagues Williams and Kindle raise a number of criticisms of Boolean algebra as an analytical technique. Their criticisms concern both the use of the technique in analyses in my earlier paper (Herman, 1990) and more general doubts about the technique. Williams and Kindle also argue for an outcomesbased method of studying organizational effectiveness. In this response to their criticisms and suggestions, I comment first on their criticisms of the Boolean algebra technique. Next, I consider broader issues of appropriate ways of conceiving and researching organizational effectiveness.

Nonprofit Management Alumni Knowledge, Skills, and Career Satisfaction in Relation to Nonprofit Academic Centers Council Curricular Guidelines: The Case of One University's Master's of Public Administration Alumni:

Drawing on a survey of 88 alumni of a master of public administration program with a long-standing emphasis in nonprofit management, this article addresses three questions: (a) Are alumni who are more satisfied with their careers more satisfied with course work? (yes, substantially); (b) is reported learning in nonprofit management course work related to satisfaction with career and with graduate program? (yes, to some degree); and (c) is alumni satisfaction with careers and graduate program more strongly related to extent of learning in some areas rather than others? (yes). Implications for curricular content of nonprofit management programs are considered, particularly the sort of enterprise nonprofit management education is (and the sort it should be). We conclude by suggesting that nonprofit management education distinctiveness is based on its moral imperative and urge some consideration of such in curricular design.

Introduction: Special Issue Papers from the 1987 AVAS Conference

reviewers for this issue faced was pleasantly difficult: selection of only a few among many worthy papers. Eventually, we resolved the difficulty by referring several fine papers to the regular submission process. The remaining papers, presented in this issue, are all distinctive and important contributions to the topics NVSQ, is devoted to covering. In &dquo;Planning as Strategy in Nonprofit Organizations: An Exploratory Study,&dquo; Melissa M. Stone provides a theoretically sophisticated study of which charitable nonprofit organizations use formal planning and why. While size, as many would expect, is related to planning, other variables are also important to planning, including region and board function. As Stone shows, these variables operate in different ways depending on char-

Voluntary Organization Participation and Personality Change in the Poor: a Longitudinal Study

Students of voluntary organizations have extensively investigated the demographic and social class correlates of voluntary organizational participation (see, for instance, the review and summary in C. Smith and Freedman, 1972, or Payne, Payne and Reddy 1972). Attitudinal and other psychological correlates of participation have received less attention, though such research appears to be expanding presently (e.g., Smith, 1966; Mulford and Klonglan, 1972; and Townsend, 1973). Investigation of the effects of voluntary organizational participation, particularly at the individual level, however, have been uncommon (but see Smith and Reddy 1973). Individual effects have generally either been of no interest or they have been presumed. Such effects become of interest and cannot be presumed in the case of social action organizationsl of the poor. The recent &dquo;War on Poverty&dquo; emphasized the idea, if not the reality, of &dquo;maximum feasible participation&dquo; by the poor in community action organizations (Austin, 1972; Kramer, 1969; Marshall, 1971; Rose, 1972). The recent &dquo;War&dquo; also assumed that poverty was primarily an individual phenomenon and that the poor needed to undergo personality change. Thus, the issues of whether the organizationally active poor could be and have been changed, and, if so, in what ways, are important both for developing a theory of poverty and for formulating antipoverty strategies. This paper, while not attempting to address the general issue of organizational participation and personality change in all its contexts and complexity, will begin with a brief review of the theoretical and empirical status of the hypothesis that participation by the poor in social action organizations leads to change in the personalities of the poor. The paper will then report the results of a longitudinal study of the hypothesis. It will conclude with a discussion of

Turnover Among Nonprofit Chief Executives: An Initial Investigation of Self-Reported Causes and Consequences

This article presents the results of a small-scale study of turnover among nonprofit chief executives. Based on questionnaire responses from twenty-eight individuals who had recently left a chief executive position, the study provides initial descrip tive data on reasons former nonprofit chief executives give for leaving, on the perceived importance of pay in their decisions to leave, on sector of subsequent employment and intention to continue to work or return to work in the nonprofit sector.