Shannon K. Vaughan

The Hierarchy of Ethical Values in Nonprofit Organizations: A Framework for an Ethical, Self- Actualized Organizational Culture

Using Maslows theory of human psychological development as a framework, a model based on the hierarchy of values is proposed to explain how not-for-profit organizations develop an ethical culture. As with individual values, the five levels of ethical behavior—financial competence, accountability, reciprocity, respect, integrity—are attained successively and one at a time. Thus ethical values are a foundation for achieving integrity, defined herein not only as incorruptibility but as a total commitment to the highest standards of behavior. External controls stimulate ethical behavior primarily at the lower levels; internal controls must be present to achieve an ethical organizational culture.

Blurred Lines: Preparing Students to Work across the Public, Nonprofit, and For-Profit Sectors

This symposium of the Journal of Public Affairs Education (JPAE), “Blurred Lines: Preparing Students to Work Across the Public, Nonprofit, and For-Profit Sectors,” is the result of on going conversations about the role of the nonprofit sec tor in identifying public policy problems, for mulating policy solutions, and implementing public programs. In Managing Nonprofit Organ izations in a Policy World (Vaughan & Arsneault, 2014), we took up the issue of blurred lines in the final chapter, “Looking Forward.” Due to fac tors such as the dramatic growth in the size and scope of the nonprofit sector, the expanding emphasis on social responsibility within the for-profit sector, and the increasing reliance on these two sectors by government agencies, the lines between the sectors have increasingly blurred. In “Looking Forward” we explored the rise in social enterprise and venture philanthropy that blurs the lines between nonprofit and for-profit endeavors, as well as the growing use of nonprofit organizations to fill public sector gaps in areas as diverse as education, state parks, and information technology for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

A Core Issue: The Inseparable Relationship between Nonprofits and Public Policy

Graduates of nonprofit management and public administration programs face a workplace increasingly dominated by complex relationships between government, nonprofit, and for-profit entities. Nonprofit organizations and public policy cannot be understood independently of one another. To assess the role of nonprofits in the policy curriculum, we reviewed 12 public policy textbooks and 143 syllabi from graduate-level public policy courses taught at Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration-accredited programs to assess the extent to which nonprofits are incorporated. Nonprofit organizations deserve full integration into the core curriculum of Master of Public Administration (MPA) and Master of Public Policy (MPP) programs as essential actors in public administration and the policy process. Their ubiquity as policy partners, from problem recognition and advocacy to policy formation, implementation, and evaluation makes understanding nonprofit organizations crucial to the study and practice of public policy and administration.