AROUND THE CENTER:
Summer 2008 Issue Of Nonprofit Management And Leadership
The Summer 2008 issue of Nonprofit Management and Leadership (Volume 18, No. 4), the quarterly journal sponsored by the Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations, leads off with “Advancing Nonprofit Organizational Effectiveness Research and Theory: Nine Theses.” In a major synthesis of the literature, Robert Herman and David Renz review their own and others’ work on nonprofit organizational effectiveness and, as the title suggests, extract nine propositions for further attention.
John Whitman weaves an interesting new model for evaluating foundations out of some widely shared materials in “Evaluating Philanthropic Foundations According to Their Social Values.” Taking up the theme of foundations seeking to build what they view as a better world, Whitman compiled an original list of thirty-three social values and tested them as indicators of activity on an international sample of foundations in Canada, the United States, and Europe. The result is a suggested protocol for ongoing use in foundation strategic planning activities.
In “Determinants of Compensation: A Study of Pay, Performance, and Gender Differences for Fundraising Professionals,” Debra Mesch and Patrick Rooney report on a study asking three questions: Is there a significant pay-performance relationship? What are the factors that affect bonus and salary? Is there a gender-pay gap for individuals who are in the role of fundraisers? Data were collected over a four-year period from a national sample of fundraising professionals employed across all industry classifications.
Kristina Jaskyte juxtaposes the United States and Lithuania on five dimensions of creativity: perceived leadership behaviors, organizational norms for creativity, group climate, job characteristics, and motivational orientation. Her rationale for this is summed up in the article’s conclusion: “In searching for new ways of organizational growth, an important role for executives of nonprofit organizations is to recognize and tap into the creative potential of their employees by fostering organizational norms for creativity and to use motivational and reward systems that recognize and reward their employees.”
In “Creating Positive Change in Community Organizations: A Case for Rediscovering Lewin,” Barbara Medley and Obasi Haki Akan share their surprise and delight in having rediscovered Kurt Lewin’s now-neglected planned change model, and report on their application of it to an assessment and revisioning process undertaken by a contemporary community-based organization.
In this issue’s From the Field feature, Beatrice Dhebar and Benjamin Stokes develop “A Nonprofit Manager’s Guide to Online Volunteering,” providing a take on this interesting contemporary topic through the lens of their experience as foundation program officers. They offer an evaluative procedure for “a means by which to facilitate accountability and strengthen management.”
Contents
Advancing Nonprofit Organizational Effectiveness Research and Theory: Nine Theses
Robert D. Herman and David O. Renz, University of Missouri–Kansas City
Evaluating Philanthropic Foundations According to Their Social Values
John R. Whitman, Northeastern University
Determinants of Compensation: A Study of Pay, Performance, and Gender Differences for Fundraising Professionals
Debra J. Mesch and Patrick M. Rooney, Indiana University–Purdue University
Employee Creativity in U.S. and Lithuanian Nonprofit Organizations
Kristina Jaskyte, University of Georgia
Creating Positive Change in Community Organizations: A Case for Rediscovering Lewin
Barbara C. Medley, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Obasi H. Akan, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
From the Field: A Nonprofit Manager’s Guide to Online Volunteering
Beatrice Bezmalinovic Dhebar, Consultant
Benjamin Stokes, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
To read abstracts of these articles, or to subscribe to Nonprofit Management and Leadership, visit the Wiley InterScience website:
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/104049461/home
