The business of values and value of business : the role of organisational values in the recruitment and selection of nonprofit community service managers and executives
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2009
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Nonprofit community service organisations have operated in Australia as values-based,
mission-driven social services since colonisation. By the 1990s, the effects of neo-liberal
government policies such as greater emphasis on competition for funds; outputs-based
contracts; and enforcement of more stringent accountability and compliance regimes, had
started to significantly impact their operations. In this context one of the changes
identified in the media of the time was the increasing appointment of ex-senior public
servants and ex-corporate business managers to management and CEO positions in
nonprofit organisations. The suggestion was that the sector needed to look beyond its
own workforce for superior financial and organisational management skills. In the light
of the emerging recruitment trend reported in the media, this thesis identifies and
analyses the role of organisational values in the recruitment and selection of managers
and executives in nonprofit community service organisations.
The study draws on the interdisciplinary sources of research and scholarship that focus on
three themes: nonprofit organisations, values and careers. The methodology is developed
from social constructivism and grounded research theory and involves analysis of the
following three datasets.
1. A content analysis of 700 recruitment advertisements for nonprofit community
service managers from 2002–08. One hundred advertisements were randomly
selected from The Sydney Morning Herald for each year. SPSS, Statistica and
Excel were used to analyse the multivariate data. A qualitative approach was also
employed to see what other themes emerged from the content analysis.
2. An analysis of 22 in-depth interviews of newly appointed CEOs and the Chairs of
their selection panels completed between 2005 and 2007. Organisations were
selected in a purposeful sampling process based on organisational size, service
type, location and the recent appointment of the CEO. The interviews were
analysed using the computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software NVivo.
The coding was fluid, with constant review and revision including recursive data
collection and analysis.
3. An analysis of 212 questionnaires completed by ‘committed’ nonprofit workers
between 2006 and 2008. Commitment was determined by voluntary involvement
in learning activities specific to the sector and community services. Statistica and
SPSS were used to analyse the multivariate data which included descriptive data,
factor analysis, analysis of variance and k-means clustering.
The analyses identified that nonprofit organisations were not operating from one set of
social justice values. They were operating, all the time, from two sets of values: the
espoused social justice organisational values and a set of economic values. However,
whilst the economic values were enacted by individuals in the organisations, they were
not espoused by the organisations. Nonetheless, the operating context was value plural
and as such had the potential for values incommensurability which was not recognised
and for which there were no procedures.
The study also revealed that the career paths of nonprofit workers crossed boundaries of
government, for-profit and nonprofit sectors. Moreover, experience in other sectors was
actively sought by nonprofit organisations recruiting managers, particularly senior
managers. Nevertheless, CEOs with no nonprofit experience had an incomplete skill set
and faced significant cultural and operational barriers that in some cases limited their
success and tenure.
Finally, the study found that governments’ competitive tendering and contractualist
funding agreements were encouraging a business model of operating in nonprofit
community services and the adoption of for-profit business language. This highlights the
need for a sector-specific discourse that combines social justice goals and efficient and
effective nonprofit financial and organisational management.
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