Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Specifics of non-profit organization management'

In this study, the effectiveness of customer service training was estimated using Donald Kirkpatrick’s Evaluation Model and the Learning Transfer Model. There were 105 Human Resource Leaders and Trainers that completed an online study concerning the training requested and provided within non-profit community healthcare organizations. The study found that The Learning Training Model, when used with Kirkpatrick’s Evaluation model provided adequate information to suggest a roadmap for designing strategies to achieve improved customer service in non-profit community healthcare sectors.

Abstract

Type of thesis: Bachelor thesis

Number of pages: 98

Title: Understanding leadership in successful Non-profit organizations: a case-study of IKSU

Authors: Linnéa Larsson, Peter Storhannus

Supervisor: Jessica Eriksson

Date: 2008-01-24

Summary:

Most leadership research has made within regular corporations or public sector organizations in the business world. However, the research on leadership in the non-profit organizations (NPOs) has been scarce even though these organizations play an important part in society and the economy as well. It is argued that leadership in NPOs is different from that of a for-profit organization due to the different preconditions that exist in a non-profit organization.

The research question of this thesis is therefore; “what characterizes leadership in NPOs and what leadership styles can be found?”.

Our purpose with this thesis is to provide an understanding of the leadership in a successful non-profit organization. More specifically, understand the leadership at IKSU. We identify IKSU as a combination between a mutual benefit organization and a voluntary association. We have chosen to make a case study by interviewing managers in different positions at the successful non-profit organization IKSU located in Umeå.

The interviewees also answered a questionnaire about their leadership as a complement to the interviews. Further, a questionnaire was sent out to the interviewed managers’ employees in order to receive better contextual understanding about their self-perceived leadership. Literature about NPOs and leadership in both NPOs and for-profit organization has been used. Two frameworks are central throughout the thesis; the situational leadership model constructed by Hersey & Blanchard (1981) have been used to analyze and understand the leadership styles and the four cornerstones of leadership by Ekstam (2002) have been used to construct the interview guide and to analyze the leaders’ roles in the organization.

The results have shown that he leadership styles that we can find at IKSU are supporting and coaching and that the leaders most developed roles are the roles as developers and teambuilders. We conclude that the use of high supportive behaviour might be due to both the fact that they have such close relationships between leaders and subordinates that the leaders feel uncomfortable adopting a low task/low relationship style, as that could instead damage the close relationship and lead to lower motivation and commitment from the employee. Another reason to use high relationship leadership style is due to that there exist no clear goals within the organization. The leaders work close together with their employees and the employees seem to work independently, thus with the support from the leaders. They let the employees be part of the decision making processes and they take care of the employees skills and knowledge rather than doing everything themselves. Further, they lead the employees through the constantly changing organization and understand that the organization have to develop since the profits have to be reinvested which will lead to further development of the organization.

The concept of the balanced scorecard was introduced by Harvard professors Robert

S. Kaplan and David P. Norton in 1992 when organizations realized that it was no

longer sustainable to focus only on financial objectives in order to stay competitive.

The balanced scorecard was traditionally developed for use in for-profit organizations

but with its fundamental idea that the financial perspective does not always cover

what is most important, it has also been implemented in non-profit organizations

where profit maximization is not the main objective. Although the balanced scorecard

is presented to be an effective management system for survival in a more

challenging and competing environment it has also been strongly criticized by several

authors as well as organization that have unsuccessfully implemented it. Empirical

studies evaluating this relatively new management control system are still rather

limited, especially in non-profit organization which made us eager to look deeper into

the effects of using the balanced scorecard and we identified a research problem;

Is the balanced scorecard an effective management system that improves the

performance of a local public administration in Northern Sweden?

For this study we identified our alignment toward the positivistic scientific ideal. We

have further chosen a deductive approach as the already existing theory of the

balanced scorecard is the base of our research. We have used a qualitative research

strategy where our empirics are based upon eleven semi-structured interviews with

leaders in Skellefteå municipality where they have given their perception of the

balanced scorecard and its influence on the organization management. Our main

purpose has been to evaluate whether the usage of the balanced scorecard is

improving the performance of Skellefteå municipality. In the process of evaluating our

results it has been made evident that the management system is perceived as

performance increasing even though areas of improvements do exists. One example

of improvement could be to develop an IT-tool to facilitate the reporting of the

balanced scorecard as it is at present experienced as a very time consuming process

since it is manually completed. Skellefteå municipality has put a lot of time and effort

on the implementation of the balanced scorecard as well as on developing suitable

perspectives and objectives for the management system. Furthermore, the

municipality has emphasized the importance of communicating and follows up

processes to improve the quality of the system. This careful implementation and

utilization is something that has lead to a balanced scorecard that increases the

performance of Skellefteå municipality

The purpose of this thesis is to study leadership and management traits and styles within small non-profit office settings (less than 15 employees) in the U.S. from a leader and manager perspective. The thesis is partially about leadership and management as contrary versus intangible in relations to recognized factors of importance for the organization. A common expression describing a manager and a leader found in literature is, "Manager are people who do things right and leaders are people who do the right thing.”

My contention is that leadership and management within small non-profit organizations is complex and contains both uncertain internal and external expectations and obligations. The organization managers I have chosen to study are five community leaders within a U.S. city (population 150,000). These organizations are to be viewed as similar to Kommuner and other social agencies in Sweden. I am analyzing the leadership and management styles and traits in relation to elements within their organization’s work environment. These styles, traits and elements are as follows: leadership and management concepts, motivation, culture, communication and teams.

My empirical material is interviews and observation. I am also using previous studies, literature and models which outlines the thesis theoretical framework to offer an understanding and further explanation of the area of focus.

The conclusion is that what portrays leaders´ and managers´ work environment within small non-profit office settings in the U.S. were mutually identified whether or not the person defined himself or herself as a leader versus manager. The elements identified were work environment, management concepts, communication, teams and networking. In terms of leadership and management, being approachable and visible was identified throughout the interviews as the key factor of importance for the organization. Managers and leaders were found to be both as contrary and intangible throughout the thesis. Management and leadership skills were discussed as both inherent and learned. Key elements of importance for the organization did not vary depending on if the leader of manager defined himself or herself as a leader versus manager. However, styles and traits did vary with the leader or manager depending on when and if they defined their role as a leader or a manager. This thesis has found that differences between leadership and management can offer legitimization to leaders and managers in terms of justifying their positions. Also identified is that leadership styles are partially viewed as personal preferences based on comfort level and experience. In conjunction to this was the contention that people want to be led and not managed.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att studera ledarskap- och chefsskap och egenskaper inom mindre icke vinstdrivande organisationer (ej större än 15 anställda) utifrån ett ledar- och chefskapsperspektiv. Uppsatsen behandlar ledarskap och chefskap som både ett motsats och oskiljaktigt förhållande i relation till identifierade faktorer som är av betydelse för organisationen. Ett vanligt förkommande ordspråk inom litteraturen som beskriver chef och ledare är: ”En chef gör saker rätt medan en ledare gör rätt saker”.

Min utgångspunkt är att ledarskap och chefskap inom mindre icke vinstdrivande organisationer är komplexa och innehåller en osäkerhet beträffande interna och externa förväntningar och skyldigheter. De aktörer jag har valt att studera är fem ledare och chefer på högt uppsatta positioner inom motsvarigheten till Sveriges kommuner och andra sociala organisationer. Samtliga finns i en amerikansk stad (150 000 invånare).

Jag analyserar ledarskap och chefskapsstilar och egenskaper i relation till arbetsmiljöfaktorer inom deras organisation. Dessa stilar, egenskaper och arbetsmiljöfaktorer är: ledarskap, management konceptet, motivation, kultur, kommunikation och teams. Mitt empiriska material är intervjuer och observationer. Jag använder mig även av litteratur, teorier och modeller som medför ökad förståelse för det studerande området.

Slutsatsen är att det som beskriver ledares och chefers arbetsmiljö i en mindre ickevinstdrivande organisation i USA gemensamt kan identifieras som samma faktorer, oavsett om man ser sig själv som ledare eller chef. De faktorer som uppgavs som viktiga för organisationen var: arbetsmiljön, managementkonceptet, motivation, värderingar, kommunikation och nätverksarbete. Beträffande ledarskapstilar och chefsstilar framhävdes betydelsen av att vara anträffbar och synlig som en grundförutsättning. Beteckningarna chef och ledare användes både som motsatser och synonymer. Diskussioner om man är född till ledare eller lär sig att bli ledare hölls. Stilar och egenskaper som uppgavs varierar beroende på om du definierar din roll som ledare respektive chef. Slutsatsen är också att skillnaden mellan ledarskap och chefskap kan medföra en legitimering av ledaren och chefen vad det gäller att hantera vissa uppgifter. Det kan alltså innebära en möjlighet att frångå särskilda situationer och uppgifter med motiveringen att jag är ju faktiskt chef respektive ledare. Det framkom också att ledarskapsstilar än idag till stor del är kopplat till personens personliga egenskaper och rekommendationer. Det framkom också att människor vill bli ledda.