Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study examines the essential features of women’s experiences as members of a service association. It uses a qualitative method to understand how women make meaning from their membership in an all-female association and a mixed-gender association. The experiences were examined in comparative contexts. The study finds three common features in each association: joining, volunteering, and leading. In the mixed-gender association, women also experienced a process of assimilating into membership activities. The study provides scholars and association practitioners insights into the complex blend of members’ personal and professional interests with implications for membership recruitment and retention.

Text in Afrikaans / The purpose of the study is to examine the extent and demands volunteers have in a managerial function. Volunteers are responsible for the management of the branches of the ACVV, functioning in a specific environment. The variables of these environments have a definite influence on the functioning of a branch and place specific demands on the members. The group of respondents consisted of chairpersons of branches of the ACVV in the West Coast region. The findings of the empirical studies are that all levels of the environment bring pressure to bear upon volunteers. The demands placed upon them have a bearing on the managerial tasks and have a negative effect on the willingness of volunteers to serve as board members. It is imperative that training and development of volunteers, in welfare organizations, must be ongoing in order to empower and give them confidence for these managerial tasks. / Social Work / M. Diac. (Social Work)

The researcher undertook exploratory research to see whether characteristics of visionary organizations, as discovered in research undertaken by Collins and Porras (2000), are present and applicable to non-profit organizations in Gauteng, South Africa. The characteristics are: - a core ideology (core purpose and core values) - big hairy audacious goals - a cult-like culture - purposeful evolution and continuous self improvement - management continuity - alignment. A schedule was used to interview directors of ten non-profit organizations. Some staff in each organization were given a questionnaire to see whether their answers correlated with the director responses. The research indicated that most characteristics are present, to some degree, in the non-profit organizations. These characteristics could however be explored more thoroughly in further research. The research includes recommendations for management of non-profit organizations to implement, to become visionary organizations. / Social work / M.A. (Social Work)

The study set out to investigate the factors influencing turnover among professional staff in some selected NGOs in Malawi. Using qualitative and participatory methods, the study used the levels of complexity model to analyse the factors leading to the problem of staff turnover in the selected NGOs. The main findings were that: · Professional staff turnover was 50% within a period of 18 months across all the NGOs interviewed. · For the professional staff, the main factors contributing to staff turnover were: ineffective organisational policies, systems and procedures; poor relationships and communication; and poor organisational values and culture. · In addressing the problem, NGO leaders tend to concentrate on efforts to improve salaries and other monetary benefits; and training opportunities. In order to more comprehensively address the problem of staff turnover among the professional staff however, NGO leaders must adopt a process or an Organisation Development (OD) approach. / Public Administration & Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)

"February 20, 2003" / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 586-603) / xvii, 603 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Investigates the level of resident participation in decision-making in aged care hostels in South Australia. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Psychology, 2003

O objetivo desta dissertação é analisar por meio de sistemáticas as relações da Associação dos Catadores de Materiais Recicláveis Unidos do Bairro (Acuba) - Curitiba-PR com as instituições públicas responsáveis pela gestão dos resíduos sólidos urbanos. Caracterizou-se a pesquisa como qualitativa, de natureza exploratória com aplicação de técnicas de coleta de dados. Inicialmente foram reconstituídas as ações das instituições públicas com respeito à gestão dos resíduos sólidos urbanos na cidade de Curitiba-PR. Verificou-se o papel e as formas de participação das associações de catadores de materiais recicláveis no processo de gestão de resíduos sólidos urbanos. Identificou-se características, hierarquias, e condutas na organização do trabalho da Acuba. O Programa Reciclagem e Inclusão Total - Ecocidadão, dirigido pela Secretaria Municipal de Meio Ambiente de Curitiba-PR tem colaborado para as políticas de inclusão social dos catadores. Mas as medidas de inclusão ainda não são suficientes para mudar o estado de vulnerabilidade do tipo de trabalho que os catadores exercem, a discriminação no tratamento pessoal, a falta de respeito e os riscos de acidentes. Estas condições estão sendo trabalhadas em nível de projetos, produtos, programas, técnicas, metodologias em Curitiba-PR, que visam minimizar as condições de precarização e informalidade no trabalho dos catadores. Os resultados e as fragilidades do sistema de gestão foram sistematizados em organograma e fluxogramas que apresentam a atual organização e visualizada a contribuição das associações de catadores de materiais recicláveis no processo de coleta, triagem e comercialização. / This study seeks to revisit the debate of the potential recyclable material’s management from the case of the association of recyclable material ACUBA, located in Curitiba-PR. Initially, the actions from the public power for recyclable material’s management in Curitiba-PR were reconstructed. The role and forms of participation from the collectors association on the solid waste management process. Characteristics, hierarchies and behaviors from the work organization on the ACUBA were identified. An organization chart and a flow were drawn up of the organization of the waste management and the contribution of the collectors association in the process of collecting, sorting and selling. The program “Reciclagem e Inclusão Total – Ecocidadão”, directed by the “Secretaria Municipal de Meio Ambiente” of Curitiba-PR has contributed to the social inclusion of the waste collectors policies. However, the inclusion measures are not sufficient to change the vulnerability state of the exercise of this kind of work, the discrimination on the personal personal treatment, the lack of respect and the risk of accidents. Those contradictions are being worked on projects, products, programs, techniques methodologies in Curitiba-PR, which aim to minimize the conditions of precariousness and informality in the work.

Text in Afrikaans / The purpose of the study is to examine the extent and demands volunteers have in a managerial function. Volunteers are responsible for the management of the branches of the ACVV, functioning in a specific environment. The variables of these environments have a definite influence on the functioning of a branch and place specific demands on the members. The group of respondents consisted of chairpersons of branches of the ACVV in the West Coast region. The findings of the empirical studies are that all levels of the environment bring pressure to bear upon volunteers. The demands placed upon them have a bearing on the managerial tasks and have a negative effect on the willingness of volunteers to serve as board members. It is imperative that training and development of volunteers, in welfare organizations, must be ongoing in order to empower and give them confidence for these managerial tasks. / Social Work / M. Diac. (Social Work)

The researcher undertook exploratory research to see whether characteristics of visionary organizations, as discovered in research undertaken by Collins and Porras (2000), are present and applicable to non-profit organizations in Gauteng, South Africa. The characteristics are: - a core ideology (core purpose and core values) - big hairy audacious goals - a cult-like culture - purposeful evolution and continuous self improvement - management continuity - alignment. A schedule was used to interview directors of ten non-profit organizations. Some staff in each organization were given a questionnaire to see whether their answers correlated with the director responses. The research indicated that most characteristics are present, to some degree, in the non-profit organizations. These characteristics could however be explored more thoroughly in further research. The research includes recommendations for management of non-profit organizations to implement, to become visionary organizations. / Social work / M.A. (Social Work)

The study set out to investigate the factors influencing turnover among professional staff in some selected NGOs in Malawi. Using qualitative and participatory methods, the study used the levels of complexity model to analyse the factors leading to the problem of staff turnover in the selected NGOs. The main findings were that: · Professional staff turnover was 50% within a period of 18 months across all the NGOs interviewed. · For the professional staff, the main factors contributing to staff turnover were: ineffective organisational policies, systems and procedures; poor relationships and communication; and poor organisational values and culture. · In addressing the problem, NGO leaders tend to concentrate on efforts to improve salaries and other monetary benefits; and training opportunities. In order to more comprehensively address the problem of staff turnover among the professional staff however, NGO leaders must adopt a process or an Organisation Development (OD) approach. / Public Administration and Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Linking the new institutionalism to entrepreneurial orientation (EO), my dissertation investigates institutional forces and entrepreneurial forces—two contradicting types of forces—as main effects and moderating effects upon practices and performance of organizations embedded in the institutional duality. The case chosen observes unique hybrid funders that this study collectively calls social investment funders (SIF), which integrate philanthropy and venture capital investment to create and implement a venture philanthropy model for a pursuit of their mission. A theoretical framework is developed to propose regulative and normative pressures from two dominant institutions governing SIFs. Original data collected from 146 organizations are scrutinized by moderated multiple regressions for two empirical studies: Study 1 for effects on SIFs’ venture philanthropy practices, and Study 2 for effects on SIFs’ social and financial performance. Multiple imputations, diagnostic analyses, and several post hoc analyses are also conducted for robustness of data and results from multiple regression analyses. Results from these analyses find that EO and venture capital institutional forces both enhance SIFs’ venture philanthropy practices. A hypothesis postulated for a negative relationship between the nonprofit status and venture philanthropy practices is also supported. Results from moderated regression analyses, along with a subgroup and EO subdimension analyses, confirm a moderating effect between EO and the nonprofit status, i.e., a regulative institutional pressure. A positive relationship is found in EO- financial performance, but not in EO-social performance. While support is lent to hypotheses posited for a social/financial performance relationship with donors’/investors’ demand for social outcomes, and with the management team’s training in business, the overall results remain mixed for Study 2. Nonetheless, this dissertation appears to be the first study to theorize and test EO as a micro-level condition enabling organizations to strategically shape and resist institutional pressures, and it reinforces that organizations’ behavior is not merely a product of their passive conformity to environmental forces, but of the agency, also. As such, this study aims to contribute to scholarly efforts by the “agency camp” of the new institutionalism and EO, answering a call from the leading scholars of both EO (Miller) and the new institutionalism (Oliver).