Many nonprofit organizations lack systematic approaches to succession planning. The absence of a strategic succession plan can limit leaders' abilities to maintain organizational sustainability and fulfill the organization's mission. The purpose of this single-case study was to explore strategies nonprofit leaders used to develop succession plans. The conceptual framework for the study was the knowledge transfer theory. Participants included 3 nonprofit leaders from an educational organization in the southeastern United States. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and analysis of internal organizational documents and publicly available data. Using an inductive content analysis, 3 themes emerged: boards of directors were critical to the process of developing a strategic plan for succession; leadership transition, whether planned or unplanned, necessitated preparation; and leadership development was a valued practice that contributed to a succession planning strategy. The results of this study might contribute to positive social change by providing nonprofit leaders with succession strategies to recruit, retain, and prepare leaders to ensure organizational sustainability and mission attainment. Nonprofit educational leaders who develop succession planning strategies can enhance organizational continuity and develop competent volunteers to provide much-needed programs for the communities they serve.

Although nonprofit organization (NPO) leaders play crucial roles in society, financial distress and vulnerability are common for many NPO leaders, with some NPOs closing as a result of these conditions. The purpose of this single-case study was to explore the diversification strategies used by 10 leaders and senior staff of an NPO in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States through the conceptual lens of Markowitz's modern portfolio theory. Data were collected through in-depth semistructured interviews and analysis of organizational documents, internal archival data, social media, literature, and online databases. Through thematic analysis, 7 revenue diversification themes emerged: adding revenue streams; establishing an operating reserve; establishing positive financial performance; achieving financial stability, sustainability, organizational capacity, and organizational resilience; using transparency; achieving efficiency and organizational effectiveness; and using a marketing strategy. Additionally, 7 key themes emerged: documenting and implementing systematic processes, developing an approach to process improvement, implementing cross-department action plans, increasing transparency, reversing the adverse trend in forum participation, building a data-management system, and increasing individual and organizational capacity. These findings have implications for positive social change, in that they may offer NPO executives new insights and strategies to support revenue diversification, thereby helping them to reduce volatility in funding, decrease financial risk, avoid dependence on sole-source revenue, and identify opportunities to increase flexibility in support of organizational goals and objectives to increase services.

Individual donors are an important source of revenue for nonprofit organizations. However, there is limited information on the attraction and retention of individual donors in nonprofit organizations. This single-case study addressed strategies 3 nonprofit leaders in the Northeast United States use to attract and retain individual donors. The conceptual framework was Kaplan and Norton's strategy map and the 2015-2016 Baldrige Excellence Framework used to evaluate organizational performance. Data collection included semistructured interviews; review of company documents; analysis of data available via GuideStar, an online provider of information on U.S. nonprofit organizations; analysis of data available about U.S. agencies; and review of data and information from other publicly available sources with information on nonprofit organizations. Data analysis included coding of collected data and use of thematic analysis. Four themes emerged from the study: strength in fundraising processes, operational alignment of strategy, opportunities in documentation of processes, and systematic evaluation of programs' effectiveness and organizational learning. Findings may assist nonprofit leaders in aligning organizational strategies with key processes and focusing efforts on the achievement of organizational goals. Nonprofit leaders may use the results to improve access to funds from individual donors and to create valuable community services such as increased access to schools and affordable housing in underserved urban areas.

Supply chain management (SCM) and quality management (QM) share some common literature and have overlapping domains that reinforce each other in the supplier and customer relationship management areas. Despite the recognized importance of supplier and customer relationships toward achieving quality goals, limited prior research examines whether SCM represents a distinct construct within the prominent existing quality focused organizational frameworks such as the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA). As a result of the absence of the SCM construct in the frameworks, the problem facing researchers is understanding the role of SCM in the implementation of QM practices within an organization. Such an understanding is key to QM theory development for the 21st century organizations. In order to conduct this investigation, we examine several well-studied quality focused organizational frameworks that are validated among the community of researchers, and, widely accepted among practitioners. However, which of these well-known quality management models serve as the best proxy for a quality focused organizational framework is an important area for research in order to better promote QM worldwide. This research involves three essays and uses a mixed methodology of qualitative and quantitative research. Essay 1 compares well-known national quality award frameworks such as the MBNQA, the Deming Prize, and the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Award through analysis of the extensive literature on each as well as examination of the government documents about the frameworks. Comparisons show the Baldrige framework most widely serves as basic model for national quality award frameworks to increase the awareness of quality and promote the best QM practices. After reviewing the categories and their weightings in the frameworks of MBNQA, the Deming Prize, and the EFQM Award, we identify opportunities to refine the frameworks and promote QM theory development. Essay 2 fills a critical research gap by assessing the effectiveness of the Baldrige framework within a government organization and by comparing the effectiveness of the categories of the Baldrige framework in government to the effectiveness of the categories in different industries. This study examines the relative effectiveness of each Baldrige category in the MBNQA 2013-2014 framework using data from a municipal government. It tests the hypothesized research model employing partial least squares - structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Drawing on contingency theory, it explores the commonalities and differences of the effectiveness of Baldrige categories across different industries by comparing our results with summarized prior research findings of interrelationships among the Baldrige categories. Essay 3 posits a restructured Baldrige framework after conducting a rigorous literature review on SCM and examining the Baldrige framework and categories associated with SCM. This work includes a longitudinal set of studies that test the hypothesized research model based upon the newly posited restructured theoretical framework using PLS-SEM on survey data from three different time periods over 20 years across a variety of organizations. The results support that the restructured framework provides a good model fit when the SCM construct is independently identified and included within the framework. The comparison from the longitudinal analysis provides significant insights for theory evolutions of leadership, SCM, and information systems constructs. Additionally, this longitudinal investigation over 20 years supports the evolution of the Baldrige framework as it was revised over time. Most importantly the work posits and supports the new theory development and shows the overarching importance of the SCM as a major organizational construct.

According to scholars and organizations that focus on the performance of organizations in the nonprofit sector, retaining loyal and engaged donors has been a critical component of sustainability. Through the conceptual lens of single- and double-loop learning and organizational communications theory, this single-case study explored donor communication strategies used by 3 executive-level leaders of a nonprofit organization in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Data collected from semistructured interviews, organizational documents, and Guidestar, an online information service specializing in reporting on U.S. nonprofit companies, were manually coded and thematically analyzed. Two key themes emerged: effective processes for donor communication strategy development and organizational learning strategy development. Strategy development may assist this Minneapolis company’s organizational leaders with improving retention of donors and participants in the company’s programs and services, increasing action plan completion rates, and integrating the lessons learned process during the development and implementation of communication strategies to increase donor retention. By bridging the gap between performance arts and social responsibility, this company’s leaders may engage both donors and participants, resulting in favorable retention rates. These findings have implications for positive social change. Nonprofit leaders’ models of effective communications strategies and processes to improve participant and donor engagement may ensure leaders’ ability to serve and improve their communities by engaging at-risk youth in programs designed to develop performance arts and leadership skills.

In recent years, companies have been focused on improving organizational performance and the loyalty of customers to improve sustainability in increasingly complex markets. The Baldrige Performance Excellence framework, generally referred to as the Baldrige criteria, was created to guide professionals in achieving these goals including defining a set of excellence criteria and offering an award program to recognize high-performing organizations. The principles of excellence focus on understanding and working for the stakeholders, improving performance and quality management, and strategically driving continuous improvement. The framework can be used for organizational self-assessments; however, many organizations find it challenging to interpret and apply the criteria without prior knowledge of the framework and guiding principles. This is particularly true for small businesses, which are less formal, have less exposure to key terminology and concepts, and have limited resources. Although there is some research that focuses on successful application of the Baldrige criteria, this research is still exploratory and there is a need for empirical studies in this area. This research investigates the factors that affected the successful implementation of the Baldrige criteria by conducting an action research study to guide a small business in conducting the Baldrige Self-Assessment. This research consisted of a series of three surveys and online working sessions to both complete the Baldrige Self-Assessment, interpret the results, and evaluate the experiences of participants regarding the relative success of the self-assessment process as well as the factors that affected this process. The results of this study provide insights into strategies for ensuring successful application of this self-assessment process in small businesses. The findings show that unfamiliarity with key terminology and complexity of the questions were significant barriers to success. Further, the participants indicated that working as a team to complete the assessment facilitated the process due to real-time discussion of points of confusion. These results support the assertion that a version of the Baldrige Criteria specifically designed for small businesses is needed. Improving the accessibility of this framework will improve the chances of successful implementation bringing the potential benefits to more organizations.

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The purposes of this study were: (a) To determine whether full-time teaching faculty and full-time administrators perceive the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) 1998 Education Criteria for Performance Excellence (ECPE) to be appropriate for assessing Virginia community colleges, and (b) To determine if differences in perceptions exist regarding demographic variables among full-time teaching faculty and among full-time administrators in the use of these criteria to assess Virginia community colleges. Data were collected from a random sample of 129 full-time teaching faculty and 57 full-time administrators using the seven categories and 18 items of the 1998 ECPE. Demographic factors included years of teaching experience in education, years of administrative experience in education, major teaching area, highest degree level earned, college enrollment, and age. A mean was calculated on the perceived appropriateness of each of the 18 items of the 1998 ECPE for faculty and administrators. A t test or an analysis of variance was conducted on the scale means for faculty and administrators to determine if differences exist regarding demographic variables and the perceived appropriateness of the 18 items of the 1998 ECPE by faculty and administrators. The Scheffe post hoc analysis revealed a significance difference for administrators in the college transfer and the technical classifications of major teaching area. The major conclusions were: (1) faculty and administrators perceived the 1998 ECPE as "somewhat appropriate" for assessing Virginia community colleges, (2) faculty and administrators perceived each of the 18 items of the 1998 ECPE as "somewhat appropriate" for assessing Virginia community colleges, (3) the major teaching area was not a factor in full-time teaching faculty members' perceptions of the 18 items of the 1998 ECPE's appropriateness for assessing Virginia community colleges; however, the major teaching area was a factor in full-time administrators' perceptions and this statistically significant difference could possibly be attributed to their low rate of response with only 47.4% of administrators surveyed responding to this question, and (4) years of experience in education, highest degree level earned, college enrollment, and age were not factors in full-time teaching faculty members' or full-time administrators' perceptions of the 18 items of the 1998 ECPE's appropriateness for assessing Virginia community colleges.

Only a small number of U.S. businesses have implemented the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence to improve their performance. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that executive business leaders use to implement the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. The study population consisted of 6 business executives and 2 organizations in the U.S. state of Texas, all with experience in implementing the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. The theory of high performance work systems provided the conceptual framework for the study. Data were gathered from interviews and record reviews that were conducted within the organizations. Inductive analysis was used to identify words, phrases, ideas, and actions that were consistent among participants and organizations as well as to identify patterns and themes. Triangulation of sources between the interview and record review data was used for consistency. Three main themes emerged from data analysis: organizational leaders embedded the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence into native work models; they also used robust strategy deployment systems with accountability for action plans to spread the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence; and, rather than specifically create goals to align with the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, they identified actions to reach organizational strategic goals that were created using the Criteria as a business model. Implications for positive social change arising from this study include the potential to increase the number of available jobs by improving overall organizational performance through the increased implementation and use of the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence among U.S. organizations.