In order for nonprofit organizations to sustain themselves in today's environment, they need to continually learn from their experiences and adapt to changing circumstances. This 'adaptive capacity', considered one of the essential organizational capacities for enabling nonprofits to achieve their mission, requires nonprofits to act as 'learning organizations' and to use evaluation as a tool to enhance organizational learning and performance (Letts, Ryan & Grossman, 1999; Sussman, 2003). A theoretical framework for assessing a nonprofit's 'organizational readiness' to improve its adaptive capacity was developed and applied to ten social change nonprofits in Israel. In this descriptive cross sectional study, a questionnaire and individual interviews with staff and board members were used to gain insight into the nonprofits' work environments and learning cultures. The results demonstrate the utility of the conceptual framework while providing insight into the day-to-day realities of organizational life that help to shape the adaptive capacity of the ten nonprofits in the sample. Practical implications can be drawn regarding the development of capacity building strategies and possible focal points for the strengthening of adaptive capacity among social change nonprofits.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-12052005-152350 |
| Date | 15 December 2005 |
| Creators | Strichman, Nancy Jill |
| Contributors | Mary Margaret Kerr, PhD, Associate Professor, R. Tony Eichelberger, PhD, Professor, Rafael Engel, PhD, Associate Professor, W. E. Bickel, PhD, Professor, Fathi Marshood, M.A. |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-12052005-152350/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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