TY - JOUR

T1 - Strategizing in NPOs

T2 - A case study on the practice of organizational change between social mission and economic rationale

AU - Jäger, Urs

AU - Beyes, Timon

PY - 2010/3

Y1 - 2010/3

N2 - This article presents the main results of a longitudinal case study of a strategic change process in a cooperative bank. Pursuing both a "social" mission and an explicitly economic rationale, this particular nonprofit organization provides an exemplary research setting for inquiring into the delicate and contradictory interplay of mission focus and commercial imperatives. Departing from the practice perspective as a micro-view on everyday strategizing-an approach that seems to have not found its way into NPO-research yet-allows us to take an in-depth look at how people go about the process of making strategy despite the tensions between mission and profit. Our data yields three patterns of strategizing practices that aim at fostering economic growth without damaging the social mission, namely supporting diverse positions, protecting stabilized relationships, and relating to organizational experiences. Building upon our empirical results, we tentatively conceptualize "balancing practices" as potentially important acts of strategizing in NPOs.

AB - This article presents the main results of a longitudinal case study of a strategic change process in a cooperative bank. Pursuing both a "social" mission and an explicitly economic rationale, this particular nonprofit organization provides an exemplary research setting for inquiring into the delicate and contradictory interplay of mission focus and commercial imperatives. Departing from the practice perspective as a micro-view on everyday strategizing-an approach that seems to have not found its way into NPO-research yet-allows us to take an in-depth look at how people go about the process of making strategy despite the tensions between mission and profit. Our data yields three patterns of strategizing practices that aim at fostering economic growth without damaging the social mission, namely supporting diverse positions, protecting stabilized relationships, and relating to organizational experiences. Building upon our empirical results, we tentatively conceptualize "balancing practices" as potentially important acts of strategizing in NPOs.

KW - Cultural studies

KW - Media and communication studies

KW - Digital media

KW - Digitale Kultur

KW - Digitale Kulturen

KW - Netzkultur

KW - Medienkultur

KW - Medienkulturen

KW - Medienwissenschaften

KW - Neue Medien

KW - Soziale Medien

KW - Medientheorie

KW - digital Culture

KW - digital Cultures

KW - net culture

KW - media culture

KW - media cultures

KW - new media

KW - media studies

KW - social media

KW - media theory

KW - Transdisciplinary studies

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77249172144&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s11266-009-9108-x

DO - 10.1007/s11266-009-9108-x

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 21

SP - 82

EP - 100

JO - Voluntas

JF - Voluntas

SN - 1573-7888

IS - 1

ER -