Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to report on the results of research into the precedence of the maturity factors, or key turning points in business process maturity (BPM) implementation efforts. A key turning point is a component of BPM that stabilizes within an organization and leads to the next maturity level. Design/methodology/approach-Several years of data from over 1,000 companies in the USA, Europe, China, and Brazil that have completed a BPM assessment are analyzed to identify which components of BPM stabilize, when and in what order. Different analysis methods are employed in order to identify global commonalities and differences. Findings-The paper identifies key turning points from several different perspectives using several different approaches and develops some conclusions common to all methods used in this research. Research limitations/implications-The relationship between the components (dependencies) is only suggested but not statistically analyzed. Several data sets are also on the low end of sample size for the methods used and some parts of the research used ad hoc selection of companies of arbitrarily distributed companies into different groups. Practical implications-The results can be useful for leaders and teams that are attempting the journey to process maturity. The guide-posts, milestones, and measures can help answer the question "Where am I on this journey and what is next?" Originality/value-A plethora of maturity models has emerged that claim to guide an organization through the process of building levels of maturity that lead to competitive advantage. To date, there has been a lack of quantitative studies documenting these road-maps. The paper provides global, quantitative evidence of the critical maturity components associated at each level of maturity.

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The ideological psychological contract (PC) describes perceived obligations related to an organization's mission, values, and principles. The lack of research regarding ideological PC breach and fulfilment is surprising, as theory states that this PC type has distinct effects on outcomes. We address this gap in the literature and investigate how ideological PC breach and fulfilment influence volunteers' work effort and whether this effect differs from relational PC breach and fulfilment. We measured promised and delivered ideological and relational inducements on two separate occasions and used polynomial regressions and response surface analyses to test our hypotheses. In the case of ideological PC fulfilment, results indicated that work effort increases in situations of mutual-low and mutual-high obligations. In the case of ideological PC breach, work effort increases in situations of under-and overfulfilment. We conclude that underfulfilment of ideological PCs differed from relational PCs, as work effort decreases in the case of the latter. Hence, our findings demonstrate the importance of considering the unique nature of ideological obligations in the PC literature.

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Two major evolutions have been reported to occur in the nonprofit sector during the past decades. Both the nature of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) and of volunteering style are changing. While this creates challenges for NPO governance and management, little is known about the process or the outcomes of these two developments. We propose a two-dimensional conceptual model to explain how the aforementioned evolutions influence the attitudes and behavior of volunteers, based on psychological contract theory. More specifically, we posit that both evolutions create tensions in volunteers' psychological contracts that could lead to contract breach. We formulate twelve propositions on the nature of this psychological contract breach and the resulting attitudes and behavior of volunteers. Finally, we offer some possible solutions that NPO boards and managers can apply to cope with these challenges.Résumé L'émergence de deux évolutions majeures a été signalée dans le secteur caritatif au cours des dernières décennies. La nature des organisations sans but lucratif (NPO) comme le style du bénévolat se transforment. Si ceci est à l'origine de difficultés pour la gouvernance et la gestion des NPO, peu d'éléments sont à notre disposition quant au processus ou aux résultats de ces deux développements. Nous proposons un modèle conceptuel selon deux dimensions afin d'expliquer comment les évolutions précitées influencent les attitudes et le comportement des bénévoles, sur la base de la théorie du contrat psychologique. Nous postulons plus précisément que ces deux évolutions sont créatrices de tensions pour les contrats psychologiques des bénévoles, susceptibles de conduire à une rupture de ces derniers. Douze propositions sont formulées sur la nature de la rupture de ce contrat psychologique et des attitudes comme du comportement des bénévoles en résultant. Enfin, nous proposons certaines solutions potentielles que les conseils d'administration et responsables des NPO peuvent mettre en place pour faire face à ces difficultés.Zusammenfassung In den vergangenen zwei Jahrzehnten waren zwei wesentliche Entwicklungen im Nonprofit-Sektor zu beobachten. Sowohl die Nonprofit-Organisationen als auch die gemeinnützige Arbeit haben veränderte Formen angenommen. Während dies Herausforderungen für die Leitung und das Management von Nonprofit-Organisationen darstellt, ist nur wenig über den Prozess oder die Folgen dieser beiden Entwicklungen bekannt. Beruhend auf der psychologischen Vertragstheorie schlagen wir ein zweidimensionales konzeptionelles Modell vor, um zu erörtern, wie sich die vorgenannten Entwicklungen auf die Einstellungen und Verhaltensweisen ehrenamtlich Tätiger auswirken. Im Einzelnen behaupten wir, dass beide Entwicklungen zu Spannungen in den psychologischen Verträgen ehrenamtlich Tätiger führen, die einen Vertragsbruch zur Folge haben könnten. Wir formulieren zwölf Ansätze zur Wesensart dieses psychologischen Vertragsbruchs und den daraus resultierenden Einstellungen und Verhaltensweisen der ehrenamtlich Tätigen. Abschlie...

This article explores the relationships between municipality features and volunteering by older adults. In the literature, strong evidence exists of the influence of place on older people's health. However, the question how neighborhoods and municipalities promote or hinder volunteer participation remains under-explored. Data for the research are derived from the Belgian Aging Studies. We estimate logistic multilevel models for older individuals' engagement in volunteering across 141 municipalities in Belgium (N = 67,144). Analysis shows that neighborhood connectedness, neighborhood satisfaction, home ownership, and presence of services predict voluntary engagement at older ages. The findings support that perceptions and quality of social resources that relate to neighborhoods may be important factors to explain volunteering among older adults. Moreover, the findings suggest that volunteering in later life must be considered within a broader framework.

There is a growing interest in applying the psychological contract concept to the relationship between volunteers and nonprofit organizations. However, previous studies overlook certain elements of volunteers’ psychological contracts as they build on theory established with reference to paid employees. We argue that the inclusion of a value-based psychological contract type, next to transactional and relational types, enables a more thorough understanding of perceived mutual obligations between volunteers and nonprofit organizations. We use the critical incidents technique to map volunteers’ perceived (un)fulfilled obligations and find that volunteers perceive both fulfilled and unfulfilled value-based obligations. Moreover, we describe specific terms related to the mission and values of the organization reported by volunteers. We conclude that future psychological contract research needs to take this value-based dimension into account, especially in volunteerism.

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