This qualitative field study examines how volunteering and managerialism shape the organizational identity of six patient organizations from six different European countries. Volunteers represent a large part of the workforce in most voluntary associations. Even though the phenomenon of volunteering is becoming more and more important for organizations and society alike, so far it has only been studied at the individual level. The authors draw on the theoretical concept of dual organizational identities to describe the two differing collective self-descriptions that were present in the patient organizations. Drawing on 34 narrative interviews and focus groups, the authors document the differing perceptions of volunteers and paid staff about their organization's identity and show how the conflicting dimensions-volunteer identity and managerial identity-result in intraorganizational conflict.

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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.Résumé Cet article présente les principaux résultats d'une étude de cas longitudinale sur le processus de changement stratégique d'une banque coopérative. En poursuivant tant une mission «sociale» que des raisons explicitement économiques, cette organisation à but non-lucratif particulière fournit un cadre de recherche exemplaire pour examiner les interactions délicates et contradictoires entre l'attention portée à la mission et les impératifs commerciaux. S'écartant de la pratique comme une vision partielle sur la fabrique de la stratégie au quotidien, la méthode qui semble ne pas avoir encore trouvé sa voie dans la recherche sur les organisations à but non-lucratif, permet un regard en profondeur sur la façon dont les personnes entreprennent des décisions en termes de stratégie, malgré les tensions existant entre la mission et les profits. Nos données ont produit trois caractéristiques des pratiques de stratégie dont le but est d'encourager la croissance économique sans porter atteinte à la mission sociale, à savoir le soutien a`des prises de de´cision diverses, la protection des relations stabilise´es et le partage d'expe´riences d'organisation. Partant de résultats empiriques, nous modélisons approximativement les «pratiques d'équilibrage» en tant qu'actions potentiellement importantes pour les stratégies des organisations à but non-lucratif.Zusammenfassung Dieser Artikel legt die Hauptergebnisse einer Langzeitstudie über den Prozess des Strategiewechsels in einer Genossenschaftsbank dar. Eine ''soziale'' Mission und eine ausdrücklich ökonomische Rationale verfolgend ist diese Nonprofit-Organization ein ideales Feld, um das delikate und widersprüchli-che Zusammenspiel von Missionsschwerpunkt und kommerziellen Geboten zu erforschen. Abweichend von der Praxis-Perspektive als Mikrosicht auf tagtägliche Strategieentwicklung-ein Ansatz, der noch nicht seinen Weg in die NPO-Forschung gefunden zu haben scheint-können wir einen tiefen Einblick nehmen, wie Leute trotz Spannungs...

Volunteering is regarded as an increasingly important phenomenon and the ‘employment’ of volunteers as one of the typical traits of nonprofit organizations. However, the consequences of volunteering for everyday practices of NPO‐leadership, i.e. the question of how non‐paid employees are treated in settings where formal power is lacking, have so far not received the attention they deserve. Our paper discusses practices for leading without formal power by presenting findings from an empirical research project. Using a Grounded Theory approach, we identify five interrelated practices that question conventional notions of transformative or charismatic leadership.

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