In the Triangle of Civil Society, Politics, and Economy: Positioning Magazines of Nonprofit Organizations

Abstract

Nonprofit organizations, though rooted in civil society and primarily committed to value rationality, must work legitimately to influence political and economic systems. To a certain degree, therefore, they must adapt to the purposive logic of power and money. This study analyzes the way in which nonprofit organizational communications respond to such tensions, using a nationwide survey of editors-in-chief responsible for magazines issued by nonprofit organizations in Switzerland as the empirical basis. These magazines often function as steering tools targeted toward members, following the logic of power and there is less danger of them being ''colonized'' by economic logic. The results indicate that large organizations that rely on paid staff tend to cut their ties with civil society and the ''lifeworlds'' of their members.Résumé Les organisations à but non lucratif, bien qu'ancrées dans la société civile et principalement attachées aux actions rationnelles en valeur, doivent oeuvrer légalement à influencer les systèmes politiques et économiques. Elles doivent par conséquent, et dans une certaine mesure, s'adapter à la logique téléologique du pouvoir et de l'argent. Cette étude analyse la façon dont les moyens de communication des organisations à but non lucratif réagissent à ces tensions, en utilisant les données recueillies d'une enquête nationale des rédacteurs en chef de magazines publiés par des organisations à but non lucratif en Suisse. Ces magazines fonctionnent souvent comme des instruments d'orientation destinés à leurs membres, en suivant la logique du pouvoir, ce qui présente peu de danger pour eux d'être « colonisés » par la logique économique. Les résultats indiquent que les grandes organisations qui comptent sur des employés salariés ont tendance à couper leurs liens avec la société civile et le « monde vécu » de leurs membres.

Nonprofit Organizations Becoming Business-Like

“…The term commercialization captures NPOs' increasing reliance on revenue from sales of goods and services (Salamon, 1993), whereas conversion refers to an organization changing its legal status, in our case from nonprofit to for-profit, and shifting control of assets or responsibility for liabilities from one sector to another (Goddeeris & Weisbrod, 1998). An umbrella term for commercialization and conversion is the concept of economization, which means that NPOs are increasingly driven by monetary concerns (Hoffmann, 2011;Jäger & Beyes, 2010).…”

“…One should not forget in that context that also NPOs themselves may promote business-like approaches (e.g., Lee, 2010), and that business-like approaches such as Fair Trade emerged out of social movements (Webb's, 2007). Finally, professionals may have an interest in introducing business-like standards that require the use of staff like themselves (e.g., Hoffmann, 2011), and also volunteers can, sometimes inadvertently (Lorimer, 2010), contribute to the proliferation of business-like forms.…”

“…Most of them are beyond the scope of this review because they do not deal with those phenomena as examples of NPOs being business-like (for an exception, see Davis et al, 2011). Little information is available about the prevalence of other business-like phenomena such as corporatization (except Bazzoli, 2004) and economization (except e.g., Hoffmann, 2011).…”

The End of Meaningful Work in the Not-for-Profit Sector? A Case Study of Ethics in Employee Relations Under the New Business-Like Operation Regime

“…This has been replaced by consumerism (Cunningham, 2016) and commodification of their activities and outputs (Baines, 2009;Cunningham, 2010;Maier et al, 2016). This involves the adoption of more business-like goals such as an increasing interest in monetary concerns (Hoffmann, 2011;Jäger and Beyes, 2010) and business expansion. There are now 56 super charities with annual income of over £100 million.…”

Slowed Down Economisation: The Persistence of Alternative Trade Organisations

“…haben aufgezeigt, dass eine rationale Organisationsführung und bürokratische Verfahren zur Effizienzsteigerung an Wichtigkeit gewinnen, wenn NPOs durch professionelle Manager geführt werden. Es wurde zudem nachgewiesen, dass von Managern geführte zivilgesellschaftliche Organisationen sich von ihrer sozialen Wertehaltung distanzieren und dem ökonomischen Kalkül mehr Platz einräumen(Hoffmann 2011;Simic und Pedrovic 2014). Fragen der Wirtschaftlichkeit gewinnen folglich an Relevanz, wenn professionelle Manager oder Unternehmensberater mit ihrem ökonomischen Wissen in der Organisation an Einfluss gewinnen.…”