Affective consequences of non-profits becoming business-like: a systemic perspective

Abstract

There is consensus among academics that business discourse in the non-profit sector is now commonplace. This trend, which began in the 1950s, is variously described as the commercialisation, managerialisation, and professionalisation of Non-Profit Organisations (NPOs). For some, this has led to neoliberal market vocabulary becoming the dominant discourse. For others, hybrid cultures now combine for-profit ideation and practice with prosocial values. This thesis proposes that this interacting duality has affective consequences for organisational actors. Ludwig Wittgenstein used the phrase ‘language games’ to describe how realities are socially constructed and maintained in human systems. This research explores what is socially constructed when market and prosocial ideologies co-exist and/or clash in NPOs. While there is a significant body of research on the causes and corporate impact of NPOs becoming business-like, researchers lament the dearth of studies on the social consequences of business rhetoric. With this gap in mind, this is a dialogical inquiry into the lived experiences of ten participants (two each) from five Christian international NGOs who identify as faith-permeated. Despite the type of organisation chosen, insights from this inquiry can be applied to any NPO facing relational tensions between prosocial and business values. Participants were interviewed twice, the first time in a semi-structured appreciative inquiry-styled session. These interviews were analysed using a thematic analysis process. Taking an epistemological position that visceral, emotional, and other corporeal forms of knowing are legitimate forms of meaning-making, the second session was an art-based discussion designed to evoke stories of participants’ lived experiences of organisational life. These stories were then used to complement and make sense of the five themes foregrounded by the thematic analysis. As an insider researcher with 30 years of experience as an HR professional in the UK non-profit sector, this thesis also includes the researcher’s autoethnographic accounts as another resource for understanding the affective consequences of value-incongruence on NPO practitioners. Most participants of this study believed that for-profit practices would make their organisations more financially sustainable. Paradoxically, they also spoke to tensions arising from incongruence between prosocial and neoliberal market values. In many instances, these tensions have led to a loss of idealism, causing disillusionment, cynicism, and low morale. Stories told by participants suggest that tensions occur when practices they deem incongruent with their values are imposed. In response, NPO managers use human resource management techniques to create alignment and conformance. This reinforces the sense of incongruity and exacerbates inter-domain tensions. To break this deficit pattern, this thesis recommends that NPOs explore and, where appropriate, innovate forms of ‘organising’ that cohere with their unique ideology, philosophy, and values rather than uncritically adopting business practices. For organisations that regard diversity, equality, and inclusion as integral to their prosocial values, this thesis proposes using alternative forms of organising, such as systemic practice over market-informed managerialism. This requires making the paradigmatic shift from a top-down, diagnostic approach to organising towards a relationally responsive, ethically based, dialogical paradigm that views organisations as communication-based ecosystems consisting of multiple voices, perspectives, values, and experiences.