David Holloway

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how performance management systems in nonprofit organizations are influenced by their funding sources. It explains how resources motivate organizations to diversify their strategies with attended performance management systems. Design/methodology/approach It adopts a qualitative case study approach involving semi-structured interviews with key informants in a nonprofit organization to understand the evolving nature of performance management systems associated with different funding sources. Findings The findings suggest that the case study organization changed its revenue base along with its performance management systems to satisfy the reporting and accountability requirements of different funding sources. Despite external funding sources detailing different restrictions and requirements, the overall performance management system was able to manage these different expectations. Research limitations/implications This study is based on a single case study, and its findings need to be interpreted with care, as there are differences between nonprofit organizations because they differ in their environments, services and funding. Originality/value This paper contributes to extant knowledge on how organizational performance management is influenced by funding sources, providing insights at the operational and governance levels.

Improvements in governance and management are vital to the continued success of third sector organisations. This study investigated the governance and executive management in two case study organisations in the disability sector in Australia. The findings highlight the importance of the relationship between the board and the chief executive officer (CEO). The board's role is to make strategic choices about the governance structure for the organisation, including the manner of agency placed on the CEO. The benefits and risks of hourglass-shaped or accessible board-staff communication are examined in this context.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to report on a study of change management practices in private sector organisations in the small island economy of Mauritius. Design/methodology/approach: Interviews were conducted with key decision makers and individuals who had experienced the organisational change process in three private organisations from different sectors in Mauritius: a bank, a hotel and a privatised state-owned enterprise. A grounded theory approach was employed to establish the key dimensions of organisational change in this setting. Findings: Organisational change is a multi-dimensional, multi-directional and evolutionary process strongly influenced by the contextual and historical aspects of the country. The emerging key elements of change identified in the data confirmed a range of dimensions evident in the extant literature, but also identified a largely unacknowledged factor, considered to be central to the change process in Mauritian organisations. This emerging factor was identified as partisanship. Originality/value: This study served to confirm six dimensions evident in the extant literature on organisational change: organisational structure, organisational culture, leadership processes, individuals, knowledge management and resistance to change. A seventh dimension, and heretofore largely unacknowledged factor, considered to be central to the change process in Mauritian organisations was also identified: partisanship. The study identified this emerging key dimension as having a pervasive influence. History, culture and context have served to embed this dimension in Mauritian organisations. Evidence is presented to illustrate how the process of organisational change is undertaken in Mauritius, and identify the role of partisanship. This has the potential to be applied to other small island economies with similar historical, cultural or contextual features.

As part of a social change agenda, nonprofit organisations engage in activities that contribute to debate and influence the development of public policy. This article presents the initial findings from a study investigating whether nonprofit organisations do participate in advocacy activities and if they do, how are they advocating and engaging in public debate without risking their current and future sources of funding. The key findings from the research have identified that the extent of advocacy by the nonprofit organisations studied has not diminished. A model, built on the findings from the literature on how nonprofit organisations approach advocacy, is applied to explain the advocacy activities by the case study organisations. These nonprofit organisations are identifying what they see to be the appropriate advocacy strategies to fit their organisational objectives, policies, funding sources and resources.

This qualitative study investigated corporate governance and management practices, with a particular focus on communications between the board and senior management, in two disability service organisations in the nonprofit sector. Fifteen interviewees participated across the two case studies and their insights and contributions were thematically analysed. Among the key findings was a significant contrast in communication processes across the two organisations. In one, communications were tightly controlled by the CEO (hourglass-shaped approach) and, in the second, there was a more accessible communication process between the board and senior management. This paper explores these two communication models.

Corporate governance practices have changed significantly across the world in the past three decades. Spectacular corporate failures during this period have acted as a catalyst for the development of codes and guidelines that have resulted in the global acceptance of a 'best practice' model. This study assesses the relevance of such a 'one size fits all model' for the developing nation state of Vietnam. The findings of this analytical paper is that there are three key elements (government, international institutions and the nature of business) that are pertinent and central to corporate governance developments in the country. We also find that the quality of corporate governance in Vietnam is at a medium level when compared to international practices. Vietnam still has a long way to go to construct and embed effective corporate governance policies and practices and promote ethical business behaviours and sound decision making at board level.

Australian bushfires are renowned for their ferocity and destructive capability. Although much attention is paid to fires in the comparatively well-populated southern half of Australia, most fire activity occurs in the northern half of the continent (Russel–Smith and Yates et. al. 2007). Further, fires in this area are usually anthropogenic [man made] in origin (Russel–Smith and Yates et. al. 2007: 369). This paper calls attention to community discontent about landscape and fire in the Kimberley region in northern Western Australia and suggests that fire-related public authorities should pay more attention to community engagement and the views of long-term residents .Via the use of qualitative research, including in-depth interviews, this research reveals that many long-term residents of the Kimberley region are concerned about fire-management regimes and the effect these have on the landscape, cultural heritage and biodiversity of the area. Some feel that the prescribed burns in the area are not small-scale mosaic burns, and frequently get out of control, and that there is a lack of operational transparency and effective community engagement on the part of relevant authorities involved in the management of fire. It appears that a number of respondents construct ‘fire’ as something that is managed successfully (either for carbon farming or for the preservation of assets) while others represent ‘fire’ as something that needs to be managed more effectively (for the preservation of biodiversity and cultural value of the landscape). These issues underline other pressures and constructions around residents who live with the impacts of fire -based practices, and the expert authorities who make the relevant decisions in this highly-charged area of land/resource management. The qualitative fieldwork that informs this paper has been carried out with community members in the Kununurra area of Western Australia. The informants were interviewed about existing information and communication practices around fire, fire information, fire safety, fire suppression and fire mitigation. The interviews, carried out in 2012 and 2013, have been analysed using a ‘communicative ecology’ framework.