Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
9-2018
Abstract
Observers have noted that organizations in allsectors, whether business, nonprofit, or government, havebeen moving toward rationalized structures that presupposeand express empowered organizational actorhood. Wedraw upon neo-institutional theory in this paper to extendthe argument: The arrival of organizational actorhood hasprecipitated a concomitant, cross-sectoral movementtoward organizational social responsibility. Whereasexisting research has tended to theorize the social responsibilities of businesses, we develop a pyramid conceptualschema to array the social responsibilities of nonprofits.We then document the coevolution of organizationalactorhood and responsibility across both sectors with ametastudy of nearly 200 extant surveys. We chart theinstitutionalization of a slate of formal structures thatexpress organizational actorhood (i.e., mission statements,vision statements, and strategic plans) and that profess anddefine organizational social responsibilities (i.e., core values, ethics codes, and responsibility communications). Weclose with implications and future directions for organizational studies and research on corporate socialresponsibility.
Keywords
Nonprofit accountability, Nonprofit social responsibility, Corporate social responsibility, Organizational actorhood, Nonprofit ethics, Mission statements
Discipline
Political Science
Research Areas
Political Science
Publication
Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations
Volume
29
Issue
6
ISSN
0957-8765
Identifier
10.1007/s11266-018-0038-3
Publisher
Springer Verlag (Germany)
Citation
POPE, Shawn, BROMLEY, Patricia, LIM, Alwyn, & MEYER, John W..(2018). The pyramid of nonprofit responsibilities: The institutionalization of organizational actorhood across sectors. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 29(6).
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2764
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-018-0038-3