Title

Nine Empirical Guidelines For Top Leadership Teams In Nonprofit Organizations

Abstract

Organizations, nonprofit and for-profit alike, are increasingly relying on teams to achieve their various goals (Salas, Stagl and Burke, 2004). An increasing reliance on leadership teams is similarly evident in research and practice (Hambrick, 2007; Morgeson, DeRue and Karam, 2010). And while team and top management team (TMT) research has blossomed in the past 30 years (Carpenter, Geletkanycz and Sanders, 2004; Hambrick, 2007), research on leadership teams in nonprofit organizations (NPOs) is sorely needed (Courtney, Marnoch and Williamson, 2006). It has been argued that the complexity of NPOs in comparison to for-profits (a function of the existence of multiple stakeholders, missions, donors, classes of workers and the saliency of the dual governance system) necessitates even more effective approaches to leadership (Anheier, 2005; Finkelstein, 1992; Jager and Beyes, 2010), and by extension, a more nuanced understanding of the construction and functioning of top leadership teams. NPOs are an increasingly important part of modern society (Anheier, 2005; Ferris, 1998), yet the majority of research focus is placed on for-profit organizations. Concepts and theories from the for-profit world are applicable to NPOs to a certain extent, though research tends to overlook the complexities of the nonprofit world when applying these constructs (Jager and Beyes, 2010). TMTs and corporate boards represent the core leadership teams in NPOs; to understand and facilitate effective leadership in NPOs, it is imperative that we understand the conditions, characteristics and processes that contribute to leadership effectiveness in these teams. Process-based models of teams have guided research and practice in other settings (e.g., Ilgen, Hollenbeck, Johnson and Jundt, 2005; Rosen et al., 2008; Salas, Bowers and Cannon- Bowers, 1995). To this end, we review relevant literature on top leadership teams (i.e., corporate boards and TMTs) in not-for-profit and for-profit organizations, in order to address qualitatively two key questions.

Publication Date

1-1-2012

Publication Title

Human Resource Management in the Nonprofit Sector: Passion, Purpose and Professionalism

Number of Pages

117-142

Document Type

Article; Book Chapter

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.4337/9780857937308.00012

Socpus ID

84881755667 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/84881755667

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