Cultural transition and organizational performance: the non-profit context

IMPACT

The non-profit sector internationally is having to make significant changes to survive. This paper shows how a non-profit can successfully transition from a traditional culture focused on social objectives, to a new hybrid culture incorporating both social and economic objectives. The paper has important lessons for major stakeholders of non-profits with respect to understanding the effects of cultural transition on their organizational performance, as well as the critical role that managers play in making cultural transitions.

ABSTRACT

Environmental pressures mean that non-profit organizations are having to transition to an internal culture that blends values supporting both social and economic objectives. The authors examined the effect of cultural transition on performance for a large sample of non-profit organizations. Performance was found to decrease before increasing during cultural transition, i.e. there is a U-shaped relationship between organizational culture and performance. The paper’s findings have implications for non-profit management and academic research.

KEYWORDS:

• Cultural transition
• non-profit organizations
• organizational culture
• organizational performance
• stakeholder culture

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).