Public management scholars are interested in the ways that public managers can improve the performance of their organizations and, by extension, public service outcomes. However, public sector outcomes are increasingly being produced by nonprofi t organizations. Nonprofi ts have encountered increased pressures to improve eff ectiveness in recent years, both from their funding entities and from the public. A growing body of public management research has shown that managerial networking can pay dividends for organizational eff ectiveness, yet no studies to date have considered the eff ects of managerial networking on nonprofi t eff ectiveness. Th is is the fi rst study to apply the basic elements of Meier and O'Toole's model to the nonprofi t sector. Using survey data from a random sample of 314 nonprofi t human service organizations in 16 U.S. states, the authors explore the frequency of various networking relationships on organizational and advocacy eff ectiveness. Th e fi ndings reveal that political networking increases advocacy eff ectiveness and community networking increases organizational eff ectiveness.T he underlying motivation of public management research is to explore the ways in which managers can improve public sector outcomes. However, public sector outcomes are increasingly being produced by nonprofi t organizations. Th e rise of third-party government "makes federal agencies increasingly dependent on a host of third party institutions to carry out their public missions" (Salamon 1995, 6). Given their substantial role in the provision of public services, surprisingly little attention has been paid to the management of nonprofi t organizations by public management scholars.Th e study of nonprofi t managers by public management scholars is essential to understanding the management-performance relationship because nonprofi t organizations are similar to and diff erent from public organizations (Brooks 2002;Chen 2012;Desai and Snavely 2012; Lee and Wilkins 2012;Murray 2010). Does our understanding of the management-performance relationship change when we focus on the nonprofi t sector? Do our public management models apply equally and, if not, how do they diff er? Th is article uses the tenets of Meier and O'Toole's public management model to explore the management-performance relationship in nonprofi t organizations by focusing specifi cally on the impact of nonprofi t managerial networking on nonprofi t eff ectiveness.

Strategic management, Female managers, Organizational performance,

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Human resource management (HRM) has been shown to impact organizational performance, but more research is needed on particular human resource (HR) practices in nonprofits and their effect on performance. In this article, we explore one HRM practice argued to influence performance, employee engagement in decision‐making, examining whether involving staff at different levels of a nonprofit affects nonprofit organizational performance. Drawing on data from a 2011 study of nonprofit hospitals, we find employee engagement has a positive influence on managerial and stakeholder perceptions of organizational performance. Employee engagement in decision‐making is also related to objective nonprofit performance measures, although the effects are less consistent. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for nonprofit research and practice.

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