Strategizing in NPOs: A Case Study on the Practice of Organizational Change Between Social Mission and Economic Rationale

Abstract

This article presents the main results of a longitudinal case study of a strategic change process in a cooperative bank. Pursuing both a ''social'' mission and an explicitly economic rationale, this particular nonprofit organization provides an exemplary research setting for inquiring into the delicate and contradictory interplay of mission focus and commercial imperatives. Departing from the practice perspective as a micro-view on everyday strategizing-an approach that seems to have not found its way into NPO-research yet-allows us to take an in-depth look at how people go about the process of making strategy despite the tensions between mission and profit. Our data yields three patterns of strategizing practices that aim at fostering economic growth without damaging the social mission, namely supporting diverse positions, protecting stabilized relationships, and relating to organizational experiences. Building upon our empirical results, we tentatively conceptualize ''balancing practices'' as potentially important acts of strategizing in NPOs.Résumé Cet article présente les principaux résultats d'une étude de cas longitudinale sur le processus de changement stratégique d'une banque coopérative. En poursuivant tant une mission «sociale» que des raisons explicitement économiques, cette organisation à but non-lucratif particulière fournit un cadre de recherche exemplaire pour examiner les interactions délicates et contradictoires entre l'attention portée à la mission et les impératifs commerciaux. S'écartant de la pratique comme une vision partielle sur la fabrique de la stratégie au quotidien, la méthode qui semble ne pas avoir encore trouvé sa voie dans la recherche sur les organisations à but non-lucratif, permet un regard en profondeur sur la façon dont les personnes entreprennent des décisions en termes de stratégie, malgré les tensions existant entre la mission et les profits. Nos données ont produit trois caractéristiques des pratiques de stratégie dont le but est d'encourager la croissance économique sans porter atteinte à la mission sociale, à savoir le soutien a`des prises de de´cision diverses, la protection des relations stabilise´es et le partage d'expe´riences d'organisation. Partant de résultats empiriques, nous modélisons approximativement les «pratiques d'équilibrage» en tant qu'actions potentiellement importantes pour les stratégies des organisations à but non-lucratif.Zusammenfassung Dieser Artikel legt die Hauptergebnisse einer Langzeitstudie über den Prozess des Strategiewechsels in einer Genossenschaftsbank dar. Eine ''soziale'' Mission und eine ausdrücklich ökonomische Rationale verfolgend ist diese Nonprofit-Organization ein ideales Feld, um das delikate und widersprüchli-che Zusammenspiel von Missionsschwerpunkt und kommerziellen Geboten zu erforschen. Abweichend von der Praxis-Perspektive als Mikrosicht auf tagtägliche Strategieentwicklung-ein Ansatz, der noch nicht seinen Weg in die NPO-Forschung gefunden zu haben scheint-können wir einen tiefen Einblick nehmen, wie Leute trotz Spannungs...

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