The liability of nonprofits to donors

Abstract

The success of the third sector depends on public confidence, and that confidence rests, in part, on holding managers, directors, and officers of nonprofits responsible for their conduct. This accountability can be accomplished by clearly defining the roles of these individuals and the stands that they are to uphold, and by providing channels for all interested to challenge uncontrolled activities. Though interest in this goal is unanimous, a debate exists over how to ensure oversight and accountability.

Conflict of Interest: Organizational Vs. Executive Ethics in Health Care

“…Ethics permeates both the day-to-day and critical aspects of health care administration (Ehlen and Sprenger, 1998). Immanent to the nature of the services provided, even the most unambiguous role decisions have ethical implications for those receiving as well as those providing the services; implications which extend to the broader industry and society as a whole (Darr, 1995;Balda, 1994). Biological and technological advances, regulatory pressures, fiscal constraints, advocate demands, and concentrated decision-making elevate the ethical issues inherent in critical decisions to a level unlike that of any other sector executive.…”

The Influence of Ethical Reasoning on Leader Effectiveness

“…O'Neill (1992) asserts that the leader of a nonprofit organization "is expected not only to adhere to but also to create, shape, and articulate the organization' s values in a special way" (p. 205). He and Balda (1994) go on to argue that given the nature of nonprofit leadership, ethical issues here are of greater complexity and substance than are those in other sectors.…”

How Will We Know It When We See It? Conceptualizing the Ethical Organization

“…Whether intentional (Jurkiewicz and Thompson 1999;Lewis 1989) or unintentional (Balda 1994), whether through formal (O'Neill 1992) or informal (Jurkiewicz and Thompson 1999) means of influence, followers tend to shift their personal ethical orientations to more closely align with that of an accepted leader (Jurkiewicz 2002a, b;Baumhart 1961;Schmidt and Posner 1988). While some adjustments of this sort are conscious, most result from unconscious internalization of the authority figures' views (Kramer and Messick 1996).…”