| In applying management techniques to nonprofit organizations, there is some debate about how to treat nonprofit organizations since their goal is something other than earning a profit for their owners. On the one hand, numerous authors have argued for certain unique characteristics of nonprofit organizations, particularly with regard to mission and strategic direction, and claim that these factors make it inappropriate to treat nonprofits the same as for-profit organizations (Duncan, Ginter, Kreidel, 1994; Nutt & Backoff, 1992; Perry & Rainey, 1988). In contrast, some authors have argued that apart from some legal and tax-related issues, nonprofit organizations do not differ markedly from for-profit corporations. Management concepts can and should be applied to nonprofit organizations just as diligently as they are applied to profit-oriented firms (Newman & Wallender, 1978; Oster, 1995).;The nature of the characteristics which some argue distinguish nonprofits from profit-oriented firms and the impact that these characteristics have on organizational performance is based largely on assumption, rather than empirical findings. Consequently, we do not know if we can freely apply our traditional managerial practices to nonprofit organizations or if we need to adapt these models, taking into consideration the distinctive nature of nonprofit organizations.;The purpose of this dissertation was to empirically test for the presence of the characteristics, pluralistic goals, labor intense, diverse sources of funds, professionalism and voluntary boards, presumed to distinguish nonprofit organizations from for-profit organizations and to investigate the effect that these characteristics have on the performance of nonprofit organizations and the strategies that nonprofit organizations pursue. To test the hypotheses in this study, survey data from 91 nonprofit and for-profit nursing homes and archival data from 991 nursing homes was used. The results support the hypotheses that certain characteristics exist to a greater extent in nonprofit organizations than in for-profit organizations and these characteristics influence the financial and non-financial performance of nonprofit organizations and the generic strategies that they pursue. |
