Nonprofit provider paradigms: excellence, sustainability, viability and identity

Abstract

An emergent 'nonprofit provider' typology identifies and elaborates two dimensions of organisational change and four practice paradigms for community and health services nonprofit organisations in Western Australia. The two dimensions of the typology relate to the nature of 'attrition or accumulation' of services and the nature of 'atrophy or aggregation' of infrastructure. The practice paradigms have been called 'excellence', 'sustainability', 'viability' and 'identity' to represent the main thrust of organisational concern within each paradigm. Each paradigm involves a set of different ideas about governance, management and service delivery. The typology has emerged from a followup study to Powerless Places and Placeless Powers, which explored organisational reshaping in Western Australian community and health services from 1984-1996. The original study identified parameters of the new geographies of the third (nonprofit) sector within the institutional context of community and health services practice. The follow-up study mapped ongoing organisational reshaping from 1997-2005. Combined the two studies provide a 20-year window into nonprofit organisational change in (Western) Australia.