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Precarious Work: Exploring the Intersections of Neoliberal Marketization, COVID-19, and Meaningful Work in Nonprofits

Tue, July 16, 2:00 to 3:30pm, TBA

Abstract

Nonprofit scholars and practitioners often assume that individuals driven by prosocial values (see Bassous, 2015) gravitate toward and stay with nonprofit work despite the socioeconomic or organizational environment. A growing body of scholarship tells a different story (Kuenzi et al., 2021; Oelberger, 2019; Robichau & Sandberg, 2022; Sandberg & Robichau, 2022; Venter et al., 2019). By exploring how evolving institutional and organizational environments affect nonprofit workers’ experience of meaningful work, research has uncovered worrisome trends that hold implications for the stability of the workforce, such as increased emphasis on pay and benefits and feeling manipulated by leadership. These trends leave workers feeling burned out and questioning their commitment to nonprofit work. Some of this is due to the influence of neoliberalism, which, since the 1970s, has generated more marketized nonprofits emphasizing efficiency and productivity over collaboration, compassion, and service (Sandberg & Russo, forthcoming).

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated issues presented by the “do more with less” ethos defining the contemporary marketized nonprofit (Fanelli et al., 2017). Revenues have plummeted while need for services has increased; programs are being cut; and layoffs are commonplace (see Kim, 2022). Now, as nonprofit workers report feeling disconnected, overwhelmed, overworked, and concerned over their future employment and health (see Kim, 2022), this research warrants development.

This paper presents findings from a study exploring the intersections of neoliberal marketization, the pandemic, and meaningful nonprofit work to understand how the pandemic has influenced marketization in nonprofits and how nonprofits support their workers. Contemporary research (e.g., Kuenzi et al., 2021; Oelberger, 2019; Robichau & Sandberg, 2022; Sandberg & Robichau, 2022; Venter et al., 2019) also indicates several factors impact nonprofit workers’ experience of work, namely the nature of the work, organizational culture, interpersonal work relationships, and leadership. Further, this research demonstrates that gender and racial and ethnic identity as well as one’s position in the organization impact one’s experience of work. Thus, we examine how the organization's pandemic response affected workers' work experiences and how those experiences were shaped by identity aspects. Understanding workers’ experience of meaningful work is essential to ascertain their commitment to their work (Chalofsky & Krishna, 2009).

This study employs a case study approach (Stake, 2005). The selected case is a large nonprofit organization on the West Coast of the U.S. operating in the behavioral health field. The study employs a participatory approach and mixed-method data collection strategy. Data collection follows Morgan’s (2014) pragmatic framework, specifically the sequential design in which quantitative data collection and analysis (Phase I: survey) is followed by qualitative data collection and analysis (Phase II: focus groups and interviews), with interpretation of results following (Phase III). The study assesses workers’ experience of meaningful work, job satisfaction, sense of belonging, and attachment to work.
This study contributes to the field by offering an in-depth study of all workers in one organization to demonstrate the effects of neoliberal marketization and the pandemic. Additionally, our study explores the intersections of different HR strategies on workers experiences of meaningful work identifying implications for managers.

References

Bassous, M. (2015). What are the factors that affect worker motivation in faith-based nonprofit organizations? Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 26(1), 355-381.

Chalofsky, N., & Krishna, V. (2009). Meaningfulness, commitment, and engagement: the intersection of a deeper level of intrinsic motivation. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 11(2), 189-203.

Fanelli, C., Rudman, D.L., & Aldrich, R.M. (2017). Precarity in the nonprofit employment services sector. Canadian Review of Sociology, 54(3), 331-352.

Florian, M., Costas, J., & Kärreman, D. (2019). Struggling with meaningfulness when context shifts: Volunteer work in a German refugee shelter. Journal of Management Studies, 56(3), 589-616.

Kim, M. (2022). Framing effects, procedural fairness, and the nonprofit managers’ reactions to job layoffs in response to the economic shock of the COVID-19 crisis. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations,
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-021-00439-2

Kuenzi, K., Stewart, A. J., & Walk, M. (2021). COVID-19 as a nonprofit workplace crisis: Seeking insights from the nonprofit workers’ perspective. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 31(4), 821–832.

Morgan, D.L. (2014). Integrating Qualitative and Quantitative Methods: A Pragmatic Approach. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications.

Oelberger, C.R. (2019) The dark side of deeply meaningful work: work-relationship turmoil and the moderating role of occupational value homophily, Journal of Management Studies, 56(3): 558–88.

Robichau, R.W. & Sandberg, B. (2022). Creating meaningfulness in public service work: A qualitative comparative analysis of public and nonprofit managers’ experience of work. American Review of Public Administration, 52(2), 122-138.

Sandberg, B. & Robichau, R.W. (2022). The hybridization of meaningful nonprofit work: An exploratory study of the effects of marketization on nonprofit managers’ sense of meaningfulness in work. Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 51(3), 606-632.

Sandberg, B. & Russo, A. (Forthcoming). Oppression, Exploitation and Possibilities for Emancipation Under Neoliberalism: Nonprofit Organizing and Voluntary Action from the View of Critical Theory and Postmodernism. In The Handbook of Critical Perspectives on Nonprofit Organizing and Voluntary Action: Concepts, Applications and Future Directions. Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Stake, R.E. (2005). Qualitative case studies. In N.K. Denzin and Y.S. Lincoln (eds.), The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research (3rd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Venter, K., D. Currie, and M. McCracken (2019), ‘‘You can’t win’: The non-profit double-bind and experiences of organisational contradictions in the non-profit and voluntary sector’. Work, Employment and Society, 33(2), 244–261.

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