Why a For-Profit Mentality Often Fails to Help the Social Sector

I’ve spent most of my working life in the nonprofit sector, albeit in some of its more unconventional corners–like the Harvard Business Review. Recent polls and surveys indicate that growing numbers of other Americans would like to do the same: because they are completing–or getting close to completing–their careers in the for-profit sector. (Half of the respondents in a recent MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures survey of baby boomers, aged 44-70, said they’d like to have a second "social purpose" career.) Or, because it’s something they aspire to do before becoming eligible for a gold watch (or a gold iPhone).

If you’re reading this, then you likely share a similar interest in nonprofit pursuits, but the challenge for those of us–myself included–who’ve been deeply exposed to management in all its codified glory is not to fall into the trap of unconscious arrogance when we approach nonprofit organizations. What do I mean by that? Simply put, it’s the ever-so-easy assumption that what you know is how the world works. Or in this case, that whatever makes for success in the world of business will be equally applicable in the nonprofit world. So if the organization you’re involved with–as a volunteer, board member or actual employee–doesn’t hew the party line, it must be because its leadership is clueless. .

by Nan Stone

Full Story: http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/good-business/2008/10/why-the-forprofit-mentality-fa.html