Boards of Directors and Governance Systems: A Practical Guide for Non-Governmental Organizations

This guide was originally released in Spanish in 2014, as a practical tool for strengthening boards of directors of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Latin America. It was born out of a fruitless search and recurring need for culturally and linguistically adapted tools on board development for Latin American organizations. In many cases in the region, board development of civil society organizations is still quite incipient and looks entirely different than in the United States, Western Europe and other contexts. The original version was written mindful of the reality of Latin American organizations, drawing on the successful experiences of some, and the needs and challenges they have identified. Shortly after its release, we began to receive requests for a version in English. After conversations with colleagues in other regions, we understood that the approach and tools might be useful for organizations in other parts of the world

Lessons Learned: The Bush Foundation Infant Toddler Development Program Turns 10

Describes a complex ten-year initiative to develop curricula and train faculty, state agencies, and the child care community in reducing barriers to the healthy development of young children in Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota

Business accomplishments, gender and entrepreneurial self-image

Drawing on Bem's psychological theory of self-perception, this paper presents and tests a model that examines the impact of business accomplishments and gender on entrepreneurial self-image and explores the definition of entrepreneurship according to Vesper's Entrepreneurial Typology.

Awakening the Giant: The Revitalization of the American Labor Movement

[Excerpt] The key to the contemporary revival of the American labor movement is precisely a renewed mobilization of the rank and file. Based on our combined research and work in labor education and representation, we believe that large numbers of American workers, blue and white-collar, skilled and unskilled, professional, service and manufacturing, union members and non-members, are open and in many cases ready for expanded workplace and union participation. To be sure, mobilization by itself is not enough: also necessary are national union support, innovative and flexible strategies, and coalition building, and we highlight these as well. But expanded rank-and-file participation draws on the central union comparative asset - the membership - and is essential to the success of most other strategies as well. In this article, we present an overview of union revitalization strategies and three case studies of successful rank-and-file mobilization. Although not typical, these cases illustrate a variety of advanced union strategies in today\u27s context, along with some of the barriers and resistance to be overcome

Family Orientation, Strategic Orientation and Innovation Performance in SMEs: A Test of Lagged Effects

Past research suggests a negative effect of family orientation on innovation performance. However, many past studies have certain limitations that this study is designed to overcome. In particular,this study estimates lagged effects of family orientation on innovation performance while controlling for organization context variables and the mediating effect of strategic orientation. It also uses a multidimensional approach to measure family orientation while testing for common method bias. This study makes use of a sample of 343 Dutch small and medium size firms. Innovation performance, being the dependent variable, was collected in 2005. All independent variables, i.e. strategy, family orientation and context variables, are collected in previous time periods, with lags ranging between 3 and 4 years. Family orientation is measured according to five independent dimensions including family power, family culture,overlap of ownership and management and intentions to keep the firm in the family.

Aurora Leadership Institutes: Assisting future leaders to maximise their leadership skills and potential

Paper presented at Oceans of Opportunities: Library and Information Association of New Zealand Aotearoa 2003 Conference, 7 – 10 October 2003 Napier, New ZealandThis paper provides background information on the Aurora Leadership Institutes and the Aurora Foundation. The latter part of the paper focuses on the looming leadership crisis in the library profession in New Zealand and overseas and identifies several strategies that require implementation to ensure that the crisis is averted

Hard Lessons about Philanthropy & Community Change from the Neighborhood Improvement Initiative

Between 1996 and 2006, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation invested over $20 million in the Neighborhood Improvement Initiative (NII), an ambitious effort to help three neighborhoods in the Bay Area reduce poverty and develop new leaders, better services, more capable organizations, and stronger connections to resources. On some counts NII succeeded, and on others it struggled mightily. In the end, despite some important accomplishments, NII did not fulfill its participants' hopes and expectations for broad, deep, and sustainable community change. In those accomplishments and shortcomings, and in the strategies that produced them, however, lies a story whose relevance exceeds the boundaries of a single initiative. Our goal is to examine this story in the context of other foundation sponsored initiatives to see if it can help philanthropy support community change and other types of long-term, community-based initiatives more effectively.As we began to review materials and conduct interviews, we learned of NII's accomplishments in each neighborhood, including new organizations incubated, new services stimulated, and new leaders helped to emerge. We also quickly discovered multiple, and often conflicting, perspectives on NII's design, implementation, and outcomes that were hard to reconcile. Some of this Rashomon effect is to be expected in a complex, long-term community change initiative that evolves over time with changing players. Some can also be attributed to the different dynamics and trajectories in each of the three sites.We have tried to describe all points of view as accurately as possible without favoring any one perspective. Moreover, we have tried to look beyond the lessons drawn exclusively from NII and to position all of these varied opinions within a broader field-wide perspective, wherever possible.The frustrations of NII's participants and sponsors are mirrored in many other foundations' major initiatives. Indeed, our reviewers -- who have been involved in many such initiatives as funders, evaluators, technical assistance providers, and intermediaries -- all underscored how familiar they were with the challenges and pitfalls described here, both those related specifically to community change efforts and those pertinent to other initiatives. Because the opportunity to discuss the frustrations candidly has been limited, however, they often are relegated to concerns expressed sotto voce. So it was particularly important throughout the review to solicit from our interviewees ideas or suggestions for improving their work together. We offer these along with our own observations as a way to stimulate further reflection and debate, because we believe that philanthropy has an important role to play in improving outcomes for poor communities and their residents. Few foundations have been willing to contribute to this level of honest and sometimes painful public dialogue. But by commissioning this retrospective analysis, the Hewlett Foundation demonstrates a desire to help the field learn and move forward, and we applaud that

Balanced Innovation Management

The Department of Defense has demonstrated success in managing innovation. The military’s approach to innovation management extends beyond traditional distinctions between internal and external innovation modes. Summarizing specific innovation strategies available to managers develops recognition of this growing reality. The article concludes with resulting lessons that can be more widely adopted by managers

Spartan Daily December 7, 2011

Volume 137, Issue 52https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/1106/thumbnail.jp

Can local institutions reduce poverty? Rural decentralization in Burkina Faso

The authors present evidence that in Burkina Faso, certain high-performing local institutions contribute to equitable economic development. They link reduced levels of poverty, and inequality to a high degree of internal village organization. The structure of these high-performing local organizations means they can exist in a number of African countries, because they depend more on internal participation, rather than on nay one country's cultural assets. The authors find that: 1) Service-asset management groups (SAMs) - one of three local institutions identified in the study - have helped to significantly reduce inequality in participating households. SAMs are a fusion of long-standing development committees, and indigenous management councils that collectively manage community assets, such as water. SAMs have combined the productivity goals of growth, with the values of equity, and solidarity. 2) Current development approaches use growth as an initiator, assuming that surpluses will be used to benefit the poor. SAMs, and other local institutions in Burkina Faso, start with equity, and solidarity, and aim for a result of growth, and development. 3) Internal participation is essential for SAMs to function. Only locally anchored participation can power the realignments, and institutional revisions needed to scale up development action. SAMs, and other local institutions have launched their communities on equitable growth paths, and are reducing poverty with little, or no outside assistance, despite severe resource constraints. Their impact could be enormous if external development resources augmented their potential. World Bank programs, and policy interventions could build on local strength, and make their activities more sustainable by mapping local institutions to guide new initiatives in pro-poor investment, and using that mapping to formalize, and increase internal local participation - expanding nationwide by using a network of local institutions. SAMs, and other local institutions, could be the vehicle for ensuring transparency, and accountability. Working with the results of local activities, national policies could favor the development of indigenously based, but externally oriented local economies.Decentralization,Regional Rural Development,Public Health Promotion,Enterprise Development&Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Regional Rural Development,Health Economics&Finance,Poverty Assessment,Governance Indicators,National Governance