"the other side of the coin": What do business schools teach the typical business undergraduate student about the nonprofit sector? A case study from the Netherlands

This article focuses on the exposure of the typical undergraduate business student to the nonprofit sector and management, as opposed to focusing on learning opportunities available to interested students in particular, as is typically reviewed in research on nonprofit management education. To address this novel question, the authors employed a multimethod research strategy to investigate the coverage of the nonprofit sector in the undergraduate business degree program of a leading international business school: the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University in the Netherlands. Based on an exhaustive review of course syllabi, interviews with faculty members, systematic analysis of course lecture notes, and a student discussion group, the results show rather tepid attention to the nonprofit sector and management in the undergraduate curriculum. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for instruction of business administration undergraduate students to prepare them for interaction with the nonprofit sector

Designing “National Day of Service” Projects to Promote Volunteer Job Satisfaction

National Day of Service (NDS) volunteering events have become common, yet little is known about how the design of such events affects volunteer satisfaction. This relationship is important because volunteer satisfaction ensures a strong volunteer base for special events and promotes sustained volunteerism. We explore how the design of NDS projects promotes volunteer job satisfaction. Our approach to the research question is informed by work design theory. Based on interview, participant observation, and focus-group data from an NDS in the Netherlands, the findings suggest that nonprofit organizations can elicit volunteer job satisfaction by designing NDS projects that create a sense of added value, support productivity, and make volunteers feel comfortable. Designing NDS projects that incorporate task significance, symbolic social support, feedback from others, beneficiary contact, task identity, project preparation, physically demanding work, social support, and limited autonomy help to achieve these goals