Offers a valuable resource for scholars, teachers, students, and nonprofit practitioners interested in understanding nonprofit work from a communication perspective
This sophisticated yet accessible book explores the dynamics of organizational communication in the context of nonprofit work. It delves deeply into the subjects of communication and social construction and develops several key subject areas and issues including leadership, management, and governance; the marketization of nonprofit work; collaboration and organizational partnerships; meaningful labor; and international nonprofit work.
Understanding Nonprofit Work: A Communication Perspective is the first resource to bring together the considerable and voluminous amount of communication scholarship and nonprofit research available in academia. Moving beyond the simplistic notion of communication as merely the transmission of information, it instead develops a more insightful approach to nonprofit work based on the concept of communication as social construction, explaining the implications and applications of this distinct communication perspective in ways that will benefit both communication scholars and nonprofit practitioners. Additionally, this book:
- Brings together a wealth of information in communication theory and nonprofit organizations in a thoughtful, approachable style
- Demonstrates the application and utility of a communication perspective across several key aspects of nonprofit work
- Written by two well-known scholars in the field with considerable experience in nonprofit work - teaching, research, volunteering, consulting, and board membership
Understanding Nonprofit Work is an ideal book for advanced undergraduate and graduate level students in courses on nonprofit work, or broader classes on organizational communication and public administration that have units on the nonprofit sector. This book is also perfect for nonprofit professionals looking to develop a more sophisticated and insightful approach to their work.
Table of Contents
Preface vii
About the Authors x
Acknowledgments xi
1 Developing a Communication Perspective on the Nonprofit 1
Matthew A. Koschmann and Matthew L. Sanders
2 Communicative L-M-G: Leadership, Management, and Governance 29
Matthew A. Koschmann
3 The Marketization of Nonprofit Work 53
Matthew L. Sanders
4 Collabrocation: Thinking Communicatively about Collaboration 77
Matthew A. Koschmann
5 Meaningful Work and the Nonprofit 109
Matthew L. Sanders
6 International Nonprofit Work 137
Matthew A. Koschmann
Conclusion: Understanding What it Means to be Nonprofit 159
Matthew A. Koschmann and Matthew L. Sanders
Index 169
