March 17, 2005 | Read Time: 1 minute
Organizational and Structural Dilemmas in Nonprofit Human Service Organizations
edited by Hillel Schmid
This collection of 10 essays by academics who study the nonprofit world explores common problems that social-service charities confront in carrying out their missions.
In his introduction, Hillel Schmid, a professor at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the volume’s editor, describes how nonprofit organizations are playing a bigger role as governments relinquish some of their responsibilities in providing services to needy people. He explores how charities can remain independent from government even as they accept more government funds.
The book then looks at a wide range of challenges for nonprofit officials and how they can be resolved. For instance, two essayists identify how a nonprofit executive’s management style and weak board oversight can lead to “flameout at the top” — through financial or sexual misconduct, for instance. Another article focuses on the relationships between volunteers and paid staff members and identifies questions that managers can ask to assess a volunteer program and determine its appropriate role within the organization.
In other essays, authors discuss issues such as the role of religious congregrations in providing services, the differences between for-profit and nonprofit groups in the home-care industry, and the role of welfare-to-work services.
Publisher: Haworth Press, 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, N.Y. 13904-1580; (607) 722-5857 or (800) 429-6784; fax (607) 771-0012; getinfo@haworthpressinc.com; http://www.haworthpressinc.com; 225 pages; $24.95 paperback; $39.95 cloth; ISBN 0-7890-2551-5.
