Vilain, Michael (2014): Patterns in Volunteer Management of German Youth Organizations. In: Freise, Matthias/ Hallmann, Thorsten (eds.), Modernizing Democracy. Associations and Associating in the 21st Century. New York, Springer, S. 217-232.
Zusammenfassung des Artikels
Successful youth organizations have developed specific forms of volunteer management that are not in line with many management concepts currently found in literature and consultant practice. One problem with these concepts seems to be the transfer of for-profit management rationality to non-profit organizations without adapting or even discussing the underlying assumptions. This chapter shows some results of a 2-year study that the IZGS jointly carried out with Bertelsmann Foundation thereby discovering different logics of management different to that of a corporation. Next to other factors of influence these on the one hand result from the characteristics of an organization’s goals (goal logic), on the other hand, there is considerable influence on management resulting from decision-making, namely from the question of who is exercising power in which way and how decisions are taken (steering logic). As a result volunteer management might be seen from a new angle allowing predictions as to which management concepts, tools or instrument might match a youth organizations needs and which might not.