Becoming business-like: governing the nonprofit professional

King, D ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0277-8444, 2017. Becoming business-like: governing the nonprofit professional. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 46 (2), pp. 241-260. ISSN 0899-7640

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Abstract

How do nonprofit practitioners learn to understand themselves as nonprofit professionals? Although the literature has explored the extent and repercussions of nonprofits becoming more business-like and professionalized, little attention has been placed on the process through which this professionalization occurs. Using an autoethnography based on my practice as cofounder and eventual manager of a small nonprofit organization, this article narrates the range of practices and mechanisms through which I came to understand myself as a nonprofit professional. Following Mitchell Dean, who draws heavily on Michel Foucault’s later work, this article argues that professionalization is taught to nonprofit practitioners through two intertwined mechanisms: the “technologies of performance,” which include funding, and evaluation and monitoring procedures; and “technologies of agency,” which involve the often subtle socialization mechanisms into the sector. It thus deepens our understanding of how the transition toward being more business-like is occurring.

Item Type:	Journal article
Publication Title:	Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly
Creators:	King, D.
Publisher:	Sage
Date:	2017
Volume:	46
Number:	2
ISSN:	0899-7640
Identifiers:	Number Type 10.1177/0899764016663321 DOI
Rights:	Copyright © 2017 by Association For Research On Nonprofit Organizations And Voluntary Action
Divisions:	Schools > Nottingham Business School
Record created by:	Jonathan Gallacher
Date Added:	08 Sep 2016 08:22
Last Modified:	09 Jun 2017 14:05
URI:	https://irep.ntu.ac.uk/id/eprint/28405

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