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Enjolras awarded

Wednesday 23 June 2010

Bernard Enjolras has won the 2010 Academy of Management Public and Nonprofit (PNP) Best Article Award for his paper paper entitled ”A Governance-Structure Approach to Voluntary Organizations”.

Bernard Enjolras

The paper was published in 2009 in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. The award is issued by the 2010 Academy of Management Public and Nonprofit (PNP) Division Best Article Award Committee.

Enhance reciprocity
The article presents a governance-structure approach to the study of voluntary organizations. Enjolras emphasizes that voluntary organizations can enhance norms of reciprocity and make it possible to pool resources based on this reciprocity principle.

- Voluntary organizations operate by a logic that is different from both private companies and public institutions, says Enjolras. - But they are frequently understood merely as opposites to the public or private sector. In this article I present some of the specificities of voluntary organizations, and the consequences these have for the way nonprofits should be governed.

- Breaks new ground
Members of the Award Committee praise Enjolras for his contribution.

- This article breaks new ground in our understanding of voluntary organizations. Using the governance structure of nonprofits as a way to understand why nonprofits, in contrast to market and government failure theories, exist and perform. We get a more complete picture of how reciprocity or donative gifts are exchanged through nonprofits and how governance structures may result in undermining trustworthiness and efficiency, writes one committee member.

Another Committee member writes: -I found this a very thoughtful piece in an area not so often researched. The argument is sound and the development of the models very helpful. It seems that real developments could occur as a result of the piece.

The Academy of Management is an international professional association for researchers in the field of management and organization. The Best Article Award will be presented at the PNP Business Meeting on Sunday, August 08, 2010 in Montréal, Canada.

Bernard Enjolras is Research Director at the Institute for Social Research.