Bringing marketing into nonprofit organisations: A managerial nightmare!

• Managers often underestimate the challenges of introducing market orientation.
• Selling the need for change within nonprofit organisations is difficult, even for experienced managers as each organisation is unique.
• Role changes for employees involve increased professionalism and accountability, coupled with introduction of a ‘new language’ – the language of business.
• Charities can improve performance (both service delivery and revenue generation) via introducing market orientation.
• Traditional employees mis-understand the nature of ‘marketing’, by selling the actual benefits of market orientation, employees will adapt and be positive to the change.

Many Boards and CEOs of nonprofit organisations face a dilemma in today's increasingly competitive market, that of introducing cultural change by forcing adoption of a market orientation to improve performance. The problem lies in that employees and managers misunderstand or have serious apprehensions towards marketing. In extreme cases, employees call it “going to the darkside”. Via an in-depth case study, the tension-filled process by which management introduced market orientation into a charity is examined. The benefit of the paper is that it forewarns managers of what to expect regarding potential employee resistance. We identify and provide solutions for senior managers considering cultural change towards greater emphasis on marketing activities. The paper advances academic knowledge regarding use of market orientation in charities, with a unique contribution being examination of the change process, managerial experiences and reaction of employees.

Chinese abstract当今市场竞争日趋激烈，许多非营利组织的董事会和ＣＥＯ都面临着一项进退两难的任务，即强制性引入以市场为导向的政策，进行组织文化变革，以提高组织业绩。问题的根源在于，员工和管理者对市场营销有着误解或严重的忧虑。甚至有员工将之称为：“与敌同行”。本文开展了深入的案例分析，此案例为一慈善机构的管理层在充满紧张气氛的过程中，引入了市场导向。本文研究有助于管理者在引入市场导向时，预先了解员工会产生什么样的抗拒。通过案例分析，本文提出了可供高层管理借鉴的解决方案，以供管理者进行文化变革，加强营销活动。本文推进了在慈善机构中应用市场导向的学术研究，尤其是在变革进程、管理者的经验以及员工的反应等方面有独特的贡献。