Twenty-third International Conference on Knowledge, Culture, and Change in Organizations

Abstract

While not new, the challenges of dealing with the mission versus margin effect, has been taken up in the literature with more gusto as increasingly nonprofit organisations face greater pressure to adopt practices that use financial considerations for sustainability and growth (McDonald, 2007). Moreover, as Sharp (2018) points out, competition in the sector can lead to “Existential Angst and Identity Rethink”. For the implementation of Australia’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (‘NDIS’), both challenges have had to be faced – financial and competitive challenges. The NDIS has identified wide-ranging issues associated with the challenges of nonprofit organisations in successfully implementing a generational shift in the delivery of disability services, shifting the pre-NDIS scenario from a supply-driven to a demand-driven process. Our ongoing research identifies several implications of these changes including, but not limited to, (1) the resilience of nonprofit service providers structuring their businesses in facing the ongoing challenges of financial sustainability through government imposed financial caps on service delivery pricing, and (2) how they respond to new competitive market pressures from the private for-profit sector being invited into a competitive service delivery role. As Beaton recently emphasises (2021: 695), financial sustainability can result in a “conflict between their social mission and business practices, which is a perquisite to developing a strategic response.” Our research has resulted in the development of the NDIS Implementation Framework (Rosenbaum & More, in press) highlighting the centrality of mission maintenance as an important tool for innovation.