Abstract
This paper presents a case study and analysis of Co-operation Ireland, a nonprofit cross-border peace and reconciliation organization. The case description traces the interplay between the organization's development and its operating environment. Three broad, overlapping periods of relationships with different constituencies are identified. The requirements of managing these relationships and their impact on organizational development are highlighted. The pattern of financing of the organization is examined to identify critical, legitimizing relationships. Resource dependence and institutional theory are utilized to analyze the bases for legitimation of the organization over time. It is proposed that nonprofit organizations without independent resources are particularly sensitive to environmental constraints.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Aldrich, H. E., and Pfeffer, J. (1976). Environments of organizations. Annual Review of Sociology, 2, 79–105.
Bordt, R. L. (1997). How alternative ideas become institutions: The case of feminist collectives. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 26(2), 132–155.
Burrell, G., and Morgan, G. (1979). Sociological Paradigms and Organizational Analysis, Heinemann, London.
DiMaggio, P. J., and Powell, W. W. (1983). The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48, 147–160.
DiMaggio, P. J. (1988). Interest and agency in institutional theory. In L. G. Zucker(ed.), Institutional Patterns and Organizations: Culture and Environment, Ballinger, Cambridge, MA, pp. 3–21.
DiMaggio, P. J., and Powell, W. W. (1991). Introduction. In W. W. Powell and P. J. DiMaggio (eds.), The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp. 1–38.
Donnelly-Cox, G. (2001). Searching for Solutions: Case Studies of Organisational Responses to Altered Conditions of Support, Unpublished DPhil Thesis, Oxford University.
Donnelly-Cox, G., and O'Regan, A. (1998). The Irish voluntary sector: A case-based exploration of organisational growth patterns and organisational dynamics, ISTR Working Paper Series.
Feeney, S. (1996). Shifting the prism: Case explications of institutional analysis in nonprofit organizations. Paper Prepared for Presentation at the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action, New York, November 7.
Giddens, A. (1998). The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy, Polity Press, Oxford.
Hansmann, H. B. (1980). The role of nonprofit enterprise. The Yale Law Journal, 89, 835–898.
Hansmann, H. B. (1987). Economic theories of nonprofit organisation. In W. W. Powell(ed.), The Nonprofit Sector-A Research Handbook, Yale University Press, New Haven, pp. 27–42.
James, E. (1987). The nonprofit sector in comparative perspective. In W.W. Powell(ed.), The Nonprofit Sector-A Research Handbook, Yale University Press, New Haven, pp. 397–415.
March, J. G. (1962). The business firm as a political coalition. The Journal of Politics, 24, pp. 662–678.
Meyer, J. W., and Rowan, B. (1977). Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83, 340–363.
Meyer, J. W., and Scott, W. R. (1983). Organizational Environments-Ritual and Rationality, Sage, London.
Milofsky, C. (1988). Structure and process in community self-help organizations. In C. Milofsky(ed.), Community Organizations: Studies in Resource Mobilization and Exchange, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 183–216.
O'Connell, B. (2000). Civil society: Definitions and descriptions. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 29(3), 471–478.
Parsons, T. (1960). Structure and Process in Modern Societies, The Free Press, Glencoe, IL.
Perrow, C. (1977). Complex Organizations, A Critical Essay, Random House, New York.
Pfeffer, J. (1987). A resource dependencies perspective on intercorporate relations. In M. S. Mizruchi and M. Schwartz(eds.), Intercorporate Relations, Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 25–55.
Pfeffer, J., and Salancik, G. (1978). The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective, Harper and Row, New York.
Powell, F., and Guerin, D. (1977). Civil Society and Social Policy: Voluntarism in Ireland, A. and A. Farmar, Dublin.
Quadagno, J. (1987). Theories of the welfare state. Annual Review of Sociology, 13, 109–128.
Salamon, L. M. (1987). Partners in public service: The scope and theory of government-nonprofit relations. In W. W. Powell(ed.), The Nonprofit Sector-A Research Handbook, Yale University Press, New Haven, pp. 99–117.
Salamon, L. M., and Anheier, H. K. (1998). Social origins of civil society: Explaining the nonprofit sector cross-nationally. Voluntas, 9, 213–248.
Scott, W. R. (1992). Organizations-Rational, Natural, and Open Systems, Prentice-Hall, New Jersey.
Scott, W. R. (1995). Institutions and Organizations, Sage, London.
Suchman, M. C. (1995). Managing legitimacy: Strategic and institutional approaches. Academy of Management Review, 20(3), 571–610.
Weisbrod, B. (1977). The Voluntary Nonprofit Sector: An Economic Analysis, Lexington Books, Lexington, MA.
Zucker, L. G. (1977). The role of institutionalization in cultural persistence. American Sociological Review, 42, 726–743.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
O'Regan, A. Contexts and Constraints for NPOs: The Case of Co-operation Ireland. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 12, 239–256 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012391301236
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012391301236