Third sector in transition - A question of sustainability for community service organizations and the sector?

Third sector organizations are transitioning towards entrepreneurial and managerial models as a result of quasi-market strategies. This paper reports on the research findings of a survey of nonprofit disability organizations in Queensland and Victoria impacted upon by quasi-market reform. Enterprising organizations were found to have made substantial change to organizational structures and systems, whilst more traditional organizations made few changes. All organizations demonstrated commitment to a social justice ethos. However across the organizational archetypes there were reports of an organizational 'fragility'. It is argued that the problems of sustainability of community service organizations that existed prior to quasi-market reforms remain. This implies community service organizations will experience ongoing difficulties in the post-market era without further rationalization and change. A conceptual framework for sustainability of the community service sector is presented at the policy and organizational level.

Impact of social group processes and functional diversity on communication in networked organizations

This study examines the role of social group processes in perceptions of effective communication in Australian Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs). Communication professionals in 25 CRCs discussed the barriers and opportunities for communication in their diverse networked organizations. Thematic analysis of the transcripts highlighted the contribution of social group processes to both barriers and opportunities. Communication challenges implicated the social identity of organizational members, many of which were associated with distinct structural aspects of these organizations. Opportunities for communication frequently involved features that implicated social identity, including taking advantage of existing organizational or industry identities, preventing conflicting identities from becoming salient, and promoting a collective CRC identity.

Information systems maturity in e-business organizations

E-Business Information Systems (eBIS) are Information Systems (IS) that support organizations to realize their e-Business strategy resulting in various benefits. Therefore those systems strongly focus on fulfilment of the e-business requirements. In order to realise the expected benefits, organizations need to turn to their eBIS and measure the maturity of those systems. In doing so, they need to identify the status of those systems with regards to their suitability to support the e-Business strategy, while also identifying required IS improvements. In our research we aim to develop a maturity model, particularly dedicated to the area of e-Business Information Systems, which can be used easily and objectively to measure of the current maturity of any Information System that supports e-Business. This research-in-progress paper presents initial results of our research.