ASSESSING STAKEHOLDERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF EFFECTIVENESS THROUGH A MULTI-LEVEL THEORETICAL MODEL: AN INTERPRETIVE PHENOMENOLOGICAL QUALITATIVE CASE STUDY OF NONPROFIT EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
Abstract
Nonprofit and faith-based organizations play a fundamental role in meeting community needs when government resources are limited or nonexistent. For decades, scholars and practitioners have recognized the importance of nonprofit-government partnerships for effective public service delivery (Collins & Gerlach, 2019; Frumkin & Kim, 2002; Kim & Mason, 2025; Saidel, 1990; Salamon, 1995). As social, economic, and environmental challenges intensify, the need for community-based programs led by nonprofit and faith-based organizations also increases. These organizations are working to combat several of society's wicked problems, including but not limited to homelessness, food insecurity, drug addiction, youth and family services, and climate change. Public-sector performance measurement is often recognized as an inherently subjective process that depends on the perspectives of dynamic stakeholders (DiMaggio, 2001; Willems et al., 2016). The institutional complexity and competing stakeholder perspectives reflected in nonprofit and faith-based organizations pose additional challenges for measuring performance. There is a gap in the existing empirical literature on this phenomenon. Scholarly theorists recognize the value of bridging the conceptual frameworks of institutional logics and organizational identity to better understand individual and organizational behavior from a social-contextual perspective. Using a multi-level, concentric theoretical framework, this study finds that institutionally complex hybrid organizations can facilitate a shared understanding of organizational identity among diverse stakeholder groups through sensemaking and sensegiving strategies, thereby improving the alignment of perceptions of effectiveness. This phenomenological qualitative case study of The Salvation Army’s Emergency Disaster Services (EDS) addresses the following research questions: (1) What are the institutional logics of nonprofit organizations engaging in emergency management? (2) How do these organizations facilitate a shared understanding of organizational identity amongst multiple stakeholder groups? (3) To what extent does a shared understanding of organizational identity influence perceptions of effectiveness?