Comments on: Back to School Time – MBA, MPA, MANM, Whatever http://www.nonprofitsassistancefund.org/blog/2008/08/12/back-to-school-time-%e2%80%93-mba-mpa-manm-whatever/ Nonprofits Assistance Fund shares thoughts and insights on nonprofit management and finance Fri, 20 Jan 2012 15:53:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Kate Barr http://www.nonprofitsassistancefund.org/blog/2008/08/12/back-to-school-time-%e2%80%93-mba-mpa-manm-whatever/comment-page-1/#comment-276 Kate Barr Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:40:05 +0000 http://www.nonprofitsassistancefund.org/blog/2008/08/12/back-to-school-time-%e2%80%93-mba-mpa-manm-whatever/#comment-276 Jodi - Thanks for the post. I agree that nonprofit leaders have to employ strategies and approaches that are not generally required in business. Graduate programs that include analysis, research, and understanding of public policy and collaboration offer a type of learning not found in business schools. I must defend my business brethren, though, in that business leadership is not just internal operations. Business strategy and understanding of markets is more like nonprofit strategic thinking that you may think. Jodi -

Thanks for the post. I agree that nonprofit leaders have to employ strategies and approaches that are not generally required in business. Graduate programs that include analysis, research, and understanding of public policy and collaboration offer a type of learning not found in business schools. I must defend my business brethren, though, in that business leadership is not just internal operations. Business strategy and understanding of markets is more like nonprofit strategic thinking that you may think.

]]> By: Jodi Sandfort http://www.nonprofitsassistancefund.org/blog/2008/08/12/back-to-school-time-%e2%80%93-mba-mpa-manm-whatever/comment-page-1/#comment-270 Jodi Sandfort Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:12:51 +0000 http://www.nonprofitsassistancefund.org/blog/2008/08/12/back-to-school-time-%e2%80%93-mba-mpa-manm-whatever/#comment-270 I agree 100% that the "next era of leadership depends...on flexible, adaptable, and smart people of all stripes" and that many degrees can get you there. What I find troubling about the belief in a more 'business-like' approach is that it presumes the most challenging forces confronting nonprofits are about internal operational capacity. My research and those of many others suggest that while these elements are important, the policy environment -- what it offers, how it creates opportunities and constraints, the networks of resources organizations can draw upon, the amount of political power -- is very deterministic of nonprofit organizational operation and effectiveness. Nonprofits have many different public accountabilities which private industry does not have to deal with. Some graduate programs (those in public affairs, public policy, public administration) help you understand, analyze, and hopefully develop 'flexible, adaptable, and smart' responses to such problems. Most business schools won't. Jodi Sandfort (Associate Professor of Public Affairs, U of Minnesota). I agree 100% that the “next era of leadership depends…on flexible, adaptable, and smart people of all stripes” and that many degrees can get you there. What I find troubling about the belief in a more ‘business-like’ approach is that it presumes the most challenging forces confronting nonprofits are about internal operational capacity. My research and those of many others suggest that while these elements are important, the policy environment — what it offers, how it creates opportunities and constraints, the networks of resources organizations can draw upon, the amount of political power — is very deterministic of nonprofit organizational operation and effectiveness. Nonprofits have many different public accountabilities which private industry does not have to deal with. Some graduate programs (those in public affairs, public policy, public administration) help you understand, analyze, and hopefully develop ‘flexible, adaptable, and smart’ responses to such problems. Most business schools won’t.

Jodi Sandfort (Associate Professor of Public Affairs, U of Minnesota).

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