From governance to organizational effectiveness: the role of organizational identity and volunteers’ commitment

The present study unpacks the relationship between non-profit organizations’ (NPOs) governance and organizational effectiveness by investigating the mediating role of volunteers’ organizational identity (OI) and their organizational commitment. While management scholars have traditionally focused on for-profit organizations to investigate the mechanisms underlying governance related issues, noteworthy insights may be derived from the analysis of NPOs due to the emerging societal importance of the Third Sector. Stakeholders are progressively requiring a better definition and implementation of NPOs’ governance, to ensure their effective and long-term sustainability at the service of the community. However, the extant literature has mainly focused on NPOs’ board mechanisms, thus neglecting the critical stakeholders that play a crucial role in the governance of these organizations, such as volunteers. Building on an “enlightened” stakeholder theory perspective, this study proposes and empirically tests a conceptual model that explains the linkages between NPOs’ governance effectiveness and organizational effectiveness. Specifically, volunteers’ OI and commitment to the NPO are hypothesized as the underlying mechanisms explaining such a relationship. Bootstrapped multi-mediation analysis was used on a sample of 300 respondents who volunteered in NPOs located in 10 Italian provinces. Results confirmed the role of OI and volunteers’ commitment as partially mediating variables on the relationship between NPOs’ governance effectiveness and organizational effectiveness. Both theoretical and practical implications for NPOs’ managers are provided, along with suggestions for future research by stressing the importance of the NPO governance phenomenon and the significant role played by volunteers.