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This research note illuminates the ascent of so-called “learning pods”, a concept and phenomenon with close connections to civil society that rose to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic. We begin by characterizing and positioning learning pods in the diverse U.S. K-12 educational landscape. Next, participation in, and intent to form/join, learning pods are depicted by reporting on secondary data from a population poll among a national sample of U.S. adults since the start of the 2020 academic school year to December 2021. The second half of the research note discusses how learning pods can help garner useful insights to existing nonprofit research and theory.

Civil courage refers to the behavior where people actively intervene to protect a victim in a concrete situation of injustice despite the risk of becoming a victim themselves. To act with civil courage, one requires competencies that relate to prosocial values as well as the physical and social ability to act. In this context, this brief reports the opinions of 2,046 respondents--representatives of Germany with respect to age, gender, and region--on what, according to them, are the best contexts for learning civil courage. "At home and/or from family" as well as "through volunteering" are considered the most suitable contexts to learn civil courage. In contrast, television, social media, and the internet are considered the least supportive contexts.

We investigate whether the perceived ethicalness of police actions changes when police follow an AI-robot's advice. We assess whether perceived ethicalness of police violence is higher when police follow robot advice to arrest a passer-by, compared to no robot advice to arrest the passer-by. Using neutralization theory, we test how blame-shifting occurs. When police violently arrest an innocent passer-by, the violence is neutralized when the decision was made following the AI-robot. Perceived ethicalness of police violence is higher when the passer-by is a terrorist, and police violence against a passer-by is neutralized through 'denial of victim' and 'denial of injury'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research note illuminates the ascent of so-called "learning pods", a concept and phenomenon with close connections to civil society that rose to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic. We begin by characterizing and positioning learning pods in the diverse U.S. K-12 educational landscape. Next, participation in, and intent to form/join, learning pods are depicted by reporting on secondary data from a population poll among a national sample of U.S. adults since the start of the 2020 academic school year to December 2021. The second half of the research note discusses how learning pods can help garner useful insights to existing nonprofit research and theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public employees are stereotyped as lazy, inefficient, and slow. When made aware of such stereotypes, they may experience stereotype threat that impairs their task-performance. Across two pre-registered, large-scale between-subjects experiments (n1 = 1,543; n2 = 1,147), we found that performance in terms of task correctness, processing time, and effort was unaffected by information of negative public employee stereotypes. Our results do not indicate stereotype threat effects for public employees in terms of task-performance. This finding offers valuable theoretical and practical implications for the understanding of public sector stereotypes and public sector reputation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public sector professions are highly gender‐dominant (e.g., police officers, teachers) and determined not only by professionals but also by gender roles. According to the role congruity theory, these social roles result in perceived (in)congruities between the jobholders' gender and gender‐dominant professions. This research investigates this intersection for several professions. Throughout three large‐scale surveys (conducted in Austria), we first document the gender dominance of various public sector professions, and further analyze the effects from (in)congruities in gender‐dominant professions. The findings are two‐fold: First, for police officers, firefighters, politicians, nurses, and teachers, (in)congruities of job‐holder's gender with gender dominance of the profession result in positive (negative) ascriptions of job‐related traits. However, (in)congruity effects are not confirmed for other gender‐dominant professions outside the public sector. Second, no (in)congruity effects are found for perceived professionalism. Findings are important for policy makers, as well as recruiters and employers who aim to reduce gender‐related disadvantages within public sector employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although absenteeism is a key concern in most western societies, research on reducing absenteeism in public sector organizations is scarce, particularly regarding the impact of organizational relationships. By building on the concept of workplace social capital (WSC) and using a large longitudinal cohort of Danish municipal employees, this study shows that three types of WSC (bridging, direct-leader-linking, and top-level-linking WSC) reduce absenteeism, while there is no significant effect of bonding WSC. Our empirical results further suggest that the relationships with the immediate leader and the top management (direct-leader-linking and top-level-linking WSC) are most important for employees' absenteeism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past 20 years, as the study of transparency has evolved into a burgeoning multidisciplinary field, nonprofit scholars have developed an impressive body of research on the antecedents and outcomes of the transparency of nonprofit organizations (NPOs). From both theoretical and practical purposes, it is necessary to develop an overall picture of such antecedents and outcomes, to allow scholars and NPOs to understand why, when, and how transparency should be implemented. Current studies provide a fragmented view, focused on specific elements of NPO transparency; with a systematic literature review of 76 articles, this article offers both an integrative framework of the antecedents and outcomes of NPO transparency and an agenda for research, based on a critical analysis of the integrative framework. Four relevant research orientations emerge: (1) direction of NPO transparency, (2) distinguishing actual from perceived transparency, (3) the dark side of NPO transparency, and (4) NPO transparency contingency factors. Research along these four orientations could add nuance to existing knowledge of transparency and provide key insights with regard to why, when, and how transparency works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on privacy calculus theory, we derive hypotheses on the role of perceived usefulness and privacy risks of artificial intelligence (AI) in public services. In a representative vignette experiment (n = 1,048), we asked citizens whether they would download a mobile app to interact in an AI-driven public service. Despite general concerns about privacy, we find that citizens are not susceptible to the amount of personal information they must share, nor to a more anthropomorphic interface. Our results confirm the privacy paradox, which we frame in the literature on the government's role to safeguard ethical principles, including citizens' privacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on transparency literature, we theorize that information characteristics such as accessibility of raw data and data source provision influence citizens' trust in public performance information. Next to the question of whether providing a data source matters, we argue that information provision from a non‐government actor can compensate for the information asymmetry between citizens and public sector organizations due to a stronger symmetric data exchange relationship. Integrating and elaborating these theoretical assumptions of principal‐agent theory with bureaucratic reputation theory, the organization's reputation, rather than the stakeholder group the information provider is belonging to, may explain varying trust. We conduct eight online experiments in large‐N data collections in Austria and Germany and find that data accessibility and source provision increase trust in performance information. Whereas citizens have more trust in government‐provided data compared to data provided by other citizens, source reputation matters dominantly for building trust in performance information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public service stereotypes have been the subject of various studies in public administration research. However, the cognitive processes that form the basis of these stereotypes and the heuristics processing of stereotypical information, remain empirically vague. Starting from insights on the anti-public sector bias and representativeness heuristic, we apply an experimental vignette study (n = 1,412) in which we analyze how citizens process information on employees' sector affiliation. Furthermore, we integrate non-work role-referencing to test the stereotype confirmation assumption underlying the representativeness heuristic. Our results show that sector as well as non-work role-referencing influences perceived employee professionalism but has little effect on positive stereotype confirmation. However, our results do not confirm a congruity effect of consistent stereotypical information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the issues with reporting pre-election polls and the impact it has on public opinion. It highlights that news articles often fail to provide important details about the sampling approach, sample size, variations in responses, and confidence intervals, which are crucial for understanding the validity and reliability of poll results. The article also points out that journalists may prioritize click-bait titles over providing nuanced information, leading to the amplification of uncontextualized data and influencing public opinion. The authors recommend providing more details, formulating conclusions judiciously, reporting with greater detail and nuance, and making raw poll data publicly available to improve the quality of reporting. They also suggest that policy-makers, public administrators, and politicians should engage carefully with poll data, while researchers should contribute to a constructive debate on good data reporting practices. [Extracted from the article]

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Nonprofit leaders face the challenge of making decisions within a complex environment of heterogeneous and often competing stakeholder claims. In such a setting, leaders not only make judgments about the power of their organization's stakeholders but they also make conscious choices about which stakeholders they personally represent while making organizational decisions. This study uses insights from stakeholder theory and agency theory to investigate (1) how nonprofit leaders' perceptions of stakeholder power and stakeholder representation are interrelated across a wide range of stakeholder groups and organizations, and (2) how perceptions of power and representation differ between board members and executive managers. Drawing on data from 491 nonprofit leaders, we find evidence of stakeholder representation surpluses and deficits for several stakeholders, although perceptions of these deficits and surpluses differ considerably between board members and managers. Our study holds important implications for nonprofit governance, the practice of stakeholder analysis, and the use of stakeholder constructs in future empirical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the impacts of negative and positive signals on public-serving organizations' reputations. We draw on sociocognitive perspectives to test how organizations' breaches of stakeholders' trust are repairable over time as well as the moderating effect of organizational mission valence on this forgiveness process. Multilevel data from two slope-shift experiments (n = 304; n = 582) show that mission valence, or individuals' affinity with an organization's mission, intensifies the effects of both negative and positive signals in organizations' reputation building processes. Negative signals have stronger negative effects on intentions to support the organization for individuals with high mission valence. However, the effect of successive positive signals is also stronger for individuals with high mission valence, suggesting greater forgiveness following a stronger breach of trust among these stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As stereotypes strongly influence social interactions, this study explores the stereotypical associations regarding public servants, and about various professions in the public sector as well as the for‐profit and nonprofit sectors. This leads to a better understanding of the theoretical and practical challenges, such as citizen behaviour towards public servants, attractiveness of and political decisions about public service jobs. With a mixed‐method analysis of cognitive associations (7,470 associations by 415 respondents for 12 professions), the defining epithets of public servants are clarified, along with their positive or negative connotation. Despite the strongest associations for public servants being positive (caring, helpful and dedicated), as an overall category, it has a less positive connotation compared to some specific professions typical in the public sector (nurse, firefighter and police). However, cognitive associations are substantially more positive for public servants compared to politicians, lawyers and salesmen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although many stakeholders perceive face‐to‐face street fundraising as unpleasant, nonprofit managers encourage it as a way to attract donors. To understand the long‐term effects of this fundraising method, we used a mixed‐methods experimental design to investigate how face‐to‐face street fundraising affects organizational reputation and stakeholder support intentions in comparison with letter fundraising. The findings reveal that face‐to‐face street fundraising has a significant negative influence on the stakeholders' perceptions of an organization. Further, qualitative data show that the negative perception originates primarily from perceived pressure, distrust, and obtrusion, which are triggered by face‐to‐face street fundraising. Our study thus reveals long‐term reputational consequences that nonprofit organizations should consider before deciding on fundraising methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, practitioners and scholars have intensified the discussions around people's expectations from their jobs and how public and private organizations can succeed in the war for talent. In this context, it has become obvious that people not only seek high salaries and career opportunities but also meaningfulness in their daily tasks. Although many public service jobs offer opportunities to help others (prosocial impact) or contribute to society (societal impact), employees tend to become accustomed to these positive aspects or forget about them. This article tests whether a microintervention that emphasizes employees' prosocial or societal impact can positively affect their well-being, intention to stay in the job, and willingness to recommend their respective jobs to others. The combined results of three preregistered experiments reveal that microinterventions can indeed have these effects, particularly if they focus on creating awareness about the jobs' societal impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonprofit organizations highly depend on the public's trust for legitimacy and support, to ultimately further their missions. Despite its high importance, little is known about the trust-building processes of the general public. In this study, we develop and test a multilevel study design to provide deeper insights into the public's trust in nonprofit organizations and its relevant determinants. We used a comprehensive data set of 4,072 dyads, with survey data from 1,686 individuals and organizational data related to 102 German NPOs to investigate the different trust-building components: (1) individual public trust evaluation in NPO, (2) individual (trustor) context, and (3) organizational (trustee) context. The results of the analysis reveal unexpected differences in the importance of the different components for explaining the public's trust in nonprofit organizations. Results show that the individual context is as relevant as the individual public trust evaluation, but the organizational context is far less important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a broad academic discussion about the impact of funding grants from a foundation or a government department on individual support intentions toward the nonprofit organization receiving the grant. However, the role of the grant provider's reputation has frequently been overlooked. In this study, we experimentally tested whether there is a reputation spillover effect of a grant‐providing organization. Based on a real‐life example, we asked citizens to rate their willingness to donate to a nonprofit organization, and we experimentally manipulated the available information on funding sources. We test this for both a government department and a foundation as a grant provider. Our results suggest that not the act of receiving a grant, but the citizens' awareness about the funding organization—at least in the case of a foundation—has an impact on support intentions. In contrast, for a prominent government department as a grant provider, we did not find support for a reputation spillover effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What is the meaning of social entrepreneurship? This question is still a source of confusion and frustration for many scholars, educators, and students. In this research note, we seek to grasp the meaning of social entrepreneurship by examining statements from more than 300 nonprofit managers. Using a mixed-method analysis, we outline three lenses through which educators and students can comprehend social entrepreneurship: output, behavioral, and contextual. We test whether this framing is related to self-evaluation of social entrepreneurship. We discuss and elaborate our findings by contrasting respondents' quotes with the social entrepreneurship literature. This article does not provide definitive answers, but rather provides a useful starting point for educators and students to begin to comprehend the different perceptions that frame the meanings of social entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consistent with popular belief among certain academics, practitioners and policy makers, we hypothesize that collaboration between private and public organizations promotes success. We test this hypothesis for data on clinical trial success. Contrary to this popular belief, our results do not support the beneficial effect of within and cross-sector collaborations. In contrast, we find that trials from single private companies are four times more likely to be successful than are trials in which public and private organizations collaborate. Hence, our results indicate that companies engage with public partners to mitigate development risks, not to exchange knowledge or technologies with them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we experimentally test the impact of a formal signal (a third-party certificate) and an informal signal (self-proclaimed management quality with respect to social entrepreneurship) on stakeholder supportive intentions and perceived organizational effectiveness. Our study confirms the social entrepreneurship advantage, but we find no proof of a convincing effect from the formal signal. However, complementary analyses and additional testing of control variables add new perspectives on the relative importance of the social entrepreneurship advantage and on potential moderators that could better explain in future studies the varying effects and specific contextual elements that influence formal and informal reputation-building signals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on volunteering has mainly focused on the explanatory demographics and functional motives to volunteer, but little is known about the reasons that people might have not to volunteer. However, these reasons need more academic attention, as they form the barriers that organizations have to overcome when attracting new volunteers. We examine a sample of 1248 respondents on whether they volunteer, are interested in volunteering, or have no interest to volunteer. We verify whether demographic differences exist between these groups. By means of an exploratory factor analysis, we analyze the reasons not to volunteer for those who have no interest to volunteer. This complements earlier research by focusing on the barriers that people might have, instead of the benefits of volunteering that have extensively been documented. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The work of volunteers is indispensable for the well functioning of healthcare organizations, and for maintaining the quality of care in times of austerity. As feelings of intrinsic motivation stimulate volunteer well-being and their long-term engagement, we study how team inclusion relates to volunteers’ intrinsic motivation during their activities. We hypothesize that volunteers’ perceptions of inclusion are positively related to intrinsic motivation, via the satisfaction of their basic needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. To test our hypothesis, we conducted a daily-diary study, obtaining a final sample of 43 volunteers and 204 completed diaries. Multilevel path analyses showed that team inclusion was positively related to volunteers’ intrinsic motivation during their activities. Subsequent mediation analyses revealed that competence and relatedness need satisfaction mediated this relationship. Thus, when volunteers feel part of the team with which they complete their activities, they experience intrinsic motivation because feeling included stimulates their feelings of being competent and being related to others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This analysis investigates whether nonprofit board connections with other nonprofit organizations and foundations explain organizational performance in earning foundation grants. Using a sample of 402 nonprofits and sixty-eight foundations in a single metropolitan area, we find that greater connectedness and status interlocks significantly influence organizations' ability to acquire resources. Network effects are partially mediated by the number of past grants received and a nonprofit's financial characteristics, including organizational size, fundraising expenses, and financial health. These findings, while supporting the role of networks in resource attainment, point to the complex and mutual relationships between organizational characteristics, network characteristics, and organizational performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because shared mental models are critical for consistent, accurate decision making, this study seeks to explain the extent to which mental models are shared on the basis of team cognition theory and social constructionism. This study thus provides new insights into how the social dynamics among nonprofit leaders can explain mental models on nonprofit effectiveness. Specifically, team member exchange (TMX) quality should relate to agreement within leadership teams. Building on recent multilevel team research, this study regards the relationship theoretically as a separate actor and partner effect, which better reveals the underlying social processes. A multilevel data sample of 402 leaders from 44 nonprofit organizations provides support for the hypotheses, offering insights into the multilevel, emergent nature of team behavior and shared mental models. Practical recommendations focus on the central role of CEOs and board chairs, and on the need for a stronger consensus assessment in nonprofit performance evaluations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the relationships between municipality features and volunteering by older adults. In the literature, strong evidence exists of the influence of place on older people’s health. However, the question how neighborhoods and municipalities promote or hinder volunteer participation remains under-explored. Data for the research are derived from the Belgian Aging Studies. We estimate logistic multilevel models for older individuals’ engagement in volunteering across 141 municipalities in Belgium (N = 67,144). Analysis shows that neighborhood connectedness, neighborhood satisfaction, home ownership, and presence of services predict voluntary engagement at older ages. The findings support that perceptions and quality of social resources that relate to neighborhoods may be important factors to explain volunteering among older adults. Moreover, the findings suggest that volunteering in later life must be considered within a broader framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]