Friday, November 9, 2018
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

UW-Madison, School of Human Ecology

Join us on Friday, November 9, 2018 at UW-Madison School of Human Ecology to learn more about Connecting Group Dynamics, Governance and Performance: Evidence from Charter School Boards.

Presenters:

• Douglas Ihrke, Professor & Chair, Public & Nonprofit Administration, UW-Milwaukee
• Michael Ford, Asst. Professor, Public Administration, UW-Oshkosh

In this article we build on the existing literatures on small group dynamics and public and nonprofit organizational performance by exploring the link between small group dynamics, governance, and performance on Minnesota nonprofit charter school boards. The goal is to give nonprofit charter school boards a path to improve outcomes through improved governance. Originally collected survey data from nonprofit charter school board members is linked with hard measures of performance from the Minnesota Department of Education, and used in a path analysis predicting charter school math and reading proficiency levels. We find that boards exhibiting low-levels of negative group conflict are more active in key governance areas, and that active governance is linked to increased student outcomes. We conclude that nonprofit charter school boards can increase their organizational performance by taking steps to reduce board conflict.

Monday, November 12, 2018, 12:00pm – 1:00pm

UWM Alumni House
3230 E Kenwood Blvd
Milwaukee, WI 53211

Join us on Monday, November 12, 2018 at the UWM Alumni House to learn more about City Council Member Attitudes Toward Nonprofit Policy in Wisconsin.

Presenters:

• Douglas Ihrke, Professor & Chair, Public & Nonprofit Administration, UW-Milwaukee
• Michael Ford, Asst. Professor, Public Administration, UW-Oshkosh

Over the past 30-40 years we have witnessed a scaling back of government services and programs and the nonprofit sector has stepped in and take over this work. In this research we use originally collected data from city council members in large Wisconsin communities (populations greater than 10,000) to determine their attitudes toward the role and capacity of nonprofit organizations to effectively work in each of the 14 policy areas under examination. This work on the dynamics between the public and nonprofit sector in large Wisconsin communities will be of real interest to numerous audiences.

Tuesday, October 23, 2018
12:00-1:00 pm
UWM Alumni House
3230 E Kenwood Blvd.
Milwaukee, WI 53211

Dr. Brenda Tong, Asst. Professor, Jianghan University, Wuhan, PRC (UW-Milwaukee Visiting Scholar)

The purpose of this presentation is to analyze state control of social organizations (Nonprofit and Nonpolitical Organizations) in China using the historical-institutional approach. Examining recent fast development of social organizations in China reveals that strong state control is one of the obstacles for future development of social organizations in China.

This significant theoretical issue relates to the state-society relationship which has been widely studied by China Studies scholars. On the one hand, some researchers argue that fast development of social organizations will lead to a civil society in China. On the other hand, most researchers argue that those social organizations are still either agents of the state or tightly controlled by the state.

Previous research followed two analytical approaches in analyzing strong state control of social organizations in China. The structural approach focuses on the impact of deeper social structure while the rational choice approach focuses on path-dependency. An historical-institutional analysis tries to combine both structural and rational choice approaches to institutional change, as we delve deeper into the development and growth of a potential new state-social organizational construct in China.