The role played by management's commitment, education and ethics on organisational entrepreneurship in Gauteng non-profit organisations

Abstract

The objectives of the study were to explore the extent to which three management characteristics related to organisational entrepreneurship in not-for-profit organisations (NPOs) in Gauteng, as well as the relation between organisational entrepreneurship and the organisational performance. The research was based on a quantitative approach which involved a random sample of 257 NPO managers who responded via a self-administered questionnaire. The research instrument measured management’s commitment to their occupation, management’s continuous education and management ethics, as well as organisational entrepreneurship and organisational performance. Data analysis techniques comprised of structural equation modelling which focused on confirmatory factory analysis to confirm conceptual relations and path model analysis to determine the causal relations between each management characteristics with organisational entrepreneurship, and organisational entrepreneurship with organisational performance. Path analysis results returned significant at the 99% confidence level that management’s continuous education and management’s ethics had strong positive causal relations to organisational entrepreneurship, as well as the positive relation of organisational entrepreneurship with organisational performance. The research noted implications for NPO management teams, including the renovation of business model structures to incorporate continuous learning and constructive risk-taking in order to take advantage of the performance benefits derived from organisational entrepreneurship. The study also recommends further research into potential citizenship bodies for NPO management team to foster commitment to their occupation in the non-profit sector.