What happens when nonprofits use quality models for self-assessment?

Abstract

Two tools to assist organizational self-assessment have recently become popular in the U.K. nonprofit sector, providing the opportunity for a comparative study of how such tools are used in practice. Because both spring from the quality movement in management, the study also provided a chance to observe how quality ideas evolve as they are applied in nonprofit contexts. The study found that self-assessment can indeed enable constructive review processes in a wide range of contexts. However, when the models “work” it is in rather different ways than is suggested by the terms in which they are promoted.