Analysis of the impact of contractualization on nonprofits, using Nightline France as a case study, based on Smith and Lipsky's 1993 work on the welfare state in the age of contracting.
Extract
[...] Nightline France, although rooted in values and an ethics based on listening, is integrated into a specific field in terms of management practices. The notion here evoked « governance by contract is to be put in parallel with the finding that associations are concerned with quasi-enterprise performance standards with a notable effect on their operational objectives. One can cite : « service providers have become instruments of public policy more than expressions of communal commitment (p. 133). Furthermore, this shift is particularly visible through the Nightline France press review and a line aiming to conform to a strategic vision for the stakeholders. [...]
[...] The example of Nightline France illustrates this dynamic by using indicators (with a quantitative aim), balances and standardized reports. These elements join the aspects of « symbolic politics of contracting in which measurable and objectivable performance takes precedence over lived experience, and therefore necessarily subjective (see chapter 10, p. 211). Smith and Lipsky also evoke contractualization as a mechanism that could be qualified as normative encasement in that it reorients - or even upsets - the temporality of the identity of entitiespp.121-123) and this point seems particularly difficult to integrate for Nightline France. [...]
[...] This dual movement refers to a « dance of compliance and resistance (p. 147). An organizational isomorphism results from this configuration due to the progressive adoption of institutional standards (formats, indicators, terminologies, audit practices) and that Smith and Lipsky describe as an alignment with the expectations of the politico-administrative field (pp. 203-204) which is illustrated, on the side of Nightline, by the use of management tools and standardized objectives. [...]
[...] From this tension between associative autonomy and contractual dependence, a fundamental dilemma arises that Smith and Lipsky identify more precisely in chapter 7 and can be summarized by the following quote: « nonprofit managers must continually navigate between the imperatives of public accountability and the preservation of organizational mission (p. 147). The association studied presents itself as a contemporary form of association in a regime of dependence: capable of adaptation, strategically positioned, but constantly confronted with the need to arbitrate between its founding values and the contractual governance norms imposed from the outside. Thus, contractualization is not simply a mode of financing; it is a deeply structuring mechanism that redefines the contours of associative action. [...]
[...] The latter illustrates a necessary and difficult compromise between spontaneity and obedience to precise criteria, which Smith and Lipsky identify as an identity dissociation. One can cite : « service workers internalize performance expectations that may conflict with the ethos of care (p. 131) This evolution is crucial in that it also leads to a redefinition of volunteer profiles whose characteristics are no longer based solely on sensitivity, listening, or availability, but now also (and sometimes, especially) on a hybridization between technical skills (management, communication, evaluation) and personal involvement, described by the authors as: « professionalization under pressure (pp. [...]
