Organizational Rigidities in and Organizational Innovation in Non Profits: the Marketplace for American Jewish Institutions
Abstract: The institutions that serve as foundations for American Jewish communities have undergone an evolution that are familiar to scholars of organization: they have developed the organizational rigidities, institutional inertia, and expensive infrastructure that are typically exhibited by other mature organizations. The American Jewish community, however, has also exhibited changing demographics that, combined with new communication technologies and historical developments, pose a challenge to current institutions and have exposed their severe inefficiencies. Consistent with life-cycle theories of institutional change, Jewish communities now exhibit an era of ferment, in which new organizational forms that are better suited for current demands are growing and posing challenges to incumbent institutions. This paper scrutinizes American Jewish institutions through through the lens of organizational economics. It observes that organizational economics is readily applied to these nonprofit institutions with social and religious missions, and it offers proposals for community leaders that are derived from organizational science.
