Relational Work and its Pitfalls: Nonprofits’ Participation in Government-Sponsored Voluntary Accreditation
Abstract
Government agencies are increasingly turning to voluntary accreditation systems to regulate and evaluate non-profit organizations. This article examines the relational work required by non-profits as they seek to align with state-designed evaluation guidelines. Drawing on detailed empirical evidence, we show how organizations adapt their administrative frameworks, internal reporting, and public messaging. We identify the structural pitfalls and traps of these accreditation schemas, which can lead to bureaucratic drift, institutional ambiguity, and unintended administrative burdens.
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Research Question
How do non-profit organizations navigate government-sponsored voluntary accreditation programs, and what institutional side effects do these programs generate?
Main Argument
Voluntary accreditation is not a neutral quality-assurance tool. It acts as an indirect regulatory mechanism. Non-profits engage in significant "relational work" to translate subjective organizational value into quantifiable benchmarks. However, this work creates bureaucratic side effects: organizations often restructure their missions to fit evaluation matrices, resulting in administrative overload and a loss of community-oriented flexibility.
Methods and Data
Mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, studying non-profit accreditation registries, survey evaluations, and qualitative interviews with non-profit directors and regulatory inspectors.
Key Findings
- Voluntary accreditation exerts coercive pressures disguised as voluntary excellence, forcing non-profits into alignment.
- Relational work helps non-profits secure resources, but at the cost of high administrative distraction ("pitfalls").
- Accreditation processes favor large, professionalized organizations, raising barriers to entry for smaller, community-focused civic groups.
Contribution
Contributes to public administration and organizational theory on non-profit governance, civil society regulation, and the limits of performance-based metrics in public service delivery.
Citation & Formats
Luo, W., Zheng, W., & Long, Y. (2022). Relational Work and its Pitfalls: Nonprofits’ Participation in Government-Sponsored Voluntary Accreditation. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory.
Luo, Wei, Wenjuan Zheng, and Yan Long. "Relational Work and its Pitfalls: Nonprofits’ Participation in Government-Sponsored Voluntary Accreditation." Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory (2022).
@article{luo2022relational,
title={Relational Work and its Pitfalls: Nonprofits’ Participation in Government-Sponsored Voluntary Accreditation},
author={Luo, Wei and Zheng, Wenjuan and Long, Yan},
journal={Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory},
year={2022},
publisher={Oxford University Press}
}