I was looking forward to my final class in studying for my graduate degree in nonprofit leadership and management for which ethics was to be the focus of the required class. I ask you to consider my extreme shock and amazement when I learned that one of the individuals who had been hired to teach this all-important subject in a nonprofit graduate program in management and leadership in which I was enrolled was a woman who had been disbarred from practicing law as a consequence of her mishandling client funds.
As an adult, I had worked in several areas of administrative support in the legal field for over twenty years prior to my studying nonprofit management and leadership. I had, unfortunately, seen first-hand, far too many sordid practices of the very worst kind during my varied employment experiences. I was wholly uninspired by any one of these experiences and I was, most assuredly, unwilling to pay the extraordinarily high tuition fees for a graduate class to have someone of that ilk 'teach' me about ethics in the nonprofit sector.
Unfortunately, my request to be transferred to another section was summarily denied by the department chair [who was retiring]. Instead, she responded that she 'didn't have time or the inclination' to handle specious student requests. She never inquired about the basis of my request; she just reacted as though I was burdened by emotional baggage. HARRUMPH!!!
I should have been less-than-surprised to later discover that this same department chair was instrumental in 'creating' the nonprofit graduate degree program that was built on the framework of an MBA degree.
The fundamental reality is that leadership and management in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors are NOT synonymous and should NEVER be thought of as interchangeable.
Based on over 40 years working in the for-profit sector, as well as my academic underpinning, I believe the college missed a ground-breaking opportunity to CREATE a strong program for future nonprofit leaders in taking the short-cuts that were taken.
In several instances, the administrators of the nonprofit graduate degree program did not even bother to revise the specific class syllabus to make what SHOULD have been requisite changes necessitated by the shift in focus from the for-profit degree to the nonprofit degree.
Consequently, I should not have been completely flummoxed by the department chair's denial to even consider my transfer request, much less her unwillingness to establish a meaningful dialogue with me. I was, however, appalled -- both by her arrogant posturing AND profound ignorance about the role ethics plays in the nonprofit degree program, most especially related to establishing a sound development program to effect long-term sustainability of any nonprofit organization.
Establishing ethical policies and practices in any nonprofit program is mandatory in order to develop effective leaders AND management of ALL funding practices. My belief is predicated on nothing more than good common sense. As a result -- and as a former development professional -- I continue to be keenly committed to sharing resources that focus on establishing strong ethical practices and policies. I advisedly share with you this resource for your consideration.
Stephanie Doty
Discouraging NP Dysfunction
January 25, 2014
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
