Empirical Study of Public Bureaucratic and Private Non-Profit Organizations and the Adoption of a Market Orientation

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the uses of power bases by leaders of private non-profit organizations and leaders in a bureaucratic governmental organization and the adoption of a market orientation by the firm. The study was conducted on a state bureaucracy and the corresponding newly privatized agency taking over the developed services. Today, in till attempt to make government bureaucracies more efficient and economical, there is a major shift in governmental services to the private non-profit sector (O'Connell, 1996; Rosenthal, 2000; Alexander, 2000). These private agencies are expected to employ more business-like methods (Alexander, 2000) and be more focused on their operating environment (Vasquez, Alvarez, and Santos, 2002). This study sought to extend the existing research on the relationship between the leader and the market orientation of the firm.