DURING A CRISIS DOES THE SUCCESS OF A NON-PROFIT CULTURAL ORGANIZATION DEPEND ON THE DEMOCRATIC OR ON THE HIERARCHICAL/HYBRID DECISION-MAKING PROCESS?

This research paper helps understand the effect of Hierarchical and Democratic decision-making process on the sustainability of non-profit cultural institutions in Europe especially during a crisis when there is a constant lack of funding.Due to the wide-ranging segment of the Non-Profit segment the author focuses on the contrasting outcomes of two similar symphony orchestra as a test subject; one in Germany and the other in Tunisia during the COVID-19 crisis.It addresses the outcomes based on the managerial decisions these two orchestras took during the financial crisis.The management style of one of the orchestras is a very democratic one whereas the other one has a very traditional hierarchical structure.This paper studies the results of the various management decisions taken based on hierarchical and democratic decisions by these two orchestras and how it affected their sustainability during the financial crisis.To distinguish the significant differences in the bottom line of both these two orchestras this paper focuses on the Social Entrepreneurship strategy aspects of the orchestras and the decision-making process using Hierarchy and Democracy when applicable.These decisions in turn helped them in either generating new revenues or created lost opportunities during the crisis.