Personnel Stability During Environmental Turbulence: Testing Performance Disruption Buffering in Service Providing Nonprofits

This study addresses how personnel stability in nonprofit organizations relates to an organization’s ability to maintain program performance during the societal disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We specifically apply Meier and O’Toole’s buffering function to explain variation in disruptions to organizations’ program services, as indicated by changes in the number of people served from 2019 to 2020, using data from a nationally representative sample of service-providing nonprofit organizations across U.S. communities. We find that maintaining personnel structural stability is associated with reduced negative impacts on nonprofits’ service provision during the pandemic. This study is among the first to apply longstanding theoretical work in public management to the nonprofit sector, offering implications for nonprofit management theory and practice.