Without unique missions to serve a public purpose, nonprofits have no justification to exist. Much of the focus on mission in scholarship centers on concerns with mission drift and pressures from external actors. Yet internal dynamics may be just as important in developing a common mission and the coherent activities pursuing it. This research identifies the structural forces shaping organizational members' individual mission conceptions and leading them to emulate and converge around a shared dominant conception. We apply the concept of institutional isomorphism to 104 interviews conducted with staff, managers, board members, and volunteers from 14 human services nonprofits and explain the isomorphic pathways of individuals adopting dominant mission conceptions. Employing qualitative comparative analysis, we analyze the interviews capturing various combinations of individual backgrounds, motivations for joining the organization, and language used to share the mission with others. We find the presence of seven isomorphic pathways leading nonprofit professionals to adopt the dominant interpretations.

中文翻译：

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我们意见一致吗？对人类服务非营利组织内使命的个人解释

如果没有服务于公共目的的独特使命，非营利组织就没有存在的理由。学术界对使命的关注大部分集中在对使命漂移和外部参与者压力的担忧上。然而，内部动力对于制定共同使命和追求该使命的连贯活动可能同样重要。这项研究确定了塑造组织成员个人使命观念并引导他们效仿和围绕共同主导观念的结构性力量。我们将制度同构的概念应用于对 14 个人类服务非营利组织的员工、经理、董事会成员和志愿者进行的 104 次访谈，并解释了采用主导使命概念的个人的同构路径。我们采用定性比较分析来分析访谈，捕捉个人背景、加入组织的动机以及与他人分享使命所用的语言的各种组合。我们发现存在七种同构途径，导致非营利专业人士采用主流解释。