Abstract

Organizational excellence is linked to openness and change, to organizational flexibility in response to the needs of its target population and organizational teams. This chapter discusses an organization's ability to influence/control performance in the face of environmental pressures, and the different strategic choices that ultimately aim to adjust to shifts in vision. These include both (a) re-active methods including inevitable changes in organizational aims, procedures and techniques, and (b) pro-active coping methods that ensure competitiveness, including internal control systems, marketing and commercialization. The degree of stakeholder influence on these strategies is also discussed because of the effect that conflicting expectations from multiple stakeholders have on definitions of performance in NPO.