Workforce Transitions from the Profit to the Nonprofit Sector

Since the early 1990s, the number of professional managers displaced from US corporate jobs has increased dramatically. This has coincided with the rapid expansion of employment in the US non-profit sector; a sector that has a high proportion of managerial and professional workers among its employees. This study examines the career sequences of dislocated white-collar corporate managers who want to move to the non-profit sector. It highlights the managers' motivations, the structural barriers which prevented them from making the transition, and the methods of penetrating the barriers. It uncovers the reasons why some corporate managers are able to make the transition and why others are not. Finally, it presents the methods of adaptation that were utilized in their new environments. This volume should be of interest to human resource managers in the profit and non-profit sectors, sociologists, occupational researchers, and organizational psychologists.