Organization Structure, Service Mix, and Member Satisfaction and Retention
Markus Gmuer, Verbandsmanagementinstitut (VMI)
Yvonne Ribi, yvonne.ribi@sbk-asi.ch; SBK-ASI
Professional Associations are free membership-based nonprofit-organizations defending the interests of their
members against employers’ associations, state regulations, and the general public. They compete with labour
unions attracting new members and in many European countries they struggle against decreasing unionization rates
(Tschirhart 2006). The ability of an organization to steadily attract new members and to retain the previous is critical
for its advocacy power and long-term survival as well.
Professional Associations provide services in a mix of public and private goods. Private goods (e.g. training,
consulting, job placement) are exclusive and reserved to paying members, public goods (e.g. advocacy, industrial
relations, media releases) on the other hand are characterized by non-excludability and therefore critical for paying
membership (Olson 1965; Offe/Wiesenthal 1980; Streeck 1990). Organizations and their supporting members are
faced with the free-rider challenge. While theoretical arguments for this problem are well explored, only a few
empirical studies have delivered empirical evidence from membership-based organizations: They identified members’
preferences for private vice public goods (Marshall/Sundstrom 2010) and found decentralization compensating freerider frustration among active members (Barkan/Cohn/Whitaker 1993).
This study reports the findings from a research project on satisfaction and commitment among current and former
members in the 13 regional sections of a large Swiss professional nursing association (SBK) with 25’000 individual
members. The sections are free in designing their mix of services and therefore giving weight to the production of
private and public goods. They are also free in institutionalizing several forms of decentralized structures by
establishing focus and interest groups.
Questionnaires with 80 items were sent to a layered sample of 2600 current and 1640 former members from the 13
sections. The response rate was 21% resulting in 527 questionnaires from current members and 325 from resigned
members. Measures cover individual preferences and satisfaction levels with regard to 20 different products and
services, respondents’ organizational commitment and the individual activity level within the association. On the
organizational level the individual data were cumulated and crossed with the service mix and structural characteristics
of the sections.
Results on the organizational level show a weak positive link between the number and quality of both individual and
collective goods and the satisfaction levels within the sections. Due to the fact that the variance of individual ratings is
considerably high throughout all the sections, the link is not significant on the individual level, although the total
sample is rather large. It is interesting to observe that for those members, who perceive the section as dominant
compared with the national peak organization, satisfaction is linked to the collective good provision. On the other
hand satisfaction is linked to private good provision for those, who perceive the national peak organization compared
with the section. There is also some evidence that commitment and satisfaction among members is positively linked
to the level of decentralization and participation even if the organizational size is controlled. Comparing current and
former members reveals that individual attitudes (e.g. about the importance of collective bargaining) are more
relevant than the perception of higher or lower service levels.
Overall the results suggest that the influence of managerial decisions on organizational structure and service mix in a
professional association are lower than expected. The rationality of individual enter or leave decisions seems to be
more a reflection of individual values and attitudes than an answer to organizational strategies.
LITERATURE
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