Leadership in nonprofit organizations is an area of study which seems to have escaped the attention of both the academic researcher and the nonprofit organization practitioner. Two problems surface immediately regarding leadership studies in nonprofit organizations. One, researchers seem to equate leadership in a nonprofit organization with leadership research in general; and two, the practitioner, on the other hand, often considers leadership and management synonymous activities — a single function. Leadership in cross-sector and intra-sector collaborations crosses many boundaries and is fundamentally different from position-based leadership authority or tactical-level leadership exercised within organizations. Collaborative leadership differs from traditional hierarchy-based leadership in many ways, such as the emphasis on leading the collaborative process. The result of these two views produces a dysfunctional nonprofit organization literature. This practice, regretfully, results in a limited amount of available research to support the mammoth subject of nonprofit organization leadership. The nonprofit organization practitioner most often tries to survive on anecdotal information of how one project in one locale is successfully accomplished, and attempts to make a transfer of that information to his or her own unit. This practice may not address the unique characteristics of nonprofit organization leadership or speak to the need of understanding nonprofit organizational development. The assumption of anecdotal literature is that if it works in one place it should work in another. This assumption of a simple transference of effective organizational activities from one nonprofit organization to another organization too often breeds frustration and organizational failure on the part of nonprofit organization leadership. There are simply too many interrelated variables to make such a simplistic assumption. The extant literature is too scant and too weak to provide the needed support for the nonprofit leader. This Thesis, therefore, is an investigation, a case study, of a nationally recognized successful, community action agency. The intent of this investigation is to understand the role of a leader in the nonprofit organizational setting, and the dynamic interrelationship of leader’s influence upon the elements of organizational leadership, culture and socialization. The primary incentive is to add to the knowledge of how an effective nonprofit community action agency functions. The study is grounded in extant research in the fields of nonprofit organization leadership which is not specific to community action agencies; yet, is the only literature available for this study, organizational culture and socialization. Another pertinent interest is whether or how leadership may influence a synergy which affects the organizational culture and socialization when initiated, maintained, and continually renewed within the organizational context. Environmental advocacy organizations work in coalitions or strategic partnerships with other organizations with similar missions for a wide variety

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times, foundation funders also consistently call for advocacy nonprofits to think strategically and to cooperate with other nonprofits. Often the first question that foundations ask potential grantees is “with whom are you working?” It is imperative that advocacy organizations, especially smaller groups “play well with others” because they neither have the staff nor the financial resources to successfully achieve their goals without successfully engaging other groups in the effort. Many environmental groups create intra-sector alliances with other environmental groups or cross-sector alliances with non-environmental groups, including government agencies and for profit entities. While there are many advantages and disadvantages to each type of alliance, even collaborations with the “right” partners are often difficult to build. A commonly-used phrase describes collaboration as an “unnatural act among non-consenting adults,” which emphasizes the difficulties that are encountered in virtually every collaborative effort (Wuichet, 2000). Leadership is the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute towards the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members. A constant change that has become a part of life for many organizations highlights the increasing importance of transformational leadership. Superior performance or performance beyond normal expectations is possible only by transforming followers’ values, attitudes’ and motives from a lower to a higher plane of arousal and maturity (Bass, 1985). A number of authors have speculated the difference in feminine and masculine leadership styles. Increasingly, feminine leadership is seen to be more transformational. Ethical behaviors in organizations have also become an actively discussed topic that is seen as more and more important. This paper reports a study done to see the role of femininity and transformational leadership in enhancing ethical behaviors in organizations. Most leadership research has made within regular corporations or public sector organizations in the business world. However, the research on leadership in the non-profit organizations (NPOs) has been scarce even though these organizations play an important part in society and the economy as well. It is argued that leadership in NPOs is different from that of a for-profit organization due to the different preconditions that exist in a non-profit organization. The research question of this thesis is therefore; “what characterizes leadership in NPOs and what leadership styles can be found?”

The results have shown that he leadership styles that we can find at IKSU are supporting and coaching and