For-profit firms are well-oriented. The managers within firms may not make profit their only explicit priority, but it is pre-requisite to their other concerns. Without profits, firms eventually cease to exist. Non-profits are different. They might have revenues due to sales and operate much like a for-profit firm. But, they many times operate on revenue from donations and endowments. Because the success of non-profits is harder to measure, the signals of triumph and defeat do not orient the employees as clearly. The result can be that there is a lot of ruin in a non-profit. Plenty of tasks are done inefficiently, poorly, or not at all.

Mission-driven non-profits are able to attract enthusiastic, dedicated employees given the pay that they offer. But, supporting the mission of such an organization often acts as an implicit “belief test”, filtering out other would-be job applicants who self-select out of applying to open positions for which they are otherwise qualified. Indeed, part of the purpose of mission statements is to filter for the kind of employees that the organization managers or donors desire. While the employees may be enthusiastic and dedicated to the mission, that is mostly separate from whether they have the technical skills to flourish in their position and to effectively serve the organization.

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