| Course | MGMT 602 Non-Profit Management (MGMT602) |
|---|---|
| Module/Week | 3 |
| Assignment | DB Forum 2 Thread |
| Paper type | Discussion thread with journal article analysis |
| Length | about 465 words (thread and replies). Course guide: per the course guide, a thread of at least 400 words reviewing and analyzing an assigned case study or journal article, followed by two replies of at least 200 words each |
| Format | APA 7 citations and reference list |
| Points | 60 |
| School | Liberty University Online |
| Program | MS in Management and Leadership |
| Where it sits | Module/Week 3 in Liberty's published MGMT 602 course guide; current sections can differ |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MGMT 602 Week 3
Discussion Board Forum 2: Thread
MGMT 602 Non-Profit Management, Discussion Board Forum 2: Thread
Thread by [Student Name]
The prompt and the reentry ministry are composites standing in for the course's own forum and its assigned article; Block and Rosenberg's article, Worth's textbook and Scripture are real; the requirements follow Liberty's public course guide for MGMT 602.
Block and Rosenberg (2002) describe founder's syndrome as a pattern in which a founder's power and privilege come to outweigh the governance structures meant to share them. They draw on the idea of stewardship to argue that the problem is not that founders are bad leaders but that holding privilege, such as control over who sits on the board or how decisions are made, can work against the organization's interests even when the founder's intentions are good. The syndrome often becomes visible only when the founder steps back, or should.
Our city has a prison reentry ministry that shows both sides. A former county jail chaplain founded it in 2000 with a borrowed van and a list of men leaving prison with nowhere to go. Today it has forty-one staff, a thirty-two-bed halfway house, a job placement program with two dozen employers and a reputation with judges and wardens that took decades to build. Its founder is seventy-one and still serves as executive director. He also chooses every new board member, most of them men from the church where the ministry began, and the board has never formally evaluated him.
Worth (2017) describes the board's essential responsibilities as including the selection, support and evaluation of the chief executive and the planning of executive succession. Measured against that standard, this board has given up its most important duties. The risk is not hypothetical: when the founder had heart surgery two years ago, no one knew who could sign checks or speak to the parole board, and two employer partners paused hiring for three months. That episode suggests that the ministry's relationships live in one man rather than in the organization. None of this means the founder has acted in bad faith. By every account he has given the ministry his savings, his evenings and his health. But Block and Rosenberg's point is that good intentions do not protect an organization from a structure in which one person's judgment goes unchecked, and the men in the halfway house depend on the ministry outlasting him.
Scripture offers a picture of a better transition. When Moses neared the end of his leadership, God told him to take Joshua, lay his hand on him before the priest and the whole congregation, and give him some of his authority so that the people would obey him (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, Numbers 27:18-20). Moses did not wait to be gone; he shared authority while he was still there to vouch for his successor. The ministry's board could do the same: recruit two members from outside the founder's circle, begin an annual review, and ask the founder to introduce a deputy to the judges and employers he knows.
Classmates: have you seen a founder hand over well, and what made it work?
References
Block, S. R., & Rosenberg, S. (2002). Toward an understanding of founder's syndrome: An assessment of power and privilege among founders of nonprofit organizations. Nonprofit Management and Leadership, 12(4), 353-368. https://doi.org/10.1002/nml.12403
English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)
Worth, M. J. (2017). Nonprofit management: Principles and practice (4th ed.). SAGE Publications.
What the MGMT 602 Week 3 instructions ask
The second MGMT 602 forum opens in Module/Week 3, alongside chapter 4 of Worth, one presentation, one website and Quiz 2, worth 75 points. Its thread, worth 60, follows the same rule as every thread in the course: at least 400 words, built around a review and analysis of the case study or journal article the forum assigns. Two replies of 200 words or more come due in Module/Week 4. Because a forum thread is read by classmates who have the same article, the summary can be brief and the analysis should carry the weight. Students who use their own organizations should describe them accurately and fairly, especially when the subject is a living founder or a current executive, and protect identities where needed.
How this MGMT 602 Week 3 example is built
The thread opens by defining founder's syndrome in Block and Rosenberg's terms, the power and privilege a founder accumulates that can weaken shared governance, and notes their argument that the problem lies in how power is held, not in founders as people. It then describes the ministry: forty-one staff, a halfway house with thirty-two beds, a job placement program and a founder who still recruits every board member from his own circle. It credits what the founder built, a reputation with judges and wardens that no successor will inherit automatically. Worth's discussion of the board's duty to hire, evaluate and plan for the chief executive frames the risk. Moses laying hands on Joshua in front of the people grounds the call for a public, planned succession.
MGMT 602 Week 3 grading rubric: where the points go
A strong Forum 2 thread shows that the article was understood and then uses it to analyze a real organization. The summary should get Block and Rosenberg right, including that their concern is the use of power rather than the founder's character, followed by evidence from the organization that the pattern is or is not present. The 400-word minimum is checked. Connecting the analysis to Worth's treatment of executive leadership and board responsibilities shows integration of the course text, and a biblical perspective on leadership and succession reflects the course's worldview. A fair tone toward the founder, accurate citations of the article and the textbook, and a final question put to classmates make for a strong post.
MGMT 602 Week 3 help: mistakes that cost points
Threads on founder's syndrome often turn into complaints about a difficult boss. Keep the focus on governance: who appoints the board, who sets its agenda, how the executive is evaluated and whether a succession plan exists. Give the founder credit for what was built, since a thread that sees only problems misreads the article's balance. Describe specific practices rather than personality, for example a founder who chooses every board member or who reviews his own performance. If you write about your own organization, change names and details enough to protect people. Finally, end with a recommendation the board could adopt, such as an emergency succession plan, so that the analysis leads somewhere practical.
Related MGMT 602 sample papers
Other MGMT 602 weeks
- MGMT 602 Week 1: Forum 1: Why Nonprofits Exist
- MGMT 602 Week 2: Forum 1 Replies: Sector Theories
- MGMT 602 Week 4: Forum 2 Replies: After the Founder
- MGMT 602 Week 5: Forum 3: Nonprofit Collaboration
- MGMT 602 Week 6: Forum 3 Replies: Merge or Stay Apart
- MGMT 602 Week 7: Forum 4: Financial Vulnerability
- MGMT 602 Week 8: Nonprofit Analysis Project
More MS in Management and Leadership sample papers
MGMT 602 Week 3 questions, answered
What is MGMT 602 DB Forum 2?
The second of four forums, worth 60 points for the thread in Module/Week 3 and 40 for the two replies in Module/Week 4, built around an assigned article or case study.
Where can I find a free MGMT 602 Week 3 sample paper?
Read here a full MGMT 602 Week 3 thread analyzing founder's syndrome at a prison reentry ministry in Birmingham led by its founder for twenty-six years.
What is founder's syndrome?
The name for what happens when the person who started a nonprofit keeps so much power and privilege that the board's oversight and the organization's development are weakened, often showing up most clearly at succession.
How can a nonprofit board address founder's syndrome?
By taking back its own duties: recruiting members independently, evaluating the executive each year, adopting term limits and writing both an emergency and a planned succession plan.
What does the Bible say about leadership succession?
Moses publicly commissioned Joshua before the people and shared his authority with him while he still led, an example of a handover planned and visible rather than left to crisis.
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