I learnt about zombie organizations recently. They look and behave like vibrant organizations. They have structures, an office, people, receive funding but have little impact and at times produce close to nothing. Their primary purpose is the survival of the organization. Achievement of mission is secondary. Their cost structure is skewed.
Is there a theory for a high performing organization? I am a huge fan of Peter Drucker, the godfather of modern management science. He dabbled into the management of nonprofits. Very helpful material- but at times the context maybe different for some of us.
At times we elevate colleagues into management positions based on their academic qualifications such as a master's degree or great writing skills. Management is both an Art and a Science. We make the assumption that a qualification for instance in Development Studies or any other academic discipline outside of Management is sufficient to run an organization. What a terrible mistake!

Management is about people first. In the absence of a people centred approach we create a dysfunctional organization. And yet we need these outwards facing academic qualifications- to influence processes of Development and Democracy. The sweet spot is when we can build an organization with adequate processes and systems to cover both the internal team building needs and achieve good results. We are definitely not a zombie organization, but we are not yet a high-performance organization.