1st Edition

Managing Nongovernmental Organizations Culture, Power and Resistance

By Frederik Claeyé Copyright 2014
    246 Pages
    by Routledge

    246 Pages
    by Routledge

    The idea that international development aid needs to be better managed and coordinated gained currency in the early 1990s. The increasing emphasis on management has resulted in the present vogue of ‘managing for development results’ as one of the central tenets in the discourse on international aid. But how appropriate are these ideas, tools, and techniques for non-governmental development organizations (NGOs), and how much does geographic context matter? Examining the current debate on aid effectiveness and the role of NGOs in contributing to it, this book highlights the critical importance of understanding how the global and the local interact to increase aid efficacy and develop more culturally astute ways of managing NGOs.

    With a focus on NGOs active in sub-Saharan Africa as case studies, author Frederik Claeyé demonstrates that NGOs are not mere passive recipients of management knowledge and practices emanating from the global governance structure of international aid, but actively engage with these ideas and practices to translate and rework them through a local cultural lens. This process results in the emergence of unique hybrid management systems that combine the pressure to become more business-like with the mission to satisfy the demands of the communities they serve.

    1. Introduction 2. NGO Management: The Cross-Cultural Imperative 3. Cross-Cultural Interactions at the ‘Glocal’ Interface 4. Towards a Critical, Cross-Cultural Perspective on NGO Management 5. Research Design 6. Recording everyday material practices 7. Discursive Resources: Framing Non-Profit Management 8. Mimicry and Hybridity: Managerialism Meets Ubuntu 9. Discussion and Conclusion

    Biography

    Frederik Claeyé is Senior Lecturer at Lille Catholic University, France. He received his PhD from Middlesex University London. He is Research Associate and Visiting Lecturer at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa. He has published on leadership and management in NGOs in sub-Sahara Africa and presented his work at various international conferences.

    "A timely and significant contribution to the much needed cross cultural dialogue among NGOs and donors."Chiku Malunga, Director, CADECO

     

    "Taken as a whole, Claeyé’s work represents a significant contribution to theorizations of
    management in hybrid third-sector organizations, reaffirming the primacy of discourse and power and
    shaping of institutions norms and illuminating the role of agency and identity in the active formation and
    enactment of organizational culture. Scholars of organizational communication and management will find
    much in Managing Nongovernmental Organizations: Culture, Power and Resistance to provoke thought
    and conversation, and considerations of nonprofit management in the global context will be richer for its
    deep qualitative analysis and innovative perspective." -
    Stefanie Z. Demetriades, International Journal of Communication