Suchergebnisse

AbstractGrowth and decentralization have brought increasing conflict to many international NGOs, particularly between field and headquarters. This case study, written by the executive responsible for the activities portrayed, examines an attempt to define a clear new role for a headquarters department in a large, decentralized INGO focused on building unity of purpose. By ensuring that decentralized units of the organization took the leadership in related corporate initiatives whenever possible, with headquarters coordinating an inclusive process rather than implementing, unity was increased and tension reduced. Senior managers at the headquarters of growing, decentralized INGOs should find this case study relevant as they strive to maintain unity in the face of institutional fragmentation.

AbstractPLAN International (PLAN) developed a methodology to ensure that its robust growth in the late 1980s and early 1990s was directed in a manner that was explicitly consistent with organizational strategy. This methodology enabled it to target its growth toward countries where child‐related need was greater and in which its program approach was likely to have most impact. Managers of international nongovernmental organizations should find PLAN's experience relevant as they strive to strike a balance between organizational expansion, with its pressures and distractions, and the crucial need to maintain institutional focus.