CSR har kommit att bli centralt i många företags strategier. Vissa akademiker hävdar att företag söker sig till intresseorganisationer som arbetar med CSR för att förbättra sitt CSR-arbete medan andra påstår att det endast är ett sätt att framhäva sitt företag i ett positivt ljus. Till skillnad från de många artiklar som skrivits om vad företag kan vinna på medlemskap i intresseorganisationer fokuserar denna uppsats istället likt Knudsen (2011) på vilka företag som har något att vinna på engagemang i intresseorganisationen The Global Compact. Undersökningen utgår från Knudsens påståenden och prövar om dessa stämmer för svenska företag, via intervjuer med fyra företag av varierande storlek. Våra resultat pekar mot att påståendena i huvudsak stämmer men att de bakomliggande orsakerna varierar när man jämför vår geografiska begränsning mot Knudsens mer globala fokus. I våra slutsatser väcker vi även frågan om vilket roll The Global Compact spelar på den svenska marknaden och om företag som är aktiva inom Sverige faktiskt har något att vinna på att engagera sig i initiativet.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have become increasingly utilized in the rebuilding of war-torn countries. This thesis is a grounded-theory qualitative study of the role of NGO educational projects in re-building civil society in Afghanistan as well as other conflict-affected nations. Six NGO project directors and field officers working on project work in Afghanistan were selected as interview participants. Analysis of the interview narratives revealed several key findings. These key findings suggest that while NGO officials recognize several root causes of conflict in their work contexts, conflict’s causes have limited impact on their project design. However, NGO officials believed educational project work had transformational potential. Further, NGO officials believed their project work to be successful in its development and peacebuilding goals, but suggested a need for increased project time frames. Finally, they believed their NGO project work to be but one track in a multi-track intervention into conflict-affected countries. / February 2008

As a result of political antagonism across the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan has engaged in ¡§pragmatic diplomacy¡¨ since the end of 1980s in an attempt to reenter the international community and to establish more substantial official relations with foreign countries. As developing country, Taiwan has been donors of foreign aid with strong diplomatic incentives attached. Under the guideline of Taiwan¡¦s foreign policy goals, we have consistently chosen aid recipients that meet our diplomatic needs. In the 1990s, however, under the guidance of pragmatic diplomacy, Taiwan has made a concerted effort to reenter the international community and focused instead on improving state-to state relations. Official diplomacy and NGO activities may be "different approaches to the same ends," as the old Chinese saying goes, but they are fundamentally different. By mixing NGO functions with "track one" diplomacy, Taiwan has placed itself in an even worse position given the current international situation. NGO activities, however, are exchanges between civilians, not governments. In such unfavorable political antagonism across the Taiwan Strait circumstances, enabling Taiwan's NGOs -- with the help of official diplomacy -- to give full play to their functions overseas while building long-standing partnerships with foreign nations and people, should definitely be considered one of Taiwan's mid-to long-term strategic goals.

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Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have become increasingly utilized in the rebuilding of war-torn countries. This thesis is a grounded-theory qualitative study of the role of NGO educational projects in re-building civil society in Afghanistan as well as other conflict-affected nations. Six NGO project directors and field officers working on project work in Afghanistan were selected as interview participants. Analysis of the interview narratives revealed several key findings. These key findings suggest that while NGO officials recognize several root causes of conflict in their work contexts, conflict’s causes have limited impact on their project design. However, NGO officials believed educational project work had transformational potential. Further, NGO officials believed their project work to be successful in its development and peacebuilding goals, but suggested a need for increased project time frames. Finally, they believed their NGO project work to be but one track in a multi-track intervention into conflict-affected countries.

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have become increasingly utilized in the rebuilding of war-torn countries. This thesis is a grounded-theory qualitative study of the role of NGO educational projects in re-building civil society in Afghanistan as well as other conflict-affected nations. Six NGO project directors and field officers working on project work in Afghanistan were selected as interview participants. Analysis of the interview narratives revealed several key findings. These key findings suggest that while NGO officials recognize several root causes of conflict in their work contexts, conflict’s causes have limited impact on their project design. However, NGO officials believed educational project work had transformational potential. Further, NGO officials believed their project work to be successful in its development and peacebuilding goals, but suggested a need for increased project time frames. Finally, they believed their NGO project work to be but one track in a multi-track intervention into conflict-affected countries.

Social technologies have become ubiquitous. As technology in one shape or form infiltrates all areas of life, naturally there are consequences for individuals and organisations. Consequences arise when organisations implement technologies voluntarily but also when the employees use technologies to connect working life and private life in unforeseen ways. Platforms such as Facebook or Twitter enable boundary blurring and crossing, thus allowing the coming together of different areas of life. The concept of boundary work allows one to explore how people address the many challenges that arise as a result of using social technologies partly for work and partly for private purposes. The qualitative study design, complete with interviews and online observations of Facebook and Twitter, employed in this research helps to explore two research questions. Firstly, how do particular affordances of social technologies affect the blurring of boundaries between work and private life? Secondly, how do employees in non-governmental organisations enact boundaries between work and private life, with and in spite of social technologies? The analysis shows that the particular affordances of social technologies, visibility, persistence and association increase boundary permeability and blending. The concept of boundary work is developed further by distinguishing offline and online boundary work. With the omnipresence of social technologies, it does not suffice purely to use offline boundary work, as people develop a variety of online boundary work tactics, too. The results indicate that challenges for employees are no longer restricted simply to boundaries between work and private life, but they are also expanding into the boundaries between the public and private spheres. As a consequence, this study suggests that many online representations exist, and organisations would gain substantially from understanding the differences between them, in order to better address changing conditions.

Includes bibliography. / The donor - recipient relationship has been the focus of numerous research projects. However, the conditions imposed by donors when giving funding to a recipient in relation to programmatic focus and the resultant ability of an organisation to remain autonomous have not been really addressed. This research therefore sought to address this very issue with regards to the conditions placed on donor funds and their effect on NGO autonomy. The research takes Gunder Frank’s dependency theory as its theoretical framework which suggests that the third world was actively underdeveloped and conditioned to be recipients rather than producers. The same logic was then applied to the NGO sector where these organisations are trapped in the receiving cycle with little, to no individual ability to fundraise to become self-sustaining. The research was qualitative in nature where the researcher administered a web based survey to NGOs in three countries in East Africa namely; Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. However, a qualitative aspect was also incorporated in the research as respondents were offered the opportunity within the survey tool to offer their individual opinion in a narrative form. Probability sampling was employed meaning that each organisation on the respective lists had an equal chance of being selected to participate in the survey, which ran from, December 2012 to June 2013. A total of 517 organisations were preselected to participate in the survey. The researcher received 74 complete responses which was a 14.31%rate thus deemed good for an electronic survey.

Becoming an effective agent of development in the challenging and complex context of the development NGO in Sub-Saharan Africa necessitates prioritizing learning and adaptation. But NGOs are often not characterized by such a strong learning culture and commitment; and Christian NGOs are no exception. Reforming both the commitment to learning and the structures that support it is a pressing challenge facing Christian NGOs committed to being effective agents of development. Such reform requires careful analysis of the context of Sub-Saharan Africa, special consideration of the complex broader socio-political structure of the NGO world, and systematic research into understanding organizational dynamics that facilitate learning. Data from this research contributes to building an integrated learning model. Applying this model through a case study of specific Christian NGO—World Vision Burundi—leads to both identifying factors that undermine learning and proposing a set of recommendations that will help this NGO become a more effective learning organization.

Becoming an effective agent of development in the challenging and complex context of the development NGO in Sub-Saharan Africa necessitates prioritizing learning and adaptation. But NGOs are often not characterized by such a strong learning culture and commitment; and Christian NGOs are no exception. Reforming both the commitment to learning and the structures that support it is a pressing challenge facing Christian NGOs committed to being effective agents of development. Such reform requires careful analysis of the context of Sub-Saharan Africa, special consideration of the complex broader socio-political structure of the NGO world, and systematic research into understanding organizational dynamics that facilitate learning. Data from this research contributes to building an integrated learning model. Applying this model through a case study of specific Christian NGO—World Vision Burundi—leads to both identifying factors that undermine learning and proposing a set of recommendations that will help this NGO become a more effective learning organization.