This project examines the impact on a Christian mission organisation of the decision to accept government funding and add an explicit international development focus to its work. During the 1980s the Anglican Board of Mission (ABM), the national mission agency of the Anglican Church of Australia, entered into a contractual relationship with the Australian Government which ultimately led to accreditation as a development agency and involvement with the Australian international development sector. This process has significantly influenced ABM both structurally and philosophically, bringing a creative tension within the organisation between two related but distinct approaches to Christian witness. A cooperative inquiry method was chosen with the aim of fostering organisational learning within ABM. The researcher became a participant in a team of five which conducted three cycles of inquiry over a year. This team of staff members and the researcher explored the influence of the growing relationship with government on their faith-based NGO and its implications within the context of Christian mission. Notions of intentionality, accountability and legitimacy within the relationships with their stakeholders emerged as significant foundations for the work of the organisation. The cycles of inquiry generated a body of co-created knowledge which, it is argued, have pointed the way to managing ABM???s dual roles. Its multiple accountabilities - to government, to its Anglican constituency, and to overseas church partners - are understood as offering a framework through which it can continually assess its organisational integrity and fidelity to its value base. Articulating intentionality of purpose and a clear theological understanding of mission and development were identified as crucial if ABM is to maintain its legitimacy as derived from the mandate of the Anglican Church to undertake Christian mission and development on its behalf. ???Making space to breathe??? became a metaphor to describe the task of the organisation in creating both a reflective space which opens possibilities for transformed praxis, and a liminal space between the two Programs of the organisation in which a unifying philosophical ground can be discovered.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (M.A.)--Addis Ababa University, 2002. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 144-53).

Thesis (M.S.P.D.(Prof))--University of Queensland, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

With the rapid expansion of the state- led philanthropy sector over the past decade, charitable GONGOs have become salient players in China’s third sector. These organizations have acted as “transmission belts” between the state and society by placing government demands in the first priority and posed no challenges to the political hierarchy. However, several events occurring after the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake implied that charitable GONGOs began to secure an independent identity in pursuit of their own interests. I argue that traditional analytical frameworks to address state-society relations in China, namely civil society and corporatist approach, cannot fully explain this new phenomenon. Thus I propose a two- level institutional change model to explore why and how charitable GONGOs began to pursue an independent identity. At the societal level, three institutional sources are identified which are driving charitable GONGOs to detach themselves from the government: functional, legitimization and political pressure. At the organizational level, I argue that charitable GONGOs will adopt divergent strategies to pursue autonomy, and propose three interrelated propositions to explain their choices. The research methods used in this thesis include macro-historical analysis and the case study. In regard to the former, I review the laws, regulations, policies, past significant events and statistical data related to the philanthropy sector to explore how the change of general social context exerts impact on charitable GONGOs. I then use the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation and China Charity Federation as cases to analyze why and how charitable GONGOs have devised divergent strategies to secure organizational autonomy. This study discloses that with the notable change in the economic, social and political environment; charitable GONGOs are encountering three institutional pressures to separate themselves from the government. First, functional pressure derived from the rise of new donors and private foundations. Second, the past malpractices of charitable GONGOs, including the administrative fundraising campaign, the “black box” in operation and corruption, which have severely undermined public trust and generates legitimization pressure. In addition, they have also faced political pressure to transform. The case studies find that two typical strategies are adopted by charitable GONGOs to pursue organizational autonomy. One strategy is to initiate a “de-bureaucratization” reform to transform from semi-governmental organizations to true NGOs, while the other is to pursue symbolic independence without a substantial shift of their close relationship to the government. In addition, institutional entrepreneurs holding a positive attitude towards their autonomy played a pivotal role on the different strategic choices, and the feedback effect reinforced the choices made at critical junctures. Given that only a few charitable GONGOs have changed into autonomous NGOs to date, it is still too early to say that a civil society is taking shape in top-down manner. Nevertheless, we should not overlook that there is increasingly visible tension between the publics’ expectation and the inert political system. If the reformist elites and leaders of the party-state reach a consensus on the relations between the government and social organizations, the future of civil society in China will become a little brighter. / published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

China, as an authoritarian state, exerts tight control over society. Grassroots non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in China emerged in the context of top-down restrictions and lack of bottom-up social support. However, over the years, they have developed into a visible social force in various areas, such as environmental protection and women‘s rights protection. The policy environment has also become more favorable for NGOs. This research aims to investigate how this process happened. How did grassroots NGOs in China gradually gain legitimacy in the face of a hostile government and among an uninformed public? Adapting legitimacy studies in organizational theory to NGO studies, I developed a four-stage model to illustrate the legitimation process of Chinese grassroots NGOs involving embeddedness, diffusion, transition and validation. Using two in-depth case studies, the legitimation process and the dynamics between the state, NGOs and society are explored. I contend that grassroots NGOs initially embed themselves in existing institutions to attain a basic level of legitimacy, after which they diffuse their values and images through various channels to attain greater legitimacy. After a stage of transition, the legitimacy of grassroots NGOs is enhanced and they move into a stage of validation. In each stage, different types of legitimacy are attained through different sources. The interaction between the different dimensions of legitimacy reflects the dynamics between the state, NGOs and society. / published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

The research problem that this study addresses is two-fold. First, the persistance of poverty gives rise to a real world concern for improving the effectiveness of international development efforts. To address the link between the alleviation of poverty, adult education, and a grass-roots approach, this study focuses on planning within an organization that offers adult education programs overseas, specifically a nongovernmental organization (NGO). An understanding of the dynamics of planning in such an NGO will help in articulating more effective approaches to planning practice in international development. The second aspect of the research problem is that the relationship between the planning process and the planning context seems not to have been fully explored in the literature on adult education program planning. There is a need for a more complete set of analytical tools that captures the complexities of planning and sheds light on the relationship between the planning context and the planning process. The purpose of this dissertation is to address the main theoretical question raised by the research problem: How do nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) plan so as to maintain themselves and be effective given the pressures on them? This theoretical question was investigated through a case study method, specifically ethnography. Ethnographic fieldwork, which included seventeen months of participant observation, twenty-five interviews, and document analysis, was carried out at an NGO, refered to here by the pseudonym of "Global Faith." The conceptual framework developed in this dissertation builds on the negotiation approach to planning. The first part of the conceptual framework links two strands of research: leadership theory and negotiation theory. Through this juxtaposition, I was able to examine the process of planning in a new light - as the negotiation of meaning. The second part of the framework shows how a deeper understanding of the context of planning is accomplished by applying a subjectivist, multi- perspective approach to analyzing cultures in organizations. This approach - which incorporates the integration perspective, the differentiation perspective, and the fragmentation perspective was used to see Global Faith cultures in three different ways. These same ways of viewing culture at Global Faith were matched with the varying interpretations held by staff members in order to characterize the cultural contexts for specific episodes of planning involving the negotiation of meaning. The findings show that by including the negotiation of meaning in planning activities, Global Faith is able to motivate staff and deal effectively with confusing requirements, conflicting expectations, and diverse demands that they face in their interactions with CIDA, general public donors, the Board of Directors, and overseas partner organizations. There is a recursive relationship between planning processes involving the negotiation of meaning and Global Faith cultures whereby the cultures are both precursors and products of negotiation of meaning episodes.

This project examines the impact on a Christian mission organisation of the decision to accept government funding and add an explicit international development focus to its work. During the 1980s the Anglican Board of Mission (ABM), the national mission agency of the Anglican Church of Australia, entered into a contractual relationship with the Australian Government which ultimately led to accreditation as a development agency and involvement with the Australian international development sector. This process has significantly influenced ABM both structurally and philosophically, bringing a creative tension within the organisation between two related but distinct approaches to Christian witness. A cooperative inquiry method was chosen with the aim of fostering organisational learning within ABM. The researcher became a participant in a team of five which conducted three cycles of inquiry over a year. This team of staff members and the researcher explored the influence of the growing relationship with government on their faith-based NGO and its implications within the context of Christian mission. Notions of intentionality, accountability and legitimacy within the relationships with their stakeholders emerged as significant foundations for the work of the organisation. The cycles of inquiry generated a body of co-created knowledge which, it is argued, have pointed the way to managing ABM???s dual roles. Its multiple accountabilities - to government, to its Anglican constituency, and to overseas church partners - are understood as offering a framework through which it can continually assess its organisational integrity and fidelity to its value base. Articulating intentionality of purpose and a clear theological understanding of mission and development were identified as crucial if ABM is to maintain its legitimacy as derived from the mandate of the Anglican Church to undertake Christian mission and development on its behalf. ???Making space to breathe??? became a metaphor to describe the task of the organisation in creating both a reflective space which opens possibilities for transformed praxis, and a liminal space between the two Programs of the organisation in which a unifying philosophical ground can be discovered.

Thesis (M.S.) -- Central Connecticut State University, 2008. / Thesis advisor: D'Arcy Dornan "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Geography." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 158-161). Also available via the World Wide Web.