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Master of Urban and Regional Planning

This study explores the relationship between journalists and NGOs in news making from a social exchange theory perspective. Drawing on semi-structured reconstruction interviews with journalists from Swedish media and representatives from the communications departments of Swedish NGOs, it examines motivations, contextual influences, and trust building processes that shape the relationship. The findings from the thematic analysis suggest three main characteristics of the journalist-NGO relationship. Firstly, the actors are motivated to interact due to a mutual dependency despite having separate goals. Secondly, the interactions are marked by an initiative imbalance caused by the contextual norm of a ruling media logic. Thirdly, trustworthiness is established between the actors through successful social exchanges which tend to reoccur and rationalize professional processes, ergolong-term relations lead to trust and efficacy. This thesis further concludes that journalists hold an upper hand in the news making process which NGOs accommodate to be recognized by media. Simultaneously, the NGOs play an important part in supplementing and substituting journalistic shortages which enhances their influence on news content. This leads to a relationship of mutual dependency which is sustained through reciprocal social exchanges that build trust and enable efficiency on both an interpersonal micro level, and an organizational meso level.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The shrinking space for civil society and the increasing number of unfavorable legislation affecting the work of non-governmental organizations continue to be burning issues for global philanthropy. Using a case study approach, this thesis explores how democracies regulate the operation of foreign-funded non-governmental organizations in Hungary and Israel. This thesis examines what the presumed and real motivations of democratic governments are to adapt such regulations and how the political, economic and socio-cultural environments might influence their enactment. This thesis also compares the Hungarian and Israeli regulations to the 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act.

International security, and particularly the threat of terrorist attacks, remains to be one of the most concerning and debated political topics a decade after the September 11th attacks. In particular, the newly elected Obama administration is at a point where they have a chance to reformulate their response to terrorist threats. Traditionally, the US government has resorted to a "hard" style approach of preventive measures and detention of terror suspects. Typically these measures are carried out by the US federal agencies themselves; however the use of civilians in the form of military contractors has become more popular in recent years. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia, an ally of the US has employed a radically different style in dealing with the threat of terrorism in their country. Their rehabilitation programs are part of an entire campaign that chooses a more human-based approach. This research analyzes the effectiveness of the Saudi Arabian program and the US non-governmental approaches to see if there are beneficial methods that can be adopted by the US in their traditional federal methods.

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The aim of this study is to compare companies and NGOs in the projects of EU Structural Funds. In the theoretical part were presented EU funds, in particular the European Social Fund and European Regional Development Fund. Then there was described the situation of companies and nongovernmental organizations in the Czech Republic. In the fourth section of the theoretical part are possible operational programs, which can be used by companies and NGOs. In the practical part there was selected for the qualitative research Operational Programme Humans Resources and Employment. Studied the effect of subsidized organizations like the Project on civic associations, charitable company, limited liability company and stock company before and after project.

Despite Russia's foreign agent law and a plethora of literature on the deterioration of Russia's civil society, there is a scarcity of research about the breakthroughs and transformation of Russian-and-American (RA) nongovernmental organization (NGO) partnerships. Accordingly, the research goal of this qualitative case study was to explore the tenets of servant leadership theory exhibited by foreign aid organizations for the restoration of RA NGO partnerships. The research questions addressed the influence and dominance of servant leadership tenets within United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and its collaborating agencies. A content analysis was conducted using online publicly available data such as annual reports from foreign aid organizations, newspaper articles, fact sheets, recorded interviews, and blogs. Data were deductively coded around the servant leadership attributes: (a) listening, (b) healing, (c) awareness, (d) empathy, (e) foresight, (f) conceptualization, (g) stewardship, (h) persuasion, (i) commitment to the growth of people, and (j) building community. Content analysis findings revealed that some servant leadership tenets (e.g., building community, commitment to the growth of people) were more dominant than others among USAID and its collaborating agencies; however, there was insufficient evidence to conclude that servant leadership had a dominant effect on the restoration of RA NGO partnerships. The implications for positive social change include recommendations involving governmental agencies, NGOs, and nonpartisan groups with understanding and adopting the principles of servant leadership for the restoration of RA NGO partnerships to assist Russian civil society with embedding principles of democratic governance.

Magistro darbo objektas - organizacinės komunikacijos procesas internetiniuose socialiniuose tinkluose, ryšys tarp tarptautinių nevyriausybinių organizacijų, internetinių socialinių tinklų ir jų publikų. Darbo tikslas - išanalizuoti tarptautinės komunikacijos internetiniuose socialiniuose tinkluose teorines prielaidas ir atskleisti jų galimybes aplinkosaugos nevyriausybinių organizacijų komunikacijoje. Pagrindiniai darbo uždaviniai: išskirti komunikacijos proceso internetiniuose socialiniuose tinkluose elementus, jų tarpusavio sąveiką; identifikuoti internetinių socialinių tinklų teikiamas galimybes organizacinei komunikacijai nevyriausybiniame sektoriuje vykdyti; ištirti, kaip internetiniai socialiniai tinklai praktiškai pritaikomi aplinkosaugos nevyriausybinių organizacijų veikloje; sudaryti modelį efektyviai nevyriausybinių organizacijų komunikacijai vykdyti internetiniuose socialiniuose tinkluose. Naudojantis literatūros analizės bei sintezės metodais, atlikus struktūruotą interviu su trylika tarptautinių nevyriausybinių organizacijų darbuotojais, ištyrus tarptautinių aplinkosaugos nevyriausybinių organizacijų internetinių socialinių tinklų narių įrašus kiekybinės ir kokybinės turinio analizės metodais, prieita prie išvados, kad besivystančioje tinklaveikos visuomenėje veikiant modernioms informacinėms ir komunikacinėms technologijoms individo lygmenyje vyksta masinės ir tarpasmeninės komunikacijos bruožų turintis komunikacijos procesas. Tarptautinių aplinkosaugos... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The object of master thesis – process of organizational communication in social networking sites, connection between international nongovernmental organizations, internet social networks and their publics. The aim of this work is to analyze theoretical background for international communication in online social networks and disclose their potential in organizational communication of international environmental NGOs. The main tasks: distinguish elements of communication‘s process in social networking sites and their reciprocity; identify the potential for organizational communication in social networking sites in nongovernmental sector; examine how NGOs use online social networks in their practice; construct a model for effective organizational communication of international NGOs in internet networking sites. In this work scientific literature analysis and synthesis, structured interview with thirteen communication specialists from international nongovernmental organizations, qualitative and quantitative content analysis of texts nongovernmental organizations’‘ profiles in social networking sites showed that in developing network society modern information and communication technologies empower new type of communication process that has both massive and interpersonal communication features. International environmental organizations’ communication in social networking sites is determined “from below” – from the supporters and fans of the organization. The profile of an... [to full text]

abstract: This dissertation examines the factors related to the success of host country field offices established by international Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Further, this dissertation examines NGO field office mission success in the context of working with foreign host governments and clients. This dissertation is a case of the field offices of The Nature Conservancy in South and Central America. The principal research aim is to identify the primary factors that are related to success of field offices. Success is identified as a multidimensional concept. A conceptual model for success is developed. The conceptual model derived causal factors from the literature and captured categories of variables such as: (1) managerial tactics and techniques dictated by the NGO and adopted by field office leaders; (2) the distance between cultural features of the host country and those of the country of origin of the field office manager and personnel; and, (3) characteristics of the host country government. The dissertation: (1) utilizes a working definition of NGO drawn from the scholarly literature in the field; (2) describes the role of field offices (located in host countries) in the calculus of "home office" goal achievement; (3) discusses the types of "change"--delivery of goods, delivery of services, changes in behavior, changes in norms or attitudes--that field offices may have and how they differ in the challenges they create for field office managers; and, (4) develops a conceptual definition for success. This dissertation is concerned with the factors associated with success in the international NGO's field office. A model of success predictors is tested in this work. The findings suggest that the field offices mission success may be affected by local culture but this was not an issue for the organization studied. Mission success as perceived by the field seems to be a product of organizational culture. The contribution of the research to academic literature is that this study is both an exploratory and descriptive study of how NGO mission is carried out in the field and the impacts of national and organizational culture on mission success. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Public Administration 2011