NGOs, Organizational Culture, and Institutional Sustainability

This paper draws on ongoing qualitative research on a sericulture project in Bangladesh to explore the ways in which the concept of organizational culture—which is rarely considered within the analysis of development interventions—can help reveal the complex roots of sustainability problems within multi agency rural development projects. The approach focuses both on local organizational realities and on power in the relationships that link project actors and process with wider systems and structures. It was observed that many of the initial project meanings have gradually fragmented over time, despite the earlier coherence expressed through the for-mal project culture expressed through documents and other artifacts.