Theorizing the organization and management of non-governmental development organizations

This article seeks to establish a conceptual framework for understanding the nature of ‘NGO management’ as a field of research and practice. It argues that NGOs have become a prominent feature of the policy landscape, but that little attention has so far been given to their organization and management. Since more is increasingly being asked of NGOs by both governments and citizens, this is a gap that needs to be filled. However, there is a high level of diversity to development NGO types and enormous complexity involved in the various tasks undertaken in the name of ‘development’. The article concludes that rather than being a whole new field, NGO management can be viewed in composite terms as the flexible deployment of relevant combinations of theory and practice from the wider ‘third sector’, the for-profit business world and the public sector. In terms of practice, the management of development NGOs, perhaps more than other kinds of organization, can be best understood as an improvised performance that continually draws upon ideas and techniques from other fields as part of an ever-changing, ambiguous and hybrid whole.