European Summer School on Social Economy Bertinoro, Italy Patsy Kraeger, PhD ASU - School of Public Affairs July 18, 2011 NGO Mission Success: The Field Office Perspective

Overview This study examines the problem of identifying the factors related to the success of host country field offices of The Nature Conservancy/Latin America an international Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO). Further, this study examines NGO field office mission success in the context of working in the foreign host country. Field office success is not defined by the NGO headquarters in terms of how well or poorly it reaches self-defined goals rather success will be a multi-dimensional concept based on distance from host country national culture. x.htm x.htm NGO Mission Success: The Field Office Perspective

KEY ISSUES Importance of culture for NGOs affects the operations of the mission success in these countries. Globalization has brought a shift to management styles and mission implementation. International management is more than exporting American style management along with American normative values in operations to operations in other. In order for non-governmental entities to be successful in the ever- increasing shrinking world, cross-cultural understanding is necessary for effective management and end results. NGO Mission Success: The Field Office Perspective

RESEARCH INTERESTS 1.Understand how NGOs achieve mission success in a foreign host country. 2.Define and operationalize success and what that means for an INGO field office. 3.Examine the role of culture in those interactions. NGO Mission Success: The Field Office Perspective

COMPONENTS A model of success factors will be tested based on the literature review. The perceived causes of success will be solicited from the Field Office Directors. The same open ended questions will be asked to selected HQ personnel. Success is a multidimensional concept based on cross cultural training, communication and managerial flexibility in the field. Causal factors are be derived from the literature and capture (1) HQ managerial techniques including training and (2) closeness or distance to culture. Type of Study: Case Study of a single NGO Unit of Analysis: Field Office NGO Mission Success: The Field Office Perspective

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The theoretical foundation of this dissertation on the issues of success and distance from national culture is grounded in the disciplines of NGO and Non-Profit Organization (NPO) Management, Social Entrepreneurship/Innovation, Business Management and Program Evaluation relating to success measures. Closeness or distance uses Hofstede’s (1980)scaled taxonomy for defining attributes of national culture in an organizational context. From the literature review, a survey was developed and administered to field office directors. NGO Mission Success: The Field Office Perspective

JUSTIFICATION NGOs are taking on roles that were initially the roles of governments. The growth of INGOs in the past twenty years has been enormous and these organizations are working in a variety of fields, such as providing health, welfare and educations services among others (Ossewarde, Nijhof & Heyse, 2008). The enormous impacts that NGOs have in the world have raised issues surrounding their legitimacy in civil society in bringing about large institutional changes in society and the globe. NGO legitimacy is not a part of this dissertation, however, it speaks to the reason to study NGO mission success on the ground. NGO Mission Success: The Field Office Perspective

RESEARCH QUESTIONS 1. How do NGO HQ executives define success for NGO field offices? What factors do they cite as causes of such success? 2. How do field office directors characterize success for their offices? What do they believe causes success? 3. How effectively do the causes of success derived from the literature including but not limited to organizational discipline to mission success, operational systems, organizational capacity at home and in the field, program outputs and more importantly sustainable program outcomes and impacts—predict success as defined in this dissertation? NGO Mission Success: The Field Office Perspective

METHODS Mixed Methods Quantitative Analysis: Univariate analysis. Bivariate Analysis: Cross tab including Chi Square and Gamma statistic. Conduct four rounds of surveys via –survey monkey link. Survey – 20 questions. Qualitative Analysis: Interviews with HQ personnel Interview 3 Senior Staff from TNC HQ in USA and Brazil Survey Field Office Directors abroad. TNC-LA -16 field office directors, Document Analysis- Conservation by Design: A Framework for Success (2004) NGO Mission Success: The Field Office Perspective

Selected Findings Research Question One: HQ Perception of Success NGO Senior Staff- Organizational Culture First Top Down Policies and Procedures Research Question Two: Field Office Perception of Success By adhering to core mission, perceive supported from HQ Organizational culture rather than national culture and inter-cultural communication is the focus for training. Local community partnerships are embraced while Anglo-American management styles remain intact apart from host country culture and customs. Top-Down organizational styles still allows room for managerial flexibility in the field. NGO Mission Success: The Field Office Perspective

Selected Findings Field Office Director independence is perceived as supported by HQ There is a positive relationship between perceived HQ support and Field Office Director perception that they have input on implementing the strategic plan (Note: The HQ does not seek input from F.O.D.’s when putting the strategic plan together). Field Office Managerial Data matters for reaching managerial objectives and goal achievement data. Scope of work in the field exceeds resources provided by the HQ. (This was the only bivariate finding producing a negative association by the surveyed F.O.D.’s. NGO Mission Success: The Field Office Perspective

Implications for Future Research Exploratory Research Linkages between cross-cultural training and management Linkages between cross-cultural training and organizations performance in the filed Individual attributes of field office directors and organizational performance in the field. Rigor of the cross-cultural training and “cultural toughness” and perceptions of mission success by the Field Office Director. Is the training actually implemented, refresher courses, etc. Does management style change and outcomes differ when training is implemented. Environmental characteristics of country (i.e., in conflict, post conflict, no-conflict). Linkages between host country acceptance of NGO and perception of success. Lessons learned from mission failure in the field based upon cultural misunderstandings, results from failure. Comparisons between similar NGOs. NGO Mission Success: The Field Office Perspective

QUESTIONS? _______________________ THANK YOU! INGO Mission Success: The Field Office Perspective.