Serving many masters: a Liberian non-governmental organization managing multiple legitimacy audiences

Abstract

The dissertation advances an understanding of the role and relationships of Southern NGOs (SNGO) in the intersection of the organizational field of development cooperation and the local context, especially in post-conflict situations. Drawing on organizational institutionalism, development cooperation is seen as an organizational field with specific ideas, norms, symbolic elements, and social mechanisms that shape organizations. Legitimacy is conceptualized as the perception that other actors, or legitimacy audiences, within an organizational field have of an organization and its fit in the field. The study asks which legitimacy audiences are perceived to be the most important by the SNGO and examines what kind of organizational responses the SNGO uses to manage different legitimation audiences’ multiple legitimacy de-mands. To answer the research questions, a qualitative case study of a Liberian NGO was conducted, including content analysis of data from organizational development interventions, interviews, participatory observation, and documents. The study identified three main legitimacy audiences – the Ministry of Education, donors, and the local communities – and five main strategies the NGO used to manage them. These were the following: Conforming to local NGOing; Influencing; Striving for independence; Conforming to local cultural-cognitive expectations; and Co-creating responses to legitimacy audiences’ own legitimacy pressures. The organization itself has changed during its long history. The main influences have been the civil wars that threatened its existence and the donor policies that affected the structure and identity of the organization. Keywords: development cooperation, legitimacy, Liberia, non-governmental organizations, organizational institutionalism