Management in NGOs - to investigate whether and how knowledge also flows from the South toward the North

This research proposal is about partnership between Northern NGOs (NNGOs) and Southern NGOs (SNGOs) and management knowledge. Here, management is meant a broad concept, generally referring to how things are done within organisations. Looking specifically at management knowledge creation and exchange there is a significant amount of research and information on how NNGOs build the capacity of their southern partners, on the training they provide on NGO management and on western-developed management frameworks, such as Managing for Developing Results, which are erected as overarching good practices and standards with which southern partners are usually expected to comply. However, little is known on the active role that SNGOs might play in knowledge production and exchange, and on how they might contribute to enhancing management practices in in NNGOs.


Given this background, and in order to counter the almost exclusive attention on the role of NNGOs in knowledge production and exchange processes, this research aims to investigate whether and how knowledge also flows from the South toward the North, and whether and how NNGOs management practices are shaped and informed also by and through their partnerships with SNGOs. The proposed research does not aim to map good and bad NGOs, nor to ‘collect’ pre-existing data and knowledge about knowledge exchange and partnerships. Rather, the aim is that of identifying and reflecting on ways through which management knowledge flows and is generated in NGO partnerships, paying particular attention to the role of SNGOs. In terms of methodology, while a full framework still needs to be defined, it is expected that it would be inspired by Action Research approaches, characterised by collaborative forms of inquiry and by a simultaneous attention to practice/action and reflection/analysis.