3. Civil Society: NGOs

Social Triangle

[3] CSO (Civil Society Organization)

This position represents the archetypical civil society or community role: a private organization, non-governmental, non-profit oriented, aimed at the provision of public or social/club goods. This is the type of entity most people would refer to when they talk about ‘NGOs’ or the ‘third sector’. The more specialised literature nowadays prefers to use the term ‘civil society organizations’ (CSOs) to better delineate the archetypical community-based organization.

Agency Challenges

  • Information asymmetry between managers and members (fraud, expropriation of organizational resources; unacceptable risk-taking; mismanagement; moral hazard; acting in own interest/subversion);
  • Management acts in accordance with own convictions, ideology, priorities (not aligned with members’ values and priorities);
  • Agency costs: monitoring & reporting, checks on staff trustworthiness;
  • Skewed representation of interests in decision-making by management;
  • Dependency of members on volunteering staff and reliance on ‘good intentions’ can make control/sanctioning complicated (lack of effective control mechanisms);
  • Limited legal standing for members to file a lawsuit against managers (lack of juridical sanctioning instruments).

Typical Strengths

  • Creation and coordination of social capital;
  • Mutual support to cope with, mitigate, share or even out risk;
  • Advocacy, voice/articulation of interest, mobilisation;
  • Service-delivery: provision of social/club goods and services;
  • Organization of shared beliefs, values, norms, ideology (homogeneity in values, preference, focal point).

Typical Weaknesses

  • Fragmentation (dealing with heterogeneity);
  • Access to sufficient funding;
  • Decision-making power (related to representation of diverse interests to prevent power abuse);
  • Degree of organizational professionalism;
  • Degree of efficiency in providing sufficient goods & services for members (transaction costs; difficulty of scaling opportunities);
  • Span of control (when too big, cohesion declines);
  • Continuity (dependency on volunteers; funds; support and goodwill);
  • Exclusiveness: tension between inclusion vs. exclusion/discrimination;
  • Ownership structures/ill-defined ownership.
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