ABSTRACT
As I previously outlined, the central research question informing this book is, How do the global and the local interact in shaping management ideas and practices in NGOs? More specifically, my interest goes to the interplay between discourses and discursive practices and the power dynamics shaping this interaction and its outcomes. The present chapter is the first of three empirical chapters. In order to maintain the structure of the questions outlined in the introduction and the methodological framework proposed in Chapter 5, the presentation of the research findings proceeds as follows: This chapter presents the “as is” situation in the organizations by offering a description of on-going practices in the participating non-governmental organizations (NGOs). As such, it aims to answer the question how development NGOs are managed. The next chapter (Chapter 7) will focus on the discursive resources participants draw upon to rationalize and thus construct NGO management. Chapter 8, then, will focus on the question of conditions of construction by looking at the processes of mimicry and hybridity.
