Strategic Change Management in International Non-Profit Organisations: Comparative Study

Abstract

Non-profit organisations (NPOs) play a critical role in society’s political and socio-economic development as more cost-effective, flexible and less bureaucratic surrogates for governments. This paper focuses on the management of strategic change in this rarely researched sector. The study critically reviewed the management of strategic change in a regional inter-governmental organisation and a regional non-governmental organisation. It investigated how change was previously managed and assessed the impact of the respective change management initiatives on the strategic direction of the organisations. The study also carried out a comparative analysis of change management strategies in the two organisations highlighting what worked well in one organisation that might not have worked well in the other and vice versa. Finally, it considered how change can best be managed in future in these and other similar organisations. The study utilised a case study approach and adopted an inductive stance resulting in general conclusions and recommendations being drawn on future change management in the organisations based on the researcher’s empirical observations taking a ‘phenomenological’ approach. The study revealed some striking similarities just as there were acute disparities in the manner strategic change was managed in both organisations. The conclusion from this study is that the NPOs do not follow any specific model of change as espoused in the literature although some aspects of the models could be retroactively applied. This suggests that non-profits have a lesser motivation to adopt and implement change instantly and apply the change models that would be efficiently and effectively applied to commercial enterprises which may be due to the lack of profit motive in this sector. The overall implication is that there is great potential for NPOs to ‘borrow’ and customize some proven strategic change management practices which have resulted in improved performance and attainment of desired results in the private sector and in some NPOs internationally as attested to by this study. Keywords: Strategic change management, international development organisations, non-profit organisations DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-14-09 Publication date: May 31 st 2020