Thematic Analysis of In-depth Interviews

5.5.2 Thematic Analysis of In-depth Interviews

The themes that are relevant to this research question are attraction of INGO missions, commitment to INGO missions, employees’ feelings about their jobs and performance of INGOs in executing their missions.

175 Attraction of INGO Missions

The view that INGOs are values-based organisations is commonly expressed in research contributions (Kilby, 2006; Fenton & Inglis, 2007; Hailey, 2000) on employee motivation and INGO management. In recent years, major INGOs have intensified efforts to ‘professionalize’

their organisations by attracting highly qualified personnel from the business sector (Cavill &

Sohail, 2007). That development creates room for counter-argument that most employees in INGOs or nonprofits are not necessarily motivated by altruism.

UK1’s organisation is faith-based but he joined the Disaster and Relief INGO that he describes as unique by ‘accident’ for according to him.

(5.1)

I was working as a journalist for the BBC in Abidjan and one of my beat was to cover the NGO sector, see what is happening, especially the British NGO sector in Ivory Coast and also in Francophone West Africa. I saw an advert for an information Officer for the West and Central African Region of the International Federation of Red Cross and I applied and was appointed Information Officer for the Red Cross.

(31- 40 year old Desk Officer).

AFR 5 joined his INGO after being a volunteer for about 8 years in his home country. As a government official, he worked closely with the national arm of his INGO on health related issues. He finally decided to join a Disaster and Relief INGO because he associated with the organisation’s principles and cherished the opportunity to work with local communities and volunteers.

Similar to UK 1, UK 17 (5.2)

almost fell into it [INGO career]. When I left university I was not entirely sure what I wanted to do. I’d kind of been interested in museums and charities kind of, but I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do (31-40 year old Logistics professional)

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She was well paid in her job that involved recruiting employees for charities but decided to join a charity herself because according to her recruiting for charities ‘was all about making money’(5.3).

How UK 12 started his career in the INGO sector is not too different from UK1’s entry into the sector. UK 12 attributes starting a career in the INGO sector to the ‘good fortune of seeingit [job advertisement] in the paper and then knowing that it is a good organisation led me to apply‘(5.4). UK12 explained to this researcher that the opportunity to visit different countries and the fact his INGO is faith-based made joining the Human Rights and Peace INGO that he works for a very good opportunity. On the other hand, the key consideration for UK17 when she joined her organisation was its closeness to her residence.

AFR 8 left the business sector to join a major Disaster and Relief INGO in order to pursue international career for he was

(5.5)

a bit fed-up with the whole thing and said let’s do something else. So I took a break for a couple of months in Belgium and I thought like what I want to do

now? So I wrote a letter to various organizations within Belgium that work internationally because the decision was taken to do something social…and Belgian Red Cross came up first and they asked me for an interview. So I went there, did an interview and was invited for the BTC [Basic Training Course] which was held one month later. I got a letter from them saying okay if you want to go out, we have something. So I left in 1993 and I did my first mission in Malawi with the intention that this would be just something that I do just for one year… (31-40-year-old Regional Logistics Manager).

UK 14 started her career in a private financial institution in a major European capital and decided on a career in the INGO sector after working for the European Commission on development projects for about five months. The experience gained from working with local communities in Latin America and supporting a local church in South Africa convinced her that ‘This was definitely, what I wanted to do. To support local communities’ (5.6).

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UK 10 followed a different route in starting a career in the INGO sector. She started as a volunteer in a government department back in the Netherlands. On relocating to the United Kingdom, she decided to join the INGO sector as she was ‘missing something in my job and Ireally wanted something extra’(5.7). She decided to work for her organisation because of its reputation for

‘speaking the truth’.

The desire to make a difference and keen interest in NGO activities during early or mid career stages are other reasons why some of the INGO employees interviewed for this research joined the sector or their organisations.

UK 9 wanted to make a difference and believed that that objective could be best achieved by working for any of the major Development INGOs. UK 11 shares with UK9 the desire to make a difference by ‘doing something to help the poor and the world’(5.8). The values of her faith-based INGO also played a major part in her decision to work for the organisation.

UK 2 developed interest in human rights and took a Master’s degree course in Human Rights that prepared her for a career in Human Rights Advocacy. She was working for her second INGO when she participated in this research.

The decision to take a first degree in Social Anthropology and Development Studies was UK16’s way of preparing herself for a career in the field of international development that she had always found very interesting. She joined her organisation because she associates with its values and its contributions in health related matters. Similar to UK 17 closeness of UK 16’s INGO to her residence played a major role in her decision to join her organisation. Whether UK 16 and or UK 17 would have explored other job opportunities if their INGOs were not located around their residential areas remains unclear.

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For UK 15, her interest in human geography and the desire to gain relevant field experience including learning about other cultures motivated her to start a career in the INGO sector. UK 13’s reason for working in the INGO sector is different from those offered by the other participants. Joining the INGO for UK 13 was continuing her family’s tradition. She explained to this researcher that

(5.9)

my father was an agricultural economist. When I was a child we lived in Malawi for four years. So all our family friends have always been working in development and I’ve just always wanted to do the same. (20-30-year-old Programme Officer)

In response to this researcher’s question on why she joined her INGO UK 13 unequivocally stated her belief in what the INGO

(5.10)

stands for, it has a set of values that I completely, totally believe in and I can just feel a passion about it. It contrasts with other experiences

working with organisations that I have felt very, very uncomfortable with because, you know, they don’t … those values and the directors are people that I’ve found very difficult to agree with in how they present themselves and their organisations. (20-30-year-old Programme Officer)

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Participants’ Feelings about Their Jobs and the Execution of their Organisations’ Missions

It is possible for an employee to be satisfied with her role in an INGO and yet be dissatisfied with her organisation’s strategy or approach to the execution of corporate mission (Meyer & Allen, 1997). Corporate approach to mission execution could determine or influence how employees carry out their duties even though the degree of influence it has on job satisfaction would vary from one individual to another.

UK 1 accepts that programme personnel in INGOs should expect to travel frequently and he values being able to plan such trips in such a way that they do not affect his family life. In comparison with previous organisations he describes his current organisation as ‘more proactive‘. This researcher gathered from the interview that the organisations that UK 1 worked for before joining his current employers were involved in disaster and relief operations. Involvement in disaster and relief operations meant that those organisations were not always able to give sufficient notice to programme personnel regarding field visits. From UK1’s example, the difference in corporate missions could lead to different forms of satisfaction or dissatisfaction depending on the impact that the approach adopted by an INGO in carrying its mission has on the circumstances of the individual employee.

UK 2 describes her role as being ‘stressful’ because she supported her INGO’s Chief Executive in carrying out redundancy exercise as part of measures taken by her organisation to cope with what she describes as ‘financial pressure’. She relates the ‘financial pressure’ and job losses to the fact that the ‘INGO world has changed and the funding environment so the charity had to change, as have lots of NGOs, to accommodate their new world’ (5.11). UK 2 is satisfied with her organisation’s performance and expresses confidence in its future when she says

180 (5.12)

I think what we do is quite unusual and so I think it is quite powerful. Different programmes have different successes in different countries. A couple of our programmes are closing down so now we are trying to look at new ones. I think we are at quite an interesting time. (31- 40 year old Human Rights professional)

UK 12 shares UK2’s perspective that INGOs face stiff competition nationally and internationally to generate funds for their activities. Concerning his INGO’s financial position, he explained to this researcher that his organisation’s

(5.13)

supporter base, you know, it comprises of older people who are traditionally church going people. You know, those people are dying off, so to speak, so that support will not always be there. So there is a need for the organisation to look at other ways of gaining funds (31-40 year old, HR Professional)

The pressure on UK 12's organisation to move programme-related jobs to field locations has direct impact on his job as an HR professional and how his NGO operates. He highlights the compelling need for his INGO to act as demanded by donor agencies when he explains that

(5.14)

people that give us big money…the UN and these sorts of people they are all saying that you can’t be in the UK and be demanding money to operate in Africa.

You need to be in Africa or Southeast Asia or Central Asia to be able to make those decisions. So the drive has been to, you know, to relocate the resources to these countries in order to be able to be invited to the dinner table, so to speak.

(31-40 year old, HR Professional)

UK 11 enjoys her role as Divisional Support Officer and considers the opportunity to develop her financial management skills by taking part in a major health campaign very interesting. She is supportive of her INGO’s approach to the execution of its mission and is pleased that the organisation incorporates its principle of learning from partners into programme design and implementation.

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UK 15 likes her INGO’s culture and work environment. She is happy to be involved in developing a database for programme implementation monitoring and she appreciates being given the ‘chance to go abroad to facilitate workshops’(5.15)

UK 16 believes that the programme monitoring and management support services that she provides contributes to the effective functioning of her INGO. The opportunity that her INGO provides for knowledge sharing makes her job more enjoyable. One of the ways by which her organisation encourages knowledge - sharing is by organising ‘brown bag lunches’ by which she means a situation where

(5.16)

somebody does a presentation to the rest of the … [name of INGO] about the work they are doing at the moment. They just come and do a talk about their current piece of work and everybody brings their lunch in a brown bag. That’s why its called brown bag lunch. It really good at least you know you’ve got bit of learning going on and that’s the…[name of INGO].(31- 40 year old Monitoring and Evaluation Expert)

UK 17 enjoys working in logistics as it gives him the opportunity to interact with