Understanding the human resource challenges in not-for-profit organisations from a lifecycle perspective

Abstract

In the last two decades not-for-profit organisations in emerging countries like India have witnessed a phenomenal growth. This growth has been managed through a variety of organisational forms and structures. The complexity arises because the basic structure of the NGOs is a project organisation. Most Indian NGOs are externally funded and this funding is often provided only for a project. The projects are expected to deliver a set of activities and are necessarily short term in nature. An NGO often executes multiple projects simultaneously. As a consequence of this, the project tends to gain prominence compared to the organisation. The vital question that many NGOs have to engage with is: are we an organisation or are we a set of projects? An organisation by its very definition exists in perpetuity while the life of a project is often specified and limited. This article will explore the challenges that NGOs face in their lifecycle of growth--evolvingftom a single project-based entity into a vision-led professional entity. The lificycle view of organisations proposed by Greiner (1998) postulates that they move through five stages of development, and each stage is accompanied by a period of crisis. The article will present each of the five stages and the crises, and the resulting implications for organisations in terms of their vision, structure, strategies and human resource practices. The focus of the article will be on understanding the appropriate human resource strategies and practices that NGOs will have to engage with in the various stages of growth.