How Do NGOs Evolve the Claims They Advocate For? Organisational Form as a Driver of Internal Decision Making Governance in NGOs

Research on intermediaries is facing a problem. For though parties, interest groups, NGOs and others are commonly labeled as organizations, they are seldom investigated as such – that is, as collectivities of individuals acting within (somewhat) permanent structures. This is particularly true for NGO research. While considerable effort has been devoted to NGOs’ lobbying activities, there is still little systematic observation of connections between these activities and NGOs’ organizational form. Paradoxically, while we know much about NGOs’ strategies, we still struggle to explain their actual origins. (Cf. Johnson|Prakash 2007; Heyse 2013; Halpin|Fraussen|Nownes 2018; Halpin 2014) I argue that investigating the collective reality of NGOs is not only important for NGO research, but can furthermore help to understand connections between organizational form and the behavior of political organizations in general. Following existing research, NGOs differ from other types of political organizations. Essentially, they are neither elected nor assigned. Instead, they advocate for third parties – mostly on their own behalf. (Cf. von Winter|Willems 2000; Balboa 2015; Vieira|Runciman 2008) The associated organizational forms call for a NGO-specific approach to their structures and processes. Building upon micro-political organization research, I aim to contribute to this in my PhD-related research by examining decision making processes in German Human Rights NGOs. Unsurprisingly, first results indicate an influence of organizational form on the logic of NGO-internal decision making. NGOs’ organizational form is especially interesting however, since it is in no way consistent – instead, it varies considerably, e.g. along the relation to supporters, financial base, staff structure, and others. This variety offers promising insights into the effects of organizational form on both collective reality and conduct of political organizations, thus making NGOs an ideal case for this effort.