Cultural Conflict and Collaboration Between Nongovernmental Organizations and Public Organizations

Cultural Conflict and Collaboration between Nongovernmental Organizations and Public Organizations

By Kunle Olulowo

Problem Statement

Governments have a universal responsibility through their public organizations (POs) to provide public services and goods to enhance the wellbeing and welfare of their citizens (Mikesell, 2011). Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) also play roles similar to those performed by POs and these include human rights advocacy, being a watch dog to detter repressive regimes, helping to advance democratic values, and stimulating facilitating economic growth (Smith, 2010; Brumley, 2010 cited in Olulowo, 2014). It is a common knowledge that government authorities of some developing nations recognized NGOs as development partners, thereby creating opportunity for POs.to collaborate and partner with NGOs (Hill, 2002; Ward, 2007 cited in Olulowo, 2013). Many renowned scholars have also identified the fact that the collaboration between NGOs and POs is often accompanied with cultural conflicts due to the difference in their organizational culture (Bebbington, 2009; Sama, 2010 cited in Olulowo, 2013). The aspect that has not yet been explored is how such conflicts affect the collaboration between NGOs and POs to the detriment of national development.

Smith’s (2010) work titled ‘Corruption, NGOs, and development in Nigeria,’ recommended the need for further researches on how to enhance collaboration between NGOs and POs in developing nations by reducing or eliminating cultural conflicts between them. The need to reduce cultural conflict between NGOs and POs will help to facilitate the collaborative efforts between them. The resultant frictionless and fruitful partnership will enhance national development and by extension contribute immensely to their citizens’ welfare and wellbeing. Therefore, the purpose of the quantitative cross-sectional survey research is to explore the roles of organizational leaders in facilitating the integration of...