How do they do it? Understanding the power and influence of radical advocacy NGOs

Michael Yaziji; Jonathan Doh

doi:10.1017/CBO9780511626708.009

5 - How do they do it? Understanding the power and influence of radical advocacy NGOs

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 January 2010

Michael Yaziji and

Jonathan Doh

Show author details

Michael Yaziji: Affiliation:
IMD, Lausanne
Jonathan Doh: Affiliation:
Villanova University, Pennsylvania

Book contents

Get access

Summary

The phenomenon of NGO campaigns against corporations are highly complex and cross multiple levels of analysis. NGOs are themselves constrained and enabled by the group processes and internal resource dependencies of the organization and its supporters. These group processes within the organization affect the strategic behavior of these NGOs in terms of tactic and target selection and strategic interactions between the NGO and the targeted firm at both organizational and inter-organizational levels. These inter-organizational dynamics that make up the campaign ultimately are evaluated by third-party individuals who evaluate the various claims made by both the NGO and the targeted firm. At the individual-level, they may adjust their beliefs and thereby collectively affect the legitimacy and strength of competing institutional frameworks at the society-level.

The radical NGO paradox

Extreme advocacy or “radical” NGOs are, by definition, working against the mainstream of their societies – either in terms of values and beliefs or in terms of regulatory systems – and fundamentally aim for change. As such, radical NGOs, at first blush, should not be very effective, particularly in proxy war campaigns. First, the more radical the NGO, the smaller it is likely to be and the fewer resources it is likely to be able to draw upon since it is out of the mainstream in terms of ideology and will therefore have fewer people and organizations that will be willing to support it.

Type: Chapter
Information: NGOs and Corporations
Conflict and Collaboration
, pp. 74 - 92

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511626708.009 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Scott, R. W., Institutions and Organizations (Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2001).Google Scholar

Dimaggio, P. J. and Powell, W. W., “The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields,” American Sociological Review 48 (1983), 147–160 for some of the isomorphic forces supporting institutional persistence.CrossRef Google Scholar

Yaziji, M., “Turning gadflies into allies,” Harvard Business Review 82 (2) (2004), 110–115.Google Scholar PubMed

, J. and Salancik, G. R., The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective (New York: Harper and Row, 1978).Google Scholar

Selznick, P., Leadership in Administration (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1957).Google Scholar

Wilson, J., Introduction to Social Movements (New York: Basic Books, 1973), pp. 91–92.Google Scholar

Wilson, , Introduction to Social Movements, pp. 91–92.

Kelly, J. R. and Barsade, S. G., “Mood and emotions in small groups and work teams,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 86 (1) (2001) for a defense of group-level emotion constructsCrossRef Google Scholar

Olson, M., The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965).Google Scholar

Arrow, K. J., “Gifts and exchanges,” Philosophy and Public Affairs Summer (1) (1972), 343–362Google Scholar

Becker, G. S., “A theory of social interactions,” Journal of Political Economy 82 (1974), 1063–1093CrossRef Google Scholar

Baumeister, R. F., “The self,” in Gilbert, D. T., Fist, S. T. and Lindzey, G. (eds.) The Handbook of Social Psychology, 4th edn., vol. 1 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1998)Google Scholar

Batson, J. E., The Altruism Question: Toward a Social-psychological Answer (Hillsdale: Erlbaum, 1991)Google Scholar

Clore, G. and Ortney, A., “Cognition in emotion: Always, sometimes, never?” in Lane, R. D. and Nadel, L. (eds.), Cognitive Neuroscience of Emotions (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 24–61Google Scholar

Eisenberg, N. and Fabes, R. A., “Personality and socialization correlates of vicarious emotional responding,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 61 (3) (1991), 459CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Tajfel, H. and Turner, J. C., “An integrative theory of intergroup conflict,” in Worchel, S. and Austin, W. G. (eds.), The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations (Monterey: Brooks/Cole, 1979)Google Scholar

Rowley, T. I. and Moldoveanu, M., “When will stakeholder groups act? An interest- and identity-based model of stakeholder group mobilization,” Academy of Management Review 28 (2) (2003), 204CrossRef Google Scholar

Klandersmans, B., “Social-psychological expansion of resource-mobilization theory,” American Sociological Review 49 (1984), 583–600CrossRef Google Scholar

Ashforth, B. E., “‘How can you do it?’ Dirty work and the challenge of constructing a positive identity,” Academy of Management Review 24 (3) (1999), 413Google Scholar

Ashforth, B. E., “Social identity theory and the organization,” Academy of Management Review 14 (1) (1989), 20CrossRef Google Scholar

March, J. G. and Simon, H. A., Organizations (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1958).Google Scholar

Pfeffer, and Salancik, , The External Control.

Yaziji, , “Turning gadflies,” 110–115, for example.

Book contents

5 - How do they do it? Understanding the power and influence of radical advocacy NGOs

Summary

Access options

References

Save book to Kindle

Save book to Dropbox

Save book to Google Drive