Apologies for cross-posting
European Group for Organizational Studies Colloquium
Montréal, July 4-6, 2013
Call for papers
Sub-theme 19: Blurring Boundaries: Civil Society Organizations and Changing Societal Governance
It has become apparent that the boundaries of responsibility for different aspects of societal governance are blurring. An important consequence of this is that the roles of organizations are changing. Notably, civil society organizations (CSOs) – often called non-profit, voluntary, nongovernmental or third sector organizations – are now regularly expected to be polyvalent entities able to intermesh resources and rationales from the public, commercial, and household sectors ( Evers 1995 ; Eikenberry and Kluver 2005; Jegers 2009). Further, non-traditional, CSO-like, citizen-based groups are forming to bring change to what are perceived to be oppressive government and or market regimes (e.g., the "Arab Spring" uprisings and the "Occupy" groups).
Public sector organizations face continuing pressures to improve efficiency and quality by introducing market mechanisms, and new demands for more accountability. To this end, changes are being made to their governance structures, and closer partnerships are being forged with for-profits and CSOs (Osborne 2000; Pollitt and Bouckaert 2011 ). For-profit organizations are increasingly taking up tasks and operating in fields thatwere once the domain of governments or CSOs. In many parts of the world, this trend is evident in the delivery of education, health care, the protection of human rights, provision of security, protection of the environment, and the delivery of international aid (e.g., Scherer and Palazzo 2011 ; Svedberg Helgesson and Mörth 2012).
In this session, we seek to make sense of the changing roles of CSOs in this new landscape. Concepts such as 'intermediation' ( Evers 1995 ), the 'blurring' or 'mixing' of sectors and boundaries (Kramer 2000; Bode 2008), 'public private partnerships' (Osborne 2000), and 'co-production' (Pestoff and Brandsen 2009) have all been applied to make sense of these developments. We want to unveil the dynamics that drive these changes, the organizational and social mechanisms involved in facilitating them, and their outcomes. One example of such change is the decreasing effectiveness of national regulatory bodies that has corresponded with an increase in influence of transnational corporatism (Djelic and Sahlin-Andersson 2006). Other relevant topics include, but are not limited to, technologicaladvances that enable communication across borders of all types; economic constraints that lead to a reimagining of collaboration and collective action; and social pressures that have emerged from widespread dissatisfaction with various forms of inequality.
In keeping with the conference theme, we welcome work that bridges sectors, cultures, continents and worldviews to expose new ways of understanding the evolving roles of CSOs. Work that is quantitative, qualitative, or conceptual is equally appropriate, as are studies focused at the societal, industry, or organizational level.
Submission due date for short papers: January 14, 2013
Submission details: http://egosnet.org/
Convenors:
Florentine Maier is an Assistant Professor at the Nonprofit Management Group at WU Vienna University of Economics and Business. She studies the spread of business thinking and business methods into the nonprofit sector. Her research on this topic has been published in Voluntas, Business Research, and numerous book chapters.
John Amis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management at the University of Memphis. His work centres primarily on issues of organizational and institutional change and has been published or accepted for publication in outlets that include Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Human Relations, American Journal of Public Health, and Organizational Research Methods.
Filip Wijkström is an Associate Professor at the Stockholm School of Economics. His research focuses on the role of civil society and its organizations (CSOs). His recent work deals with the distinctiveness of civil society actors, and howCSOs work strategically with these features.