"Recruitment to the organsization for security and co-operation in Europe`s mission to Bosnia- Herzegovina" : applying organizational theory to effective peacebuilding

Abstract

Research on international peacebuilding has paid very little attention to the possible influence of internal organizational structures within the organizations carrying out the work. This thesis seeks to add to this knowledge, by providing insights into the recruitment and selection process of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH). The purpose of this study is to build knowledge about how the OSCE recruit, and use that knowledge to better understand the relationship between effective peacebuilding and organizational theory.

This thesis has applied a case study method focusing on one peacebuilding organization, the OSCE, and its mission in BiH. Data used include nine qualitative interviews and collection of pre-existing documentary data. The data showed that the OSCE has a complicated recruitment procedure. I have therefore seen it as fruitful to mainly focus on the recruitment by secondments in the analysis and discussion.

The main finding in this study was that the recruitment process is a very important factor in the effectiveness in OSCE in BiH. The recruitment procedure has not only positive consequences for the effectiveness in the organization. The very same formal rules and procedures, meant to make the organizational practices more effective, in fact strain it. The effectiveness of the OSCE in BiH appears seriously strained by several factors in the recruitment process. The main straining factors are the large influence on the recruitment and selection by stakeholders, the bureaucracy of the OSCE, the formal rules that strictly limits the flexibility in recruitment methods and the opportunity to be an attractive organization, and also validity and reliability problems in the selection practise. Since recruitment and selection is both costly and time-consuming, one can conclude, that the OSCE in BiH spends more time and money on recruitment, with less result, than they would need to.

Applying organizational theory to study an international peacebuilding organization in this thesis, has shown that there are that there is a greater complexity to the discussion on effective peacebuilding, than the scholarly field of international relations have been able to portray.