| dc.description.abstract | This thesis aims to answer one main and three sets of related research questions. The main question is How do Norwegian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) work with their reputation in Palestine? The related questions can be summarized in three groups which are reputation, identity and cooperation dynamics. Regarding reputation; Do Norwegian NGOs have any system for reputation building and what is the role of employees in building the reputation of these Norwegian NGOs? The second group is related to the identity of these NGOs, and the questions are: How do the organizations identify themselves? Does their reputation reflect their identity? The last group is related to cooperation dynamics between these NGOs and their partners, and these are: What type of relationship does these Norwegian NGOs have with their Palestinian local partners benefitting from their support and operating in their field? What are the challenges that face this relationship dynamics? These questions are answered in light of the reputation literature and theories that emphasize organizational identity as the base for all reputation, through a qualitative case study on three Norwegian NGOs operating in Palestine, which are: Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), and Norwegian Church Aid (NCA). Two types of data collection methods are used: interviews with employees of both the Norwegian and Palestinian NGOs and the analysis of policy documents, reports and brochures of relevance to the study. A key result is that the selected Norwegian NGOs are concerned with their reputation based on a common identified vision and mission. I find that Norwegian NGOs are generally clear in their identities, i.e. that those I interviewed were generally consistent in their answers and how they talked about their respective organizations, that they agreed and expressed similar thoughts about the organization’s origin, raison d’etre, aims etc. Furthermore, my fieldwork shows that their identity is reflected in their reputation amongst the Palestinian partner organizations — the way they are talked about by Palestinian organizations is very similar to what I heard from the employees in the Norwegian NGOs. The Norwegian NGOs enjoy an overall good reputation among Palestinian partners. Even though the Norwegian NGOs under study lack a formal system for reputation building, they are very conscious about the importance of reputation building, and their procedures, policies and activities are designed in a way to serve their reputation. The organizational identity is so strong that the staff in the country offices are conscious about being representatives to their organizations not only at work but brings this identity into their private lives and become ‘spokes persons’ for their organizations outside office hours. However, since the Norwegian NGOs, like most NGOs, depend on external funding, they strive to secure a good reputation and to be seen by their donors as accountable, highly competent and neutral. Neutrality in the Palestinian context implies not having local partners affiliated with political parties that are against the so-called Oslo process and a two-state solution. Accountability and high competency also imply achieving real, tangible progress toward policy goals. However, since competency is not easily observed by donors, policy successes, even short-term ones, provide meaningful signals of competence to donors. This focus on reputation puts the Norwegian NGOs under pressure especially when it comes to which Palestinian partners to choose and which projects to respond to when presented by their Palestinian partners. The Norwegian NGOs sometimes choose to support projects that maintains their reputation for competence constraining the focus to short term small goals that are quickly and visibly accomplished and that may undermine the pursuit of the central goals of the NGO defined by Gent. et al. (2015) as the “reputation trap”. However, Norwegian NGOs are better than other international NGOs in that regard according to their Palestinian partners. Other challenges are related to the rival stakeholders with conflictual interests that Norwegian NGOs are facing in Palestine. Although Norwegian NGOs cooperate only with the legitimate Palestinian government and Palestinian NGOs that are accepted by the international community, other actors including the Hamas de facto government in the Gaza Strip, and the Israeli government with its forces also exert pressures. These rivalries put the Norwegian NGOs under pressure as they must respond to these challenges and hold a balance in their relationships with these rival stakeholders. That can make them sometimes appear more narcissistic and less flexible in their cooperation with their Palestinian local partners due to power imbalances. This, in turn puts the Palestinian partners – who are in need for the funds and support of these NGOs for their survival, in a situation where they try to look as attractive as possible to their Norwegian partners, causing them to be in a more “hyper - adaptive” status trying to adapt and change in response to shifting preferences of these Norwegian NGOs, which can affect their identity and gradually lose their connection to their main stakeholders; the Palestinian public. It is also important to mention that the existence of other challenges related to the complexity of the Palestine – Israel conflict, the Israeli occupation policies, and the Palestinian political division and instability, cast a shadow on the work and the future of these Norwegian NGOs in Palestine, where good reputation alone cannot guarantee the sustainability of their work. | eng |