Organisational Assessment for Non-Profit Organisation Transformation

This research is necessary to develop an alternative assessment model that can better support Non-Government Organisation (NGO) transformation. To achieve this task, I used a body of knowledge from literature as a point of reference to evaluate an existing anonymous tool entitled Organisational Assessment Tool A (OATA), which helped to identify the strength and limitations of the tool.

I found that the OATA did not enable the NGOs that used the tool to identify their change areas, determine and deploy capacity development actions, or facilitate transformation. The factors that contributed to this failure included the following: 1) Assessments were facilitated by unskilled facilitators; 2) There were gaps in the prescribed content, processes, and methodology of the OATA; 3) OATA lacks some important elements like principles of assessment and facilitator guide; 4) There was a limitation in contextualizing OATA to address the specific situation of an NGO; and 5) There were also gaps in following some of the prescribed elements of the OATA.

 

The results of the assessment led me to draft a hybrid organisational assessment model that attempts to address the limitation of the OATA. The views of Organisational Development (OD) experts and NGOs have been included, which enabled me to prepare an alternative NGO assessment toolkit. The toolkit has six interconnected components that are designed to have a transformational effect: 1) assessment principles; 2) content; 3) processes; 4) purpose; 5) type; and 6) methodology. The assessment also recommended the design and utilization of a user guide and training manual. None of the organisational assessment tools that resulted in this project are intended to be a blueprint, since all have their strengths and weaknesses, and should be adapted to reflect the local context of the NGO.