MEDICAL NGOS’ CONDUCT ON FORMULATING THE DISCOURSE ABOUT GOVERNNANCE

Abstract

From an overall perspective, often the subject of governance has been approached given its provenance from the “for-profit” world. The statement according to which governance comprises both a relationship viewpoint but also one referring to an effective way of achieving organizational objectives, can be a valid one even within a non-profit framework. The current study is founded on observing the other dimension of governance, namely its facet which refers to the charitable organizations’ activity. Hence, there are analyzed the discourses rendered by the most recent annual reports published by three of the leading medical charities from United Kingdom. Emphasizing the best practices derived from such a conduct represents the purpose of this paper itself. In order to provide a thorough understanding of the referrals to charity governance put under investigation, there was used a content analysis method meant to assess in what terms the subjected formulations are similar or differ. Results indicate that although, in major lines, the three charitable entities seem to formulate their discourses as covering the same themes, there are notable differences between them. One potential implication of these findings resides in their importance relative to an NGO’s capacity of continuously improving its various means of obtaining charitable contributions.

Keywords

• non-profit governance
• ngos
• medical field
• content analysis
• annual report