Abstract:
The aim of this paper is to explore the critical PM resources in Sri Lankan NGOs. The number of NGOs has increased rapidly in the last four decades, in part due to increasing economic, social and environmental turbulence. These NGOs face pressures to improve performance from a number of areas including other NGOs, government and private sector led initiatives. As a result, NGOs have grown in both scale and sophistication as they seek to meet complex societal challenges along with increased demands for accountability and improved performance from stakeholders. Existing NGO tools are based on capacity development approaches which, to date, have limited success in improving NGO PM project delivery. This paper seeks to identify the underlying PM resources support successful project delivery by NGOs. The research setting, Sri Lanka, is an appropriate environment to examine NGO activities because of a long history of voluntary service and the recent increase in the number of NGOs due to war and disaster. Data collection was done using a quantitative survey study which obtained 447 survey responses from NGOs. Exploratory Factor Analysis (Principal Axis Factoring) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis were performed to identify and confirm the critical PM resources of NGOs. The study confirmed that PM resources can be evaluated in three levels: Team, Organisational and Collaborative Social. Firstly, four team PM resources identified, namely: Brainstorming sessions, Success and failure stories, Team cohesion and trust and Team PM values. Secondly, four Organisational PM resources explored, namely: Effective PM office, PM methodology, standards and process, PM tools and techniques, Project communication system and technology and finally, four Collaborative social PM resources: Project advisory from donors, NGOs intra and consortium meetings, Networking with stakeholders and Project marketing are discovered. These findings can support the development of new development approaches that can help NGOs deliver projects successfully.
