Dysfunction as a function of authority: understanding the power and performance of international non-governmental organizations

In this work, I present a conceptual framework for understanding how international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) become powerful international organizations (IOs), and how their pursuit of legitimacy leads to the formation of specific kinds of organizational cultural proclivities and dysfunctional tendencies that shape how these groups behave as international actors. Despite their increasing prominence in international affairs, INGOs remain largely understudied by International Relations (IR) scholars; my work provides a theoretically driven and empirically supported analysis of the power and performance of these actors, thus filling the existing gap in the IR literature. Relying on the basic tenets of sociological institutionalism, I argue that there is an indissoluble relationship between the ways in which an INGO becomes powerful and its ultimate performance outcomes.This thesis is not currently available in OR