The study of divisions, hierarchies and assignment of roles and responsibilities of an organisation helps understand the space available to different actors, and the governance process and practices in an organisation. The mode of formulating the policies, the execution of the action plans, the extent of participation, the flow of information and even transparency and accountability in an organisation tend to depend on the structures designed for specific purposes. The present chapter surveys the governance structure in selected third sector organisations (TSOs) in our six participating countries. Before the discussion on the governance structure, the chapter highlights some aspects of organisational dynamics of the TSOs in the ‘Organisational Dynamics’ section This discussion highlights the legal status, major fields of activity, age, membership and staffing position of the TSOs. The ‘Governance Structure and the TSO Growth Pattern’ section looks at the governance structure, and growth pattern in the TSOs highlighting the role of the driving force. The ‘Board Constitution and Roles’ section analyses the internal dynamics of the TSOs, ie. the internal relation mechanisms, (non)existence of a board, the role of the chief executive officer (CEO), the participation of the membership in the organisation’s activities, the presence of individual leaders, the role of the founders, and the relationship of the CEO with the board and the target group. The final section presents the unique governing practices of TSOs that do not have a formal structure. Such an analysis is vital considering the fluid structures and the role such structures play in shaping governance practices especially in informal or traditional organisations. Needless to say, this is of immense significance in understanding the governance process. The study is based on a survey of 492 TSOs in the six participating countries.1 The findings are only indicative as to the nature of functioning of the TSOs in the countries under study.
Access provided by Autonomous University of Puebla. Download to read the full chapter text
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dongre, Y., Gopalan, S. (2008). Asian Third Sector Organisation and Governance Structure. In: Hasan, S., Onyx, J. (eds) Comparative Third Sector Governance in Asia. Nonprofit and Civil Society Studies. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-75567-0_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-75567-0_5
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-75566-3
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-75567-0
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)