The hybridisation of Russian non-profit organisations

In this chapter, we look at the impact of the system of ‘managed democracy’ on nonprofit organisations (NPOs) in the Russian Federation and focus on the way in which the lines between them and the agencies of the state have become increasingly blurred. This development is part of the widespread growth in the creation of hybrid organisations on an international scale (Billis, 2010). Hybridity is the result of organisations crossing sectoral boundaries (Pache and Santos, 2013) to form a combination of the characteristics of two or more sectors. One of the more common forms of hybrid organisation blurs the boundaries between NPOs and the state as the former engages in the delivery of public services that had previously been the role of statutory agencies (Billis, 2010). This blurring of sectoral boundaries between NPOs and state is not simply a transfer of practices but involves more fundamental changes to the way organisations operate (Bromley and Meyer, 2017). It means that organisations attempt to adhere to different, if not competing, institutional logics; the ‘rules’ that govern the various sectors (Battilana and Lee, 2014; Brandsen et al., 2005; Doherty et al., 2014; Pache and Santos, 2010). NPOs might, for example, attempt to marry a third sector logic based on collective ownership, engaging constituencies, altruism, provision of free support and/or democratic leadership with a state bureaucracy logic based on centralised control, rule-based mechanisms for service provision and/or hierarchical structures

Restrictive institutions and critical resources : non-profit organisations and volunteer resources in the Russian Federation

Resource management is essential for any organisation’s success. For non-profit organisations (NPOs) volunteers are a key resource. In this article, we examine how NPOs recruit, mobilise and manage volunteers in a challenging institutional and operational context. By drawing on a qualitative study of Russian health NPOs, our study highlights that the operational and institutional environment encountered by Russian NPOs leads to ‘management by network’ to acquire necessary volunteer resources. This pragmatic approach, whilst ensuring an organisation’s short-term survival, ultimately limits the type of volunteer recruited by Russian NPOs. The implications of these findings are also explored

Environmental governance in the Russian Federation: firms and regulator perception of environmental NGOs

Against the backdrop of increasing public awareness of global environmental challenges, this paper examines the potential for collaborative environmental governance in the Russian Federation. To do so, we examine regulators’ and firms’ perceptions of, and collaborations with, environmental non-governmental organizations (eNGOs) in three Russian regions. Our findings highlight that Russian firms rarely collaborateor include eNGOs in environmentally-focused activities because they perceive them to be ineffective, invisible, or irrelevant. Russian regulators do engage with eNGOs, but not as equal partners in the form of collaborative governance arrangements; regulators reduce eNGOs to the positions of subordinates and/or assistants

Rethinking notions of informal work: Some observations from a Pakistani community in the UK

Paid informal work has commonly been conceptualised as a form of paid employment heavily imbued with profit motivations. However, this article argues that such a market-oriented reading of paid informal exchange is often inappropriate. Using evidence from fifty interviews conducted with households in a large Pakistani community in the UK lends support to post-structuralist explanations of informal work. The results problematize the widespread use of neoliberal and structuralist theorizations to explain the prevalence of the informal economy in developed economies. Instead, the results highlight certain implicit social constructs existing within the labour process of informal businesses. Motivations drawn from these social artefacts, or what can be termed as 'immigrant agency', are found to be a major reason for Pakistani employers and employees engaging in mutually beneficial exchanges in the informal economy

The impact of changes in stakeholder salience on CSR activities in Russian energy firms: a contribution to the divergence / convergence debate

This empirical paper examines the drivers underpinning changes to socially-responsible behaviours in the Russian energy sector. Responding to recent requests to contextualise CSR research, we focus on the changing set of stakeholders and developments in their saliency as reflected in corporations’ CSR activities. Based on interviews with more than thirty industry professionals, our findings suggest that Russian energy companies’ CSR is strongly stakeholder driven, and organisations adapt their activities according to their dependence on the resources that these salient stakeholders possess. We challenge the proposition that CSR in Russia arises from purely endogenous, historical, paternalism or neo-paternalism. We identify stakeholders that now shape CSR in the Russian energy sector, both endogenous (institutional and contextual forces relevant to the national business system) and exogenous (relating to the organisational field of the energy industry - international by nature). We thereby contribute to the convergence / divergence debate within CSR theory by demonstrating that both national business systems and the organisational field must be taken into account when analysing the forces that shape CSR strategies in any one country

Achieving regulatory legitimacy in volatile institutional contexts: the case of Russian non-profits

This article examines organizational legitimacy within a volatile socio-political context. Drawing on qualitative data from non-profit organizations (NPOs) in the Russian Federation, we explore the question of how organizations gain regulatory legitimacy in such an uncertain and hostile socio-political context. Our study highlights that in such a context, the state often fails to grant regulatory legitimacy to NPOs. In response, NPOs seek to achieve regulatory legitimacy via symbolic acts and supplement these with a range of substantive activities. Such actions help demonstrate organizational effectiveness to the government and generate trust with individuals in the regional state apparatus. We show that regulatory legitimacy requires a more nuanced examination in contexts that make it difficult for organizations to routinize its attainment. Thus, our article contributes to legitimacy theory by exploring how key aspects of organizational legitimacy are conditioned and constituted by the socio-political context