Can NGOs manage public trust with communication? The Case of a humanitarian and development aid organization

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Volume Title

School of Business | Master's thesis

Authors

Date

2023

Department

Johtamisen laitos

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Management and International Business (MIB)

Language

en

Pages

81 + 6

Series

Abstract

Public trust and trust management are essential to all organizations, yet indispensable for NGOs whose entire operations and legitimacy are built on public support. According to research, public trust has been proven to increase donations (Bourassa & Stang, 2016; Alhidari et al., 2018; Liu, 2019), as well as public commitment and communication acceptance (Sargeant & Lee, 2004). In addition to financial support, NGOs also require public trust to enable their political influence and civic engagement (Chapman, Hornsey & Gillespie, 2021). Recently NGOs and public trust in the sector have become under scrutiny due to the individual negative events concerning NGOs and the increasing marketization of the sector. Previous research argues how public trust in NGOs is affected by both individual and organization related factors (Sargeant & Lee, 2002). The theoretical framework proposes the individual trust antecedents to include generalized trust, shared values, and expectations, with the organizational antecedents being comprised of the organization’s perceived benevolence, integrity, and ability. For NGOs to be able to manage public trust, they must learn to prove their trustworthiness by demonstrating these qualities through their public communication. This thesis was conducted as a qualitative case study of the humanitarian and development aid organization, World Vision Finland. The empirical data consisted of both semi-structured interviews with the organization’s employees and sponsor surveys from the past years. The data was analyzed using thematic analysis, and by comparing the employees’ and sponsors’ perspectives on public trust to formulate a holistic understanding of the phenomenon. The findings suggest that there is a distinct knowledge gap between the public’s knowledge of humanitarian and development aid work and its reality, which may in turn lead to unrealistic expectations and trust damage. Therefore, managing public knowledge and expectations should be a priority for the humanitarian NGOs’ trust management, combined with increasing the familiarity of the sector. Credible, timely, open, and mutual communication with the public is also suggested to improve the organization’s trustworthiness by demonstrating the desired trust antecedents. Furthermore, the literature and empirical findings found no evidence of a decline of public trust in NGOs and suggest that NGOs are able to rebuild trust even after a negative event.

Description

Thesis advisor

Moisander, Johanna

Keywords

public trust, trust management, communication, non-governmental organizations

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Citation

Permanent link to this item

https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202311196896

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[gradu] Kauppakorkeakoulu / BIZ