Organization Development Commons^™

Organizational Planning Practices Under Uncertainty: The Case Of Ngos In Hadhramaut, Yemen, Khulood Taleb Alamodi

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Hadhramaut, Yemen plan and operate under conditions of fragility and uncertainty. Although strategic planning is often presented as a formal and structured process, NGOs in fragile settings face ongoing disruption, unstable funding, and weak institutions. This study asks how planning takes place in practice under these conditions. The study uses qualitative data from 22 semi-structured interviews with NGO leaders, staff, and external actors. A conceptual framework combining contextual fragility, resource dependence, organizational capacity and resilience, and legitimacy and networks was used to examine how these factors shape organizational planning. The findings …

Egypt’S Accession To Brics: Hedging And Strategic Positioning In A Multipolar Order, Daria Konstantinova

Theses and Dissertations

Amid Egypt’s longstanding, multifaceted cooperation with the U.S. and Western institutions, spanning political support, economic partnerships, and IMF/World Bank programs, 2024 BRICS expansion included Egypt as one of the new group’s members. This move might be explained by leadership strategic vision, domestic constraints, and geopolitical global and regional dynamics. This research explains the drivers behind Egypt’s accession to BRICS and the way this decision reflects Egypt’s strategic positioning in a changing global order, using agency-centered approach and the theoretical framework of strategic hedging.

While existing literature on BRICS expansion partially explains the reasons behind the new members’ accession and its …

The Game Within: An Anthropological Approach To Games And Play, Nehal Maged Mohamed

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is based on an eighteen-month ethnography of El Ghawasa, an Egyptian play-based organization that designs educational games, tools, and services. Claiming that El Ghawasa, with its ethos of play, seeks to create an alternative to the capitalist corporate structure. Through tracking how this organization navigates ruptures, negotiates constraints, and experiments with different practices and internal restructuring, I explore the possibilities and limitations of El Ghawasa, while attempting to resist absorption by the very system it opposes. I ask: when the rules keep changing (while the logic of the capitalist corporate structure remains the same), and the boundaries of …

Work Precarity, Mental Health, And Performance Among Humanitarian Aid Workers In Egypt Post-2025 U.S. Funding Reduction, Mariam Allam

Theses and Dissertations

The humanitarian sector is increasingly characterized by precarious employment conditions and work precarity, including short-term contracts, unclear renewal terms, inadequate compensation, heavy workloads, and job insecurity, exacerbated by volatile donor funding. The 2025 U.S. funding cuts have intensified these vulnerabilities, particularly in countries like Egypt, with massive humanitarian operations because of being a significant destination for asylum applications and one of the largest refugee host countries. Despite the prevalence of precarious work in the humanitarian sector, limited research examines its effects on workers' mental health and work performance, especially during funding crises. This qualitative study explores the perceived effect of …

What Are The Factors Affecting The Financial Sustainability Of Social Enterprises In Egypt?, Mina Atta Ghaly

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates what factors affect the financial sustainability of social enterprises (SEs) in Egypt, situating them within a constrained MSME, legal and sectoral context marked by informality, weak innovation and recurrent shocks. Drawing on global and Egyptian literature, it identifies ten candidate factors—business model, financial management, founders’ skills and mindset, revenue structure, sector and mission, legal framework and innovative finance, capacity building, investment mechanisms and “the right investor”, adaptability to shocks, and ecosystem conditions—and integrates them into an extended Social Enterprise Model Canvas. Using a qualitative, exploratory design with semi‑structured interviews of social enterprise founders, incubators/accelerators, investors and experts, …

Keeping It Together: Assessing The Wellbeing Of Project-Based Development Practitioners In Egypt, Amira Ahmed Abdallah Fekry Ahmed

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the wellbeing of project-based development practitioners in Egypt, revealing how systemic pressures—bureaucracy, job insecurity, and fragmented workloads—undermine both wellbeing and productivity. The study employed a mixed-approach, combining 10 in-depth interviews with subject matter experts and practitioners and 75 surveys with development practitioners in Egypt. Data revealed that while many practitioners are driven by purpose, structural challenges erode resilience and motivation over time. Social support networks and personal coping strategies help but cannot replace institutional protections. The study argues that wellbeing must shift from being treated as an individual concern to a structural responsibility. Reframing organizational models around …

Digital Diplomacy And Activism: Sustaining Institutional Legacy Through State-Proxy Discursive Competition In The Aftermath Of The Usaid 2025 Suspension, Maryam Alaa Elprince

Capstone and Graduation Projects

This study examines how the 2025 suspension of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) transformed the arena of U.S. foreign-aid diplomacy by eliminating the agency’s operational capacity and erasing its digital presence, thereby redistributing discursive authority across a fragmented communicative field. The research aims to determine how diplomacy adapts when a bilateral institution central to American soft power is dismantled through top-down decision, and whether discursive power exercised online can extend institutional relevance and legitimacy beyond structural collapse. Using an interpretivist qualitative design that combines digital-forensic reconstruction, document-based content analysis, and elite interviews  with top ranking officials, the …

Bridging The Gap: Analyzing Volunteerism Barriers To The International Humanitarian Ngos In Egypt, Heba Fouad

Theses and Dissertations

In Egypt, volunteerism, within international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs), functions in distinctive characteristics influenced by, among other things, cultural, educational, and economic factors. NGOs face challenges and obstacles in attracting motivated volunteers, engaging and training volunteers, as well as managing the staff-volunteers relationship, and implementing adequate human resources (HR) policies and strategies. In this context, this thesis seeks to bridge the knowledge gap of volunteerism challenges in Egypt, delving deep into understanding the barriers existing within the international humanitarian NGOs that directly and indirectly influence its volunteer engagement levels. The thesis also aims to understand the successful implementation of policies …

Women On Boards Annual Monitoring Report 2024, Center For Entrepreneurship And Innovation

Faculty Books

The AUC Egypt women on boards monitoring report is issued annually to track and monitor the presence and representation of women on boards towards meeting the goal of having 30% women on boards by 2030. The importance of improving representation of women on boards stems from the fact that it is one of the good governance pillars, in addition to the positive impact on firm performance and profitability. The National Strategy for the Empowerment of Egyptian Women 2030 has accordingly promoted for increasing the leadership roles of women and holding key positions in public institutions and companies, setting the target …

Gender Inequality Is Not A "Women Only" Issue: A Case Study Of Egyptian Private News Media, Amira Ahmed

Theses and Dissertations

Discrimination in the workplace among different genders is a significant issue in the news media sector globally. This study aims to determine and measure gender inequality in the Egyptian private news media sector through different indicators, including job payments, workload, promotions, media roles, work safety, and work flexibility, especially post-COVID. A mixed approach was used by conducting sixteen interviews and then a survey of 304 private news media sector participants. As inequalities can be a double-faced case, men's and women's perspectives have been considered in the study sample. Through descriptive and statistical analysis, the research findings revealed new insights to …

Third Mission Accelerator Labs (Tmals): An Exploratory Study On The Strategic Evolution Of Sustainability In University-Business Incubators (Ubis), Abdalla Hassanein

Theses and Dissertations

Globally, higher education institutions (HEIs) are devoting rising resources in order to remain competitive, impactful and attractive within the ever-changing socio-economic developments and to well position and communicate their value among their stakeholders (Lafuente-Ruiz-de-Sabando, et al. 2018). Students today want to do more than just get a degree; they want to create businesses, develop new markets, and start social movements (Kay et al., 2010). Under the open innovation model, universities' third mission (TM) includes deeper linkages and engagements with the private and public sectors, emphasizing the development of entrepreneurial mindsets, skills, and incubation services to encourage new business ventures, in …

Navigating Complexity Of Serving Displaced Communities: A Study Of Yemeni Community-Based Organizations In Egypt, Alya Mohammed Al-Mahdi

Theses and Dissertations

Forced displacement is a global crisis that poses challenges for nations like Egypt. Despite international NGO support, escalating displaced individuals have overwhelmed existing capacities. Refugee Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) have emerged as a natural response from the communities themselves to bridge the gap between the state and NGOs and the refugee community. However, CBOs in Egypt face challenges that impact their operation and continuity. Through qualitative research, this study aims to explore the experience of the Yemeni CBOs. Through interviews with seven people from six CBOs conducted through field visits and online calls, this research uncovers the dynamics of Yemeni CBOs …

The Role Of Civil Society Organizations In Youth Inclusion Reforms In Post-Uprising Tunisia, Amal Tobich

Theses and Dissertations

Tunisia has a large youth population; more than half of the population are youth aged between 15-30 years in 2011. Tunisia has long faced challenges adopting serious reforms for youth inclusion and participation. Young people, especially since the Arab Spring, are driving social and economic innovation, challenging policies, and representing governments. More connected than ever, young people exert a greater influence on their fellow citizens and their country and youth inclusion is a central aspect of the post-2015 global development agenda. This study seeks to determine the role of Civil society Organizations in youth inclusion by drawing on extensive literature …

An Examination Of The Relationships Between Integrated Leadership, Organizational Structure And Public Sector Performance In Egypt, Abdelrahman Hassanein

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates how integrated leadership mediated by organizational structure, affects organizational performance in three Egyptian public sector institutions. The aim of this research is to identify the key challenges in these three areas (leadership, organizational structure and performance) and provide recommendations for improvement. The study adopts a mixed method approach, including both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The qualitative element consisted of in-depth interviews of organizational leaders and participant observation. Employee surveys and interviews with leaders were conducted in three public organizations located in Greater Cairo. Two of these organizations are project implementations units (PIUs), whilst one is a traditional …

The Contingency Theory Of Accommodation In Public Relations And Its Applicability To The Telecommunication Sector In Egypt, Rania H El Bakry

Archived Theses and Dissertations

Public relations continues to be one of the most difficult to define fields. Many strides have been made in the development of public relations theory in an effort to provide some guidelines for practitioners of the field. Among the field's most prominent theories is the two-way symmetrical communication model. The model was deemed the most ideal and normative theory for practicing public relations. The contingency theory of accommodation proposes an effective and ethical alternative to the two-way symmetrical model of communication.

The telecommunication sector in Egypt is among the country's most dynamic fields and boasts some of the most active …