A Micro study on the Re-Organization of the Red Cross

Sammanfattning: This study contributes to the understanding of how humanitarian and development non-governmental organizations function and how they improve their work efficiency in order to be able to fulfil their goals. The thesis focus lays on the reorganization of the Swedish Red Cross and especially their new management project Framtid2020. The project’s purpose is to change the structure of the organization and hopefully make the organization more united. The thesis is using a qualitative method with 7 semi-structured interviews and two different theoretical perspectives to be able to analyze the finding as broad as possible. The interviewees are 7 different people, with different perspectives, experience and thoughts of the project. The findings from the interviews are best to summarize as hope for the Framtid2020 but also a fair for feeling overthrown and not represented. Framtid2020 is the greatest change done to the Swedish Red Cross since the creation of the organization. The core action of the project is the merging of groups. The merge is a change from decentralization to centralization, all of the Red Cross groups in the same municipality becomes one large centered controlled group. For the case of Växjö, 12 groups will become one group with one board. The two theoretical perspective that the thesis is using is David Lewis theoretical tools of development NGO´s management and Stephen Cummings perspective of centralization and decentralization. The theoretical perspectives analyze what caused the need for a reorganization this large and the material from the interviews provides what the workers see as the cause. The research questions the thesis will answer is, how has the Red Cross functioned in Växjö before the new strategy was designed, why did the Red Cross decide to undergo major structural changes, what does the new strategy look like and how have the Red Cross workers responded to the new strategy.