Culture and Nongovernmental Organizations in China

In a country which emphasizes authority and collectivism in their culture, how can an organization with strongly egalitarian and individualistic culture fit in and survive? The existing independent NGOs and government-organized NGOs (GONGOs) in China provide us a great platform to examine different cultures of these two types of organizations and their interaction with national culture. People talk about culture everyday, but as a researcher, I would unpack this whole concept into different dimensions to examine. So the first thing I want to do is to measure the cultural dimensions in different organizations independent NGOs and GONGOs in this study. Second, I will compare different organizational cultures with the national culture and examine how they fit into the big context and legitimate themselves in an authoritarian country. This project aims at revealing a hidden and specific picture of Chinas civil society and the living condition of nongovernmental organizations

Faculty Supervisor:

Anton Oleinik

Student:

Qian Wei

Partner:

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

University:

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Program:

Globalink