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This chapter addresses two fundamental questions: ‘Why should managers be concerned with organizational capacity development?’ and ‘Why should they evaluate capacity development efforts?’ We begin by noting the dramatic technological, economic, environmental, and institutional changes that are driving interest in capacity development. We describe the changes that most affect research and development organizations today and discuss some of the broad implications for managers in designing capacity development efforts. We then outline why managers should be concerned with evaluation and how evaluation can be used as a tool to strengthen an organization’s capacity and improve its performance.

Why Managers should be Concerned with Organizational Capacity Development

Challenges for managers of research and development organizations

Today’s development landscape is changing at a dizzying pace. The emergence of new technologies, environmental and economic turmoil, market integration, and social and political instability pose both opportunities and threats for research and development organizations. The traditional rules that once governed research and development organizations and their relations with stakeholders are becoming obsolete.

New information and communication technologies are dramatically increasing the speed and power of communication and lowering its costs. Genetic engineering and biotechnologies present many new opportunities and challenges for agricultural research. The integration of markets is eroding the power of national policies, and transnational regulations increasingly govern global markets. Various groups are calling attention to growing economic inequality, threats to the environment, and other social, environmental, and ethical dimensions of development.

In such a dynamic environment, research and development organizations not only need to operate efficiently and effectively, they need to learn to adapt and change if they are to survive and prosper. Organizational capacity development is essential for organizations to be successful in this era of change.

Each of the organizations participating in the ECD Project has been grappling with how to respond to their rapidly changing external environments. The past few years have seen tremendous advances in the field of genetics, for example, with new technologies such as molecular mapping expanding the possibilities for characterizing genes and understanding their role in plant breeding and diversity. To remain current in this field, organizations like the Plant Genetic Center in Ghana need to constantly update the technical knowledge and skills of their personnel and to upgrade their physical facilities. Keeping up-to-date in times of rapid change also requires research and development organizations to review their basic objectives, strategies, and structures periodically.

Governmental bodies and donors from industrialized countries no longer guarantee funding for public research and development. Many organizations are seeing their budgets slashed and their personnel reduced, and in some cases they are even being closed down. Stakeholder groups, including development agencies, governments, and advocacy and interest groups are pressing for research and development organizations to address broader concerns of environmental degradation, food safety, and poverty—often with reduced budgets. And where research was previously judged solely on the basis of its scientific quality, consumer and advocacy groups are now questioning the usefulness of research in solving environmental problems and reducing poverty.

In the Philippines, for example, the Root Crops Center has sought to involve farmers, processors, and consumer groups in its research and development work. This is seen as a way to focus activities on problems of importance to stakeholders and to improve feedback on the value of the information and technologies it is developing. In Nicaragua, FARENA found it necessary to build managerial capacity to review its curricula and reorient academic programs to the needs of a rapidly changing agricultural economy.

As managers of research and development organizations, we often find it difficult to understand the changes occurring around our organizations and how we should respond. We may recognize the declining relevance of our traditional activities, but we do not see clearly what to do. In the case of Cuba, the drastic economic changes that took place in the 1990s disrupted the activities of the country’s state farms and agricultural research institutes. As the crisis unfolded, managers saw the need to reorient their organizations to meet the needs of shifting markets. As the Cuban evaluation study shows, this required developing capacity in strategic relevance and planning, food chain analysis, and management of change.

In times of rapid change when there is a need to maintain or reestablish an organization’s legitimacy, the studies suggest that ‘incremental’ changes, such as

restructuring the organization, reducing its costs, or cutting its workforce, are seldom sufficient. There is a need to make ‘transformational’ changes, which means changing the way we approach and respond to issues. In times of turbulence and crisis, managers need to focus first on the organizations’ basic mission, objectives, and strategies and only then concern themselves with the structure of the organization and the way it provides services. The experience in Nicaragua illustrates this point. To provide

“We need a new paradigm in our thinking and in our way of doing things because our current way of working is too bureaucratic. We need to be more concerned with what we are doing and how we are doing it if we want to survive.”

Samuel Bennett-Lartey

useful solutions to environmental problems, FARENA decided to change to a more integrated approach to natural resource management. This required significant changes within its Faculty and its staffing. The Faculty realized that rather than recruiting specialists with narrow expertise to work in isolation, generalists with abilities to work within multi-disciplinary teams would be more appropriate to help the organization meet the needs of its various stakeholders.

The evaluation studies show that managers are seldom aware of the capacities needed to initiate and sustain transformational change processes in their organizations. This chapter attempts to provide some guidance in this area.

Priorities for Capacity Development

Each organization must assess its own needs and identify its own priorities for capacity development. But the studies carried out within the ECD Project point to some general trends in capacity development that can help managers focus their organizational capacity development activities.

From individual to organizational capacities

In the past, there has been a fragmented approach to capacity development, which focused on individuals rather than the organization as a whole. This is perhaps most clearly reflected in the emphasis of traditional capacity development efforts on individual training. However, organizations do not necessarily change and grow stronger when individuals learn and develop their capacities in isolation.

Individual knowledge, skills, and attitudes are of course important, but they are not sufficient to develop organizational knowledge and promote change. Capacity development efforts must also include team building and the development of the organizational procedures and systems that channel human abilities towards achieving the organization’s goals.

As a result of the evaluation study, Bangladesh’s RDRS realized that the investments they had made in training individuals over a four-year period had reaped

limited dividends at the organizational level. The study team realized the difference between skill acquisition through training and organizational capacity development. To ensure that training has an impact beyond the individual, procedures are needed to employ and share individuals’ knowledge, attitude, and skills within teams and with the organization as a whole.

A strategy used in the Philippines and Cuba is to provide on-the-job training through group work. Knowledge and skills are shared and consolidated through dialog and application. In Cuba, such group work involved the preparation of a comprehensive study of the pork-meat food chain. In the Philippines, group work involved the planning of participatory research. In these cases, steps were also taken to ‘institutionalize’ the use of newly acquired skills and knowledge in organizational procedures.

In Cuba, for example, research proposals are now reviewed for their relevance to constraints identified in the pork meat chain. In the Philippines’ Root Crops Center, applied research proposals are screened to ensure that stakeholder groups are adequately involved.

“Building individual capacity is not enough. Collective craftsmanship is what is needed. This means people working together to deliver what they say they want to deliver.”

Jamie Watts

From hard to soft capacities

There has been a shift in emphasis over time from developing ‘hard’ capacities to developing ‘soft’ ones. Early attempts to build capacity in research and development organizations generally focused on constructing facilities and providing equipment—the classical hard capacities. Later, emphasis shifted to providing technical education for program staff and, more recently, to improving management knowledge and skills through short-term training programs. Efforts have also gone into developing management systems, such as project-based budgeting, accounting, and reporting.

In some more recent cases, there have been attempts to develop the social expertise and skills that are essential for leadership, management, and more effective networking—for example skills in environmental scanning, self-assessment, facilitation, team-building, and communication.

This trend reflects a growing awareness that facilities, resources, and inputs alone will not lead to lasting improvements in an organization’s performance. Crucial capacities reside in its management practices and systems, which allow the organization to acquire resources and use them effectively.

In the case of Viet Nam, the evaluation study revealed that some of the Mekong Delta Farming Systems R&D Institute’s capacity development efforts had emphasized

‘hard’ capacities, such as infrastructure development and fund raising. But much of the capacity development that had taken place over the last ten years with the support of the IDRC-CBNRM had focused on ‘soft’ capacities, including strategic leadership, the use and dissemination of innovative research approaches and methodologies, and personnel management.

Maintaining relevance in changing times

In stable times, the basic relevance of organizations, their goals, and their programs is seldom questioned. In such cases, capacity development efforts can safely focus on issues of effectiveness (goal attainment) and efficiency (cost effectiveness). For this reason, in the past, capacity development efforts often focused on ‘how’. How to improve the use of financial resources? How to recruit and manage staff? How to manage projects?

Now, as society’s concerns and expectations are changing, the pressure on managers is shifting beyond efficiency and effectiveness to relevance. Organizations need to achieve their goals and to operate efficiently, within increasingly tight budgets. But, more importantly, they need to provide services that meet rapidly changing needs.

Growing concern for relevance means that research and development organizations need to develop new capacities for management, including capacities for monitoring their operating environment, identifying the implications for the organization, and rapidly implementing needed changes. Figure 5 illustrates what organizational capacities need to be developed to achieve greater relevance and/or efficiency.

In the case of Nicaragua, FARENA was restructured and its curricula revised following the results of a national survey and university analysis of the demand for professionals in the country. As previously mentioned, prior to the survey, capacity development efforts were geared to developing the academic staff’s technical capacities. With the increasing need to compete with other universities to raise funds and to collaborate more extensively with stakeholders, the evaluation study helped the Faculty realize that it needed to strengthen its management skills and systems in the areas of leadership, governance, strategic planning, and internal and external communication.

From operational to strategic management

A decade ago, management development efforts generally focused on program and process management, which was primarily concerned with efficiency issues. Over the

Figure 5. Capacities needed to improve efficiency and relevance

Operational management capacities contribute to an organization’s efficiency and internal coherence. Adaptive management capacities contribute to an organization’s relevance in relation to the interests and concerns of its external stakeholders.

last decade, an increasing number of research and development organizations have sought to develop their capacity for strategic planning and management. What we are realizing today is the need to go beyond managing an organization as an isolated entity to managing complex programs, partnerships, alliances, and networks of individuals in several organizations. These complex organizational forms are increasingly diverse and ever changing in nature. This challenges managers to operate more flexibly and creatively.

All of the participating organizations in the ECD Project work in partnership with other national and international organizations to achieve their goals. Three of the studies involved evaluations of capacity development efforts with networks. In Ghana, GRENEWECA supported the Plant Genetic Center’s capacity development. In the

“These new insights into capacity development highlight that adding some core competencies within an organization is a strategic issue. It is now easier to distinguish when capacity development is a strategic or an operational choice.”

Imrul Kayes Muniruzzaman

Philippines, the UPWARD network supported the Root Crops Center’s capacity development. In Viet Nam, the Mekong Delta Farming Systems R&D Institute coordinated the establishment of the country’s first farming systems network, FSRNET, followed by NAREMNET. The studies revealed that little attention had been given to building capacities that relate specifically to networking, such as communications, public awareness raising, policy development, and negotiation skills.

As a result of the studies, IDRC-CBNRM and IPGRI realized the importance of supporting the development of networking skills (such as advocacy, negotiation, and participatory methods for planning and evaluation) to help strengthen their partners’ overall performance.

Need for continuous learning and change

The final trend that we should highlight concerns the increasing emphasis being placed on the capacity of people and organizations to learn from experience and to change in ways that will enhance their performance. In an era of increasingly rapid technological, economic, social and political change, people and organizations need to learn and adapt to changing conditions. Those that do not successfully innovate and develop new institutions and ways of working risk rapid obsolescence.

To cope with the drastic changes that are taking place in Cuba, IIP and other research institutes affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture have begun to conduct periodic self-assessment exercises. These aim to reflect goals, strategies, and activities and will draw lessons from experience and identify areas for improvement. IPGRI has also adopted an organizational learning approach to evaluation.

Why Evaluate Organizational Capacity Development Efforts?

Traditionally, monitoring and evaluation have been carried out to meet external accountability requirements. Governmental authorities and donors require information on how organizations use their resources and what results are being obtained. These external accountability requirements make it necessary for organizations to prepare periodic progress reports, mid-term reviews, and end-of-project evaluations. Managers and staff justifiably view this type of monitoring and evaluation as a ‘necessary evil’ that has little direct value for the organization.

Through our involvement with the ECD Project, we learned how monitoring and evaluation can be made useful for an organization’s managers and staff and how it can be used to strengthen capacity development efforts.

Capacity development efforts usually involve considerable experimentation and ‘learning by doing’. For this reason, periodic reflection and analysis is required to keep an organization’s capacity development efforts on track and to learn from successes and failures to improve the capacity development process.

The study teams reported that their capacity development efforts had seldom been designed on the basis of a systematic and detailed review of the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, and capacity needs. Better diagnostic work should be done prior to implementing a capacity development program. This could also provide a baseline against which to measure progress and results over time.

For several years, CIAT has worked in Nicaragua to disseminate the application of its tools to support community decision making for natural resource management. This has involved several forms of collaboration with national institutions, including FARENA, which has been an important partner in research and training activities. CIAT’s capacity development efforts focused on developing FARENA’s staff expertise in technical fields, and didn’t take into account FARENA’s weakness in managing these activities. As a result, CIAT’s research and training activities helped improve FARENA’s technical capacities to deal with issues of natural resource management. But the evaluation revealed numerous gaps in FARENA’s managerial skills and procedures, including priority setting, planning, monitoring, and evaluation.

The evaluation studies helped managers and staff in participating organizations increase their knowledge and skills and change their attitudes about what capacity development is and what successful capacity development involves. This was true, not only for national organizations, but also for their international partners. The Ghana case illustrates that a capacity development effort that targets Ghana’s national program needs to address a wide range of areas, including administration, policy, fund raising, and management. These areas are outside the traditional mandate or area of expertise of a technical institute such as IPGRI. Other partners therefore need to be involved to improve the impact expected for IPGRI’s actions.

The evaluation studies motivated managers and staff to discuss the performance and future of their organizations. In group work they were encouraged to express their ideas and opinions freely, even when there were disagreements. In many cases this was a new experience, especially for junior staff members who were not usually involved in management discussions.

Through a participatory, self-assessment approach, monitoring and periodic evaluations can be used to check progress in line with goals and expectations, and to test the assumptions underlying a capacity development effort. When used for these purposes, monitoring and evaluation can provide valuable information that managers and program operators in research and development organizations can use to

improve their ongoing work as well as their future planning. Table 2, based on the initial study proposals for the ECD Project, illustrates the different motives of national and international organizations for carrying out the evaluation studies.

The evaluation methods used in the studies involved members and external stakeholders of all participating organizations. By involving key actors, such as national and local organizations and their partners (international organizations and donor agencies) in self-assessment exercises, the evaluation teams were able to begin to assess capacity development contributions through multiple perspectives rather than through the single viewpoint of an external agency funding and directing a capacity development intervention. This multiple perspective helped the teams understand how to improve relationships, especially with organizations that provide support or services for capacity development. For instance, the authors of the Viet Nam study reported the development of a common approach and agenda with other national research organizations through networking efforts. They also reported improved coordination and cooperation with donors.

The evaluation teams also learned that carrying out an evaluation can be a capacity development process in itself. The ‘learning by doing’ process of evaluation enabled them to develop a better understanding of evaluation and its procedures, tools, and mechanisms.

Take-Home Messages

In this era of dramatic technological, environmental, and economic turmoil, and social and political instability, research and development organizations need to learn to adapt and change to remain relevant to their stakeholders’ concerns and expectations.

If organizations are to become more aware of the capacities needed to initiate change processes, they need a broader approach. Instead of developing individual knowledge, skills, and attitudes, they need to develop organizational culture and procedures and systems that channel the use of the organization’s resources towards relevant goals.

Because most organizations today work on the basis of partnerships with other national and international organizations, specific capacities are needed, including negotiation techniques and participatory approaches to planning and development.

Participatory, learning-oriented self-assessment processes are indispensable for managing and improving organizational capacity development. They help managers and staff learn from their successes and failures and they strengthen capacity

Table 2. Reasons for Conducting the Evaluation Studies in the ECD Project

development efforts by improving planning and implementation, by gaining commitment from stakeholders to strengthening the organization, by increasing knowledge and skills, and by creating more positive attitudes toward organizational capacity development and toward evaluation.

Guide to Further Reading

A great deal is being written about the large-scale changes currently occurring in technology, politics, economics, institutions, and other spheres of life. The Postmodern Adventure by Best and Kellner (2001) provides a good introduction to these issues. The set of three books by Castells, The Rise of the Network Society (1996), The Power of Identity (1997), and End of Millennium (1998), analyze in detail the global changes taking place and their implications for social organization. The New Production of Knowledge by Gibbons and colleagues (1994) explains how knowledge production is shifting away from the ‘ivory tower’ of traditional universities to a broadening array of research and development laboratories, think tanks, project teams, and other organizational forms—public, private, or mixed in nature.

A special issue of the British Journal of Management (December 2001) discusses the implications of the global changes and of Gibbons’ work for management science. Organization Theory by Hatch (1997) includes a useful discussion of postmodern perspectives on organization theory and the implications for organizational change and learning—topics of growing importance for managers everywhere.

In his popular book The Fifth Discipline (1990), Senge championed the idea of organizational learning based on the notion that human minds in interaction are capable of transcending individual limitations. Since then, many organizational specialists, including Baird and Henderson (2001), Collinson and Parcell (2001), and Easterby-Smith, Burgoyne, and Araujo (1999) have emphasized the importance of strengthening the ‘soft’ side of organizational capacity, including negotiation, communication, knowledge management, organizational learning, and empowerment.

The book by Hage and Finsterbusch, Organizational Change as a Development Strategy (1987), presents models and tactics for improving organizations. The book Organizations Evolving by Aldrich (1999) discusses the processes by which new organizational forms emerge, and uses an evolutionary approach that cuts across disciplines.

Document(s) 6 of 15