Leadership Development and Capacity Building in Non-Profit Organizations in Senegal

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to assess leadership development and capacity enhancement approaches within non-profit organizations (NPOs) of Senegal and evaluate how the application of participative, adaptive and transformational leadership improves the organizational performance of the NPOs in a condition of limited resources. Therefore, the study seeks to establish how leadership practice, culture and operations impact on the capacity and sustainability of NPOs to achieve their missions and goals. A qualitative research approach was used for the study through self-administered questionnaires or telephonic / face-to-face interviews with senior officials from different NPOs in Senegal. The collected data were coded systematically using the NVivo software so essential themes and patterns revealing the leadership and capacity building difficulties and practices were revealed. This type of methodology was chosen because the research was interpretive in nature, thus enabling the researcher to engage in a discussion of contextual practices of leadership in the non-profit. Accordingly, the study indicates that participatory leadership is cultural and operationally relevant in Senegal since it is endorsed by collective decision-making culture of the society. Thus, the concept of adaptive leadership became important to sustain the stability in organisations during the periods of volatility and change; and the concept of transformation leadership was deemed critical to achieve cultural congruence with the strategic, mission-oriented objectives. This paper also gives precaution on the issues connected with these leadership styles such as the fact that participatory leadership requires expert help to facilitate, adaptive leadership may lead to burnout.