Applying Self-Determination Theory to International Development and Humanitarian Organisations

Abstract

International development and humanitarian organisations are increasingly focused on transitioning from top-down models of practice to ‘locally-led approaches’ that recognise local epistemologies, capabilities and visions of change. Despite this focus, there remains limited practical guidance to support organisations making this transition. In this article, we aim to suggest ways in which Self-Determination Theory, a well-known theoretical framework in psychology and education, could be applied in the context of development and humanitarian organisations to facilitate transitions to locally-led partnerships and ways of working. We provide an overview of Self-Determination Theory and where it has been used in the development and humanitarian contexts. We propose its feasibility as a framework for transition to locally-led partnerships and approaches in these contexts and suggest specific strategies under a Self-Determination Theory framework that organisations could employ to support both international and local staff members in organisational transitions to locally-led practice.

Applying Self-Determination Theory (SDT) to International Development and Humanitarian Organisations

The ‘localisation agenda’—a move to shift power from international organisations and actors to local/national organisations and communities—has been a strategic focus in the humanitarian and international development spaces for some time. The movement received impetus in the 2016 ‘Grand Bargain’ to shift at least 25% or funding to local and national humanitarian workers by 2020 and has represented an ideological shift from paternalistic saviourism and deficit discourses towards decentralising power, knowledge and resources so that local actors are in decision-making and action-taking positions (Humanitarian Academy for Development, 2020). In addition to the general agreement that shifting power to local actors is just and ‘right’, there are myriad potential benefits: more immediate/timely response, increased recognition of local and indigenous knowledge and capacity, increased legitimacy, better long-term follow-up, culturally appropriate and sustainable responses and cost savings (Frennesson et al., 2022; Humanitarian Academy for Development, 2020).

Despite these potential benefits, the wide acceptance of some form of localisation as the way forward, and the presence of many localisation strategy documents in development and humanitarian NGOs, practical implementation is lagging (Frennesson et al., 2022). The 2021 ‘Global Humanitarian Assistance Report’ revealed that only 3.1% of funding is directed to local actors, as opposed to the 25% target for 2020 (Development Initiatives, 2021).

Frennesson et al. (2022) conducted 28 interviews with various international humanitarian organisations focusing on efforts to localise humanitarian logistics and supply chain management within their organisation. The interview results pointed to several barriers to localisation for these organisations. Some are contextual and external to the organisation: donors shifting funding from long-term development to emergency response in the wake of COVID-19, large funding gaps and unrealistic expectations and external pressure from donors, governments and other stakeholders. Other factors are internal to the organisation: a lack of internal drivers of change, uncertainty and perceived risk and the preference for decentralisation (involving local procurement without shifting power or resources to local actors). Frennesson et al. (2022) argue that targeted actions can accelerate change and promote localisation. They propose addressing internal barriers by visualising and questioning organisational norms and values. This could take the form of interrogating taken-for-granted ‘best practices’ imported from international experts rather than adopting/adapting local knowledge. They also suggest providing clear communication and introducing performance indicators to drive change, for instance, communicating the value of local perspectives and establishing indicators to hold organisations accountable for seeking and systematically supporting active decision-making among local staff members (Frennesson et al., 2022).

In shifting away from top-down models, Tawake et al. (2021) differentiate between the ‘localisation’ agenda and ‘locally-led’ partnerships within a decolonising framework. They define a locally-led approach as one which acknowledges that local communities are ‘never homogenous, often espouse divergent views and are centrally involved in local politics’. These approaches prompt Global North actors and organisations to engage critically with their power and the epistemologies that shape their work (Tawake et al., 2021). Considering ‘locally-led approaches’ addresses some of the criticism levelled against localisation. While the localisation agenda shifts responsibility to local actors while continuing to privilege Western or dominant notions of development, ‘locally-led approaches’ suggest a shift towards recognising local epistemologies, contextualising and embracing pluriversal visions of change. We consider ‘locally-led approaches’ to be those that embrace collaborations between local and international staff in which power is shared and plural forms of knowledge are valued, and that recognise the expertise of local staff in their own context. Locally-led approaches do not only position local staff as leaders and decision-makers but also recognise that there are multiple ways of leading and working well and embrace different epistemological approaches. It is this form of organisational shift we target in this article.

We aim to suggest ways in which self-determination theory (SDT), a well-known theoretical framework in psychology and education, could be applied in the context of development and humanitarian organisations to facilitate transitions to locally-led partnerships and ways of working. Throughout, we will use the term ‘international staff’ to denote staff members employed by and working in an organisation in another country, usually a person from the Global North working in an organisation based in the Global South. We use ‘local staff’ to denote organisational staff members who live and grew up in the country the organisation is based in, usually the Global South. While we acknowledge that the simplistic international/local binary fails to account for the intersectional complexity of global power structures (Hoff & Hickling-Hudson, 2011; Walsh, 2015), we will not engage with these terms critically here. Rather, we take this binary as an entry point for discussing strategies of transition which can be further detailed in specific contexts. We focus on non-government organisations as sites of collaboration/interaction between international and local staff and as key potential sites of transformation, having often fewer systematic constraints than government bodies while often harnessing substantial funding and community influence.

We will first provide an overview of SDT and where it has been used in the development and humanitarian contexts and then propose the feasibility of SDT as a framework for a transition to locally-led partnerships and approaches in these contexts. Finally, we will suggest specific strategies under an SDT framework that organisations could employ to support the organisational transition to locally-led practice. In proposing these strategies, we neither seek to provide a comprehensive approach to addressing the complex power structures shaping development and humanitarian practice, nor do we seek to ignore or diminish the deeply ideological and politically fraught nature of development and humanitarian efforts globally. Rather, we aim to provide an additional tool which may be used to support existing efforts, craft organisational strategies and take manageable but meaningful steps within organisations towards better local-international partnerships and genuine collaborations.

Self-Determination Theory

SDT provides an explanation of motivation. Although SDT has become one of the most widely researched theories in psychology (Ryan & Deci, 2019) and widely applied to education and training in general and health contexts (Hazan et al., 2018; Jacobi, 2018; Niemiec & Ryan, 2009; ten Cate et al., 2011), its applicability in international development and humanitarian contexts has not been fully explored.

Self-determination in SDT refers to a person making choices and controlling his or her life. Being self-determined means that a person feels a sense of self-control, fuelled by intrinsic motivation. SDT posits that people are motivated to act and to develop by three innate psychological needs: autonomy, competence and connectedness.

Autonomy involves feeling in control of one’s goals and behaviour. Competence involves feeling an ability to complete tasks and learn new skills. Connectedness involves a sense of belonging to a group and a feeling of attachment to others in the group.

SDT in International Development and Humanitarian Contexts

Despite the philosophical alignment of self-determination with the ethos of empowerment central to the development and humanitarian sectors, research exploring SDT in the humanitarian and development spaces is limited.

Tassell and Flett (2011) found SDT a useful framework with which to assess health workers’ motivation for continued engagement in the humanitarian sector in the face of significant challenges and risks. Other studies have used SDT as a framework for understanding the motivations of volunteers, often an important human resource in the humanitarian and development workforce. Oostlander et al. (2014) used SDT-based questionnaires with 1,979 volunteers, finding that autonomy-supportive leadership is in general beneficial and motivating for volunteers, although for those with stronger control orientation, positive and supportive leaders could increase feelings of obligation and pressure to accept volunteer work. Haivas et al. (2012) also found that among a participant group of 349 Romanian volunteers, autonomy-supportive environments were more important to autonomous motivation than having a large network of other volunteers. Volunteering was primarily perceived as an activity through which to feel competence and freedom of choice (Haivas et al., 2012). Similarly, Güntert et al. (2016) found that values, social justice and understanding motives were positively related to self-motivation amongst volunteers rather than controlled motivations such as career progression. As with Tassell and Flett’s (2011) humanitarian workers, the connection between work/activities and self-concept is an important theme. This limited research hints at the underexploited potential of SDT as a framework for understanding humanitarian and international development practitioners’ motivations and channelling these towards positive organisational change.

The COVID-19 pandemic heralded renewed focus on strengthening locally-led approaches and reducing emphasis on international actors in the development and humanitarian sector. However, practical advice for organisations on how to make such transitions, including how to support staff to be actively and positively involved in organisational change, is limited (Angus, 2021; Gibbons & Otieku-Boadu, 2021; Tawake et al., 2021). Tawake et al. (2021) proposed one useful framework for organisational transition in the context of humanitarian organisations in Kiribati, using the framework of ‘wielding and yielding’ power. This binary framework offers guidance in the form of question prompts and advice for international staff members to ‘yield’ power, such as by directly asking local staff for their input, and prompts for local staff members to ‘wield’ power, such as by expressing their views in meetings. However, further advice and strategies as both a catalyst and a guide for making the transition from top-down interventions to locally-led collaborations are needed to facilitate and support organisational change.

SDT as a Framework for Locally-Led Approaches

SDT can be used as a theoretical framework for supporting shifts to reimagined ways of engaging on both the ‘yielding’ and ‘wielding’ sides. While such a binary opposition may be overly reductive, it may serve as a practical heuristic in the development and humanitarian spaces where the persistent power divide between international and local staff has been well documented (Adams, 2019; Owen, 2010; Whitehead et al., 2018).

SDT’s widely applicable components provide a potential structure for guiding organisational change within international NGOs which fosters ownership and decision-making among local staff— their ‘wielding of power’. Education and training programs, internal talent recognition and leadership style can be used to create autonomy-supportive organisational climates which positively promote motivation and engagement and needs satisfaction (Haivas et al., 2012).

Trépanier et al. (2012) use SDT as a framework for examining the social factors influencing transformational leadership behaviour—characterised by charisma, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualised consideration—widely linked to high satisfaction and positive organisational outcomes. They identify several factors which help staff members assume the role of manager/leader. Managers must feel trusted and supported in order to command feelings of pride and respect amongst employees as well as communicate and articulate visions for the future effectively (autonomy). Managers who feel part of meaningful work relationships tend to view themselves as someone who can inspire and mobilise others (connectedness), and managers who feel efficient and competent in their skills are more likely to believe they can effectively serve their organisation (competence) (Trépanier et al., 2012). This work suggests that in creating the conditions for local staff to ‘wield power’, conditions of autonomy, connectedness and competence can be created to increase local staff members’ perception of themselves as leaders.

Considering the important role, local-international partnerships play in development and humanitarian organisations, concerns around connectedness are salient to transitions to local leadership. Interviewing the local and international staff of three non-government organisations in the Lao PDR, Owen (2010) found that there were strong perceptions that international staff were hired for management positions they were not qualified for or capable in, and that local staff lacked skills and expertise. Emblen (1995) similarly found grudging perceptions among Lao government workers that international ‘experts’ were in fact inexperienced and lacked competence in their role. Such perceptions and social narratives align with SDT’s connectedness and competence as important components of self-determination.

With a focus on ‘locally-led’ approaches, rather than localisation, moving local staff effectively into leadership roles is insufficient unless these roles provide the power to envision and enact different ways of working led by context. Brière et al. (2021) used SDT to investigate the effects of servant leadership on positive deviant behaviour. They define servant leadership as an ‘other-focused’ leadership style which prioritises employee growth and empowerment and emphasises altruism, empathy, ethics and community management as important aspects of leadership. They define positive deviant behaviour as non-conforming behaviours born out of a desire to serve the organisation and its members. The study found that servant leadership facilitates innovative positive deviant behaviour towards individuals and organisations, aligned with the three core components of SDT (Brière et al., 2021). International staff, donors and others who are in positions of ‘yielding power’ could harness servant leadership to promote the autonomy to enact positive deviance in ways which shift the nature of work to locally-led and contextually grounded approaches. Helping international staff to assume this style of leadership could ease their transition into new roles and reduce anxiety around job loss and role change in the shift to local leadership, by positioning them as active agents in the transition to local leadership.

Specific Potential Applications of SDT to Making the Transition to Locally-Led Development

In this section, we suggest ways in which SDT could be applied to facilitate transitions within development and humanitarian organisations to locally-led approaches.

Autonomy

In the shift to locally-led approaches, autonomy is a primary goal. Local and international staff can be involved in interactive, joint goal setting and planning for organisational transition. To create conditions for mutual autonomy, international staff can acknowledge their position of power within organisational structures and interrogate their visions for transition, listening with open minds and actively supporting the autonomy of local staff in decision-making and articulating goals.

International staff members’ active involvement in planning how their own roles will change could also help them to feel in control of the shift to locally-led approaches. Including international staff in planning their own professional transitions may empower them to take an active and positive role in these transitions and minimise fears of redundancy or role changes. International staff members may move from implementation roles to roles more focused on liaison between the organisation and funders, for example, supporting the autonomy of international staff to take a role in shaping the evolution of their role may enable them to engage more positively with the change.

Local staff can be supported to exercise autonomy in the form and degree of input they receive from international partners in locally-led futures by reframing international experts and funders as ‘invited guests’ (Whitehead et al., 2018) whom they invite to collaborate but who are not placed in a position of power. This type of autonomy could be supported through organisational processes such as group discussions around motivation for engaging international partners and the purpose they serve.

Competence

Competence in both local and international staff to engage effectively and meaningfully with transitions to locally-led approaches may require training and experience, with feedback from funders, communities, organisational management, colleagues and partners. Staff members may need to develop a range of new competencies and skills in leadership, intercultural practice and communication in order to play an active and positive role in organisational change.

Choosing employees, both local and international, based on capability for specific roles and clearly communicating these competencies to other organisational staff may reduce perceptions that local staff are hired merely to provide contextual facilitation, or that international staff are hired only on their relative status or assumptions of international expertise. Organisations can engage in discussions around what competence means in their context, and how diverse notions of competence may challenge some staff members’ or the organisation’s assumptions around ‘best practice’ and the criteria for competence, and more broadly to rethink assumptions and norms of competence in their field.

Meaningful change is likely to be challenging and complex for most organisations that have been structured around dominant development discourse and systems. Positively reinforcing small procedural changes, discussions with colleagues which challenge assumptions and biases, power sharing in leadership roles and rethinking organisations’ strategic direction may help to build competence around transition processes.

Collaborating to set expectations and develop guidelines around organisational systems and structures may increase perceived competence and relatedness. International staff and funders can share power and critically examine their assumptions by accepting that these new collaboratively designed systems may be quite different to the organisation’s conventional approaches, and international ways of working can be strengthened and rethought through a local lens. Local staff can engage critically by questioning how suggested systems serve the organisation in context, suggesting alternatives, and being open to their own ways of working being strengthened through knowledge sharing and partnership with international partners. Once these expectations and systems are set, local and international staff can be acknowledged for meeting them and provided with regular feedback from managers or peers to build feelings of competence.

Capacity-building activities which focus uncritically on learning ‘best practice’ risk shifting power to local staff members only to expect them to uncritically mimic their international colleagues. Instead, capacity-building efforts can target active decision-making, articulation of opinions and intercultural and critical practices to support local staff in communicating existing competencies and increasing their sense of competence as leaders to make change.

Connectedness

Connectedness in international development could come from positive relations among local and international development and humanitarian workers, local people and communities and the donors. A stronger sense of connectedness can be developed through activities focused on mutually challenging assumptions and biases. Active decision-making, change-mapping and review of progress can be made by local leadership staff as a group to increase their sense of connectedness as a team and support confidence and collegiality.

Increasing opportunities for relationship building between operational staff and leadership, as well as funders, could support feelings of connectedness and collegiality across insider/outsider divides and provide insights into local ways of working and broader systematic pressures on leadership. This knowledge/experience exchange may support more empathic decision-making, as constraints and opportunities can be better recognised by all staff together.

Specific organisational goals and strategies prioritising interculturality and mutually transformative relationships may facilitate connectedness by making employee well-being a goal throughout the transition.

Promises and Pitfalls: A Cautionary Note

In proposing SDT as a framework for organisations, we do not aim to suggest a simple answer to a complex problem. Instead, we have outlined some potential applications of SDT in development and humanitarian contexts which may be useful tools for practitioners and organisations making transitions towards locally-led approaches. SDT provides a structure for considering ways of working that support people and structures to change in positive ways.

It is worth acknowledging one potential pitfall of SDT. Frameworks which target human socioemotional needs for autonomy, competence and connectedness have the potential to become strictures. It is necessary to remain conscious of the risk that SDT will be used as a means of creating efficient practice and staff buy-in for processes that remain top-down and internationally defined and led. For example, using SDT as a framework for improving the effectiveness of training to meet pre-defined targets may still fail to recognise local expertise, cosmologies and practices which could shape a more contextually meaningful training program.

Conclusion

We have suggested that SDT can be a useful framework for supporting organisational transition to locally-led practices. Recognising the complexity of this transition, we suggest manageable but meaningful actions which could contribute to a broader toolkit of practice in supporting both international staff and local staff members to embrace change and actively shape organisational futures together.