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The aim of this article is to describe the efforts against energy poverty of G oiEner, an energy cooperative in Spain, giving energy advice to the social services of two municipalities, Zarautz and Usurbil. Electricity contracts of low-income households were revised and improvements were proposed, according to the specificities of the Spanish electricity market; prioritising the regulated tariff with social bonus, then time-of-use tariff and optimising power capacity. Switching to the regulated tariff can realise savings of around 10%, theoretically up to a 40% if the rest of the optimizations are included. Unexpectedly, some of the household were reluctant to change the conditions of their contracts. Training sessions were organised so that in the future this intervention could be done without the help of GoiEner. Conclusions can be drawn on how GoiEner can capture the possibilities new technologies, such as smart meters, offer.; El objetivo de este artículo es describir los esfuerzos contra la pobreza energética de GoiEner, una cooperativa energética de España, que presta asesoramiento energético a los servicios sociales de dos municipios, Zarautz y Usurbil. Se revisaron los contratos de electricidad de hogares de bajos ingresos y se propusieron mejoras, de acuerdo con las especificidades del mercado eléctrico español; priorizando la tarifa regulada con bono social, luego la tarifa discriminación horaria y la optimización de la potencia contratada. El cambio a la tarifa regulada puede suponer un ahorro de alrededor del 10%, teóricamente hasta un 40% incluyendo el resto de optimizaciones. Sin embargo, algunos hogares se mostraron reacios a cambiar las condiciones de sus contratos. Se organizaron formaciones para que en el futuro esta intervención pudiera hacerse sin ayuda. Se pueden sacar conclusiones sobre cómo GoiEner podría beneficiarse de las posibilidades que ofrecen las nuevas tecnologías, e.g. medidores inteligentes.

The present thesis examines the emergence of hybrid management systems in non-profit organisations (NPOs) in South Africa. In the face of achieving the Millennium Development Goals, ‘managing for development results’ has become a central element in the international discourse on ‘aid effectiveness’. The emphasis on better management and organisation as a way forward in the development trajectory of Third World countries is underpinned by managerialist modes of thinking. This discourse has spread to NPOs as these have increasingly been inserted into the aid system, which has resulted in a push for NPOs to become ‘more business-like’. However, this raises some questions with regard to how managers in these organisations internalise and resist this discourse, and how, in turn, this affects management ideas and practices in NPOs. This is particularly problematic in view of the a-historical, a-contextual and a-political understanding of cultural encounters, which underlies the managerialist assumption that western, corporate ‘best practices’ can be extrapolated unaltered to the context of international development interventions. Furthermore, it also raises important questions about the power dynamics shaping this hybridisation process. Drawing on the more critical traditions within Development Studies and Management and Organisation Studies this thesis aims to contribute to this growing body of literature by taking a critical cross-cultural approach to the study of management in NPOs in order to further our understanding of the process of hybridisation, its outcomes and the power dynamics at work.\ud Using an interpretive framework, the purpose of this thesis is to examine the emergence of hybrid management systems resulting from the interplay between the managerialist discourse emanating from the global governance structure of international aid and the local humanist discourse of Ubuntu in order to enhance effective and culturally appropriate management in NPOs. Drawing on Homi Bhabha’s notions of mimicry and hybridity, this interaction at the ‘global/local’ interface and its outcomes are examined. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers and team leaders from NPOs in the Eastern and Western Cape Provinces in order to understand how participants construct the notion of ‘NPO management’.\ud The main finding of the study is that respondents have largely internalised the managerialist discourse and its associated practices. This mimicry of the managerialist discourse, however, is not complete and allows for resistance and hybridity. The data suggest that in resisting the managerialist discourse the respondents revert to the local humanist discourse of Ubuntu. As such mimicry and hybridity rest on an on-going appropriation, translation and interpretation of the managerialist discourse through a cultural lens. This leads to the emergence of hybrid ways of managing that seek to reconcile instrumentalist (managerialist) and humanist (Ubuntu) world views, which are more attuned to the local, cultural context in which they are deployed.\ud At a theoretical level, the contribution of this study lies in furthering the emerging literature on critical perspectives in the third sector. It also contributes to the furthering of cross-cultural management theory by including a consideration of the under-researched issues of context and power in understanding cross-cultural interactions at the global/local interface. At a practical level, it highlights that the adoption of managerialism leads to practices that are inappropriate to the local contexts, and therefore needs addressing. Hence, it may contribute to developing more effective and culturally appropriate ways of managing and highlights the need to focus more critically on cross-cultural management issues in our current efforts to make aid more effective.

This paper reports the findings of a broad based study that initially investigated a possible gap in global inputs into the fight against HIV/AIDS and TB co-infection, and outputs in terms of results achieved. We propose that such a gap may be hypothesized to be due, at least in part, to inappropriate management regimes within the global health governance structure. We do not simply question the effectiveness of the management of programs and projects, but rather the inappropriateness resulting from the lack of addressing cross-cultural issues. The factors facilitating or hampering project service delivery are examined by looking at twelve case studies in Botswana and South Africa. These data are complemented with seven semi-structured interviews with donor organizations and NGOs conducted in the North. Cultural interactions are investigated by using the concept of ‘interfaces’. Results suggest that there is a disjuncture between the global and local level that affects project delivery. The main issues hampering project outcomes can be summarized as systemic, structural and cultural. The article’s main contributions are both theoretical, looking at global project delivery from a cross-cultural management perspective, as well as to development praxis by highlighting the need to focus more critically on cross-cultural management issues within the global health governance structure, and indeed within international development as a whole.