Tragic Choices in Humanitarian Aid: A Framework of Organizational Determinants of NGO Decision Making

Humanitarian NGOs face difficult choices about whom to help and whom not on a daily basis. The research question in this article is how humanitarian NGOs make these difficult decisions and why in a particular way. March's study on consequential and appropriate decision-making processes is used to analyze the nature and course of NGO decision making. Since March's two models are often explicitly or implicitly linked to certain types of organizational settings-as reflected in an organization's formal structure, compliance and coordination mechanisms-this article particularly zooms in on the relationship between NGO decision-making processes and these settings. The theoretical framework is illustrated and discussed by means of an exploratory comparative case study of two international humanitarian NGOs: M,decins Sans FrontiSres Holland (MSF Holland) and Acting with Churches Netherlands (ACT Netherlands).