Understanding INGO relationship management: A case study approach to multinational organization-public relationships

Since 1980, there has been a stark increase in the number, scale, and significance of international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), who operate in culturally complex contexts and have huge influence as actors in global civil society. Understanding the best practices and the challenges of their organization-public relationship (OPR) management is increasingly important, yet the existing literature does not offer adequate guidance. With INGO publics growing more diverse and global than ever, holistic evaluations of OPRs that consider a public perspective as well as the influence of external relationships are necessary. This paper addresses the need to further public relations' understanding of OPRs on a global scale between diverse publics and nontraditional, multinational organizations. To do so, this paper undertakes a qualitative case study of CISV International in order to shed light on how the unique characteristics of an INGO impact our conceptualizations of OPRs.