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Understanding Mission Drift in UK Health Charities with a Focus on Africa: A Realist-Informed Synthesis

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Managing Healthcare Organisations in Challenging Policy Contexts

Part of the book series: Organizational Behaviour in Healthcare ((OBHC))

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Abstract

In complex policy settings, charities exposed to multiple and interconnected external stakeholder influences can experience ‘mission drift’. This involves charities gradually adjusting their practices, services or products to serve purposes that are inconsistent with agreed intentions. Sachikonye et al. present the findings of a realist-informed study seeking to understand how, why and in what circumstances the boards of UK charities supporting Africa’s public health programmes respond to influential external stakeholders. They synthesise evidence from annual reports with the insights from governance and mission drift literature to identify a set of responses demonstrated by the charity boards. The authors propose a theoretical framework enhancing our understanding of mission drift and discuss practical implications for boards operating in multi-stakeholder policy settings.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alliance Manchester Business School, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Crispen Sachikonye, Naomi Chambers & Ronnie Ramlogan

Authors
  1. Crispen Sachikonye
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  2. Naomi Chambers
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  3. Ronnie Ramlogan
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Correspondence to Crispen Sachikonye .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK

    Roman Kislov

  2. University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Diane Burns

  3. BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo, Norway

    Bjørn Erik Mørk

  4. University of California, Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA

    Kathleen Montgomery

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Sachikonye, C., Chambers, N., Ramlogan, R. (2021). Understanding Mission Drift in UK Health Charities with a Focus on Africa: A Realist-Informed Synthesis. In: Kislov, R., Burns, D., Mørk, B.E., Montgomery, K. (eds) Managing Healthcare Organisations in Challenging Policy Contexts. Organizational Behaviour in Healthcare. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-81093-1_6

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