Bosnia and Herzegovina after the war (1995--2000): Interorganizational relationships in development assistance

This grounded theory-building dissertation targets the international effort to rebuild, transition and develop Bosnia and Herzegovina after the war. Hundreds of development organizations operate in Bosnia, linked in complex ways through interdisciplinary tasks and overlapping mandates. Meetings, task forces, roundtables and advisory groups attempt to coordinate activity and foster cooperative action. This study explores three specific task areas where such concerns are particularly salient: refugee return and reconstruction, privatization of state-owned enterprises and media development.; Opportunities for and obstacles to cooperative interorganizational relationships (IORs) within each of these task areas are examined in depth. Qualitative results are then integrated into a deductive linear process framework of IOR development. Variables common across all three areas and those unique to specific tasks or environments are identified and compared to the IOR literature.; Subsequent analysis exposes the importance of context in IOR process research and highlights the limits of linear models. The use of complex but potentially more realistic non-linear understandings of process bolstered this research by fleshing out the more easily comprehended and tested aspects of linear thinking. Such context, or thick description, especially enhanced presentation of the multiple progressions across which IOR development processes unfolded in this case. Employing both linear and non-linear models demonstrated their respective utility as well as their potential synergies.