The logic of patronage: relational work in Cambodian international nongovernmental organizations

Abstract

Abstract How do managers in transnational workplaces adapt financial logics from the Global North to patronage systems in the Global South? This article answers this question through a comparative ethnographic study of two international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) working in Cambodia, one with funding from Japan and the other supported by the USA. Drawing on theories of institutional logics and the sociology of economic exchange, I document how managers localize the logics of foreign aid donors to meet worker expectations around budgeting and compensation in the two INGO workplaces. I illustrate that INGOs are more likely to succeed in the localization process when aid logic enables cooperation between foreign and local managers. My findings suggest that studies of foreign aid could benefit from investigating the consequences of national variation on aid donors’ financial practices. Additionally, scholarship on transnational workplaces needs to take seriously the logic of patronage and the role of relational work in adapting this logic in workplaces in the Global South.