Technical Assistance for
Civil Society Organisations
Regional Office
This project is funded
by the European Union.
TACSO Pilot E-learning Course
“CSO Management –
Practical Tools for Organisational Development Analysis”
(advanced level)
TERMS OF REFERENCE
Background information
The general objective of the TACSO project is to strengthen the overall capacities and accountability
of the Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) within the IPA beneficiaries and to guarantee the quality
of services and a sustainable role of the CSOs in the democratic process. The specific objectives are:

To increase and improve the capacity and actions of CSOs, and

To improve the democratic role of CSOs.
An important project component of TACSO is Capacity Development of CSOs with the main objective
being to increase the capacity of CSO representatives in a number of key areas by offering them new
knowledge on contemporary methodologies and techniques as well as the opportunity for exchange
and practical knowledge. This encompasses regional and national trainings (see TACSO Course
Catalogue 2010/2011), regional and national conferences, development of educational materials etc.
During the spring of 2010 TACSO implemented five Regional Training Programs targeting
experienced and well-established CSOs and their representatives. Following the successful
completion of these Training Programs and in order to further strengthen the capacities of CSOs,
TACSO has decided to develop five manuals on five different topics as well as to offer a pilot Elearning Course on CSO Management - Practical Tools for Organisational Development Analysis. The
pilot course aims at developing a well-functioning design and methodology for TACSO E-learning
Courses to be used in the future.
The course CSO Management - Practical Tools for Organisational Development Analysis is a pilot Elearning course within TACSO that will last for ten weeks i.e. between 25 April and 1 July 2011. The
course will be held in English and take place online only. It will include self-guided study and
coaching by a Senior Expert in the area of organisational development throughout the course
adapted to your time and schedule. This E-learning course is free of charge. Course certificate will
be provided to each participant upon the completion of the course.
E-learning course objectives
The objectives of this e-learning course are:
 To enhance knowledge and skills of selected CSO representatives from the region on CSO
management;
TACSO Regional Office • Potoklinica 16 • 71 000 Sarajevo • t: +387 33 532 757 • f: +387 33 532 757 • e-mail: info@tacso.org
SIPU International AB Sweden • Civil Society Promotion Centre Bosnia and Herzegovina • Human Resources Development Foundation Turkey
Foundation in Support of Local Democracy Poland • Partners Foundation for Local Development Romania
Technical Assistance for
Civil Society Organisations
Regional Office
This project is funded
by the European Union.
 To provide CSOs with tools and approaches to assess their organisation from management
perspective and develop strategic position for their organisation by designing internal
management interventions;
 To inspire, motivate and encourage CSOs to reflect and discuss on various aspects of
internal organisational development for more effective performance and action.
Target group
The target group for this E-learning Course are mangers, leaders or persons in a leadership circle
and particularly interested in focusing more on development of some aspects of their organisation.
They are looking for suitable tools that will facilitate the internal process of the organisational
development. They are willing to reflect and discuss on the current situation and ready to lead their
organisation throughout the process of internal development and change together with their staff.
In addition, they want to exchange their experiences and views as well as to build networks with
other CSO managers/leaders from the countries in the Western Balkans and Turkey.
Course outline
The course takes a point of departure in the Civil Society Organisation itself, the people within the
organisation and the environment surrounding it. The focus will be on what is known as
Institutional Development (ID) and Organisational Development (OD) process (ID/OD).
Institutional Development concerns what goes on between organisations, and how they relate to
each other in terms of collaboration and competition. Organisational Development, on the other
hand, concerns the analysis of and ability to understand the internal workings of an organisation
and how capacity is developed in order to make sure that both the organisation and its staff
continue to improve their work and performance. In the course you will learn how to use different
tools for applying an ID/OD process which will bring you from formulating the problem to be
resolved in the form of so called Basic Question to Change Management. The course is guided by a
number of tested methods and approaches to ID/OD as follows:
Lesson 1: Concepts and Framework
This lesson defines and explores the basic concepts of Institutional Development and Organisational
Development (ID/OD). It also introduces you in an overview of steps in applying an ID/OD
process.
TACSO Regional Office • Potoklinica 16 • 71 000 Sarajevo • t: +387 33 532 757 • f: +387 33 532 757 • e-mail: info@tacso.org
SIPU International AB Sweden • Civil Society Promotion Centre Bosnia and Herzegovina • Human Resources Development Foundation Turkey
Foundation in Support of Local Democracy Poland • Partners Foundation for Local Development Romania
Technical Assistance for
Civil Society Organisations
Regional Office
This project is funded
by the European Union.
Lesson 2: The Basic Question
A Basic Question is a short statement that defines the overall issue(s) of the CSO to be explored and
addressed through an ID/OD process. It can be compared to an overall objective, though in this
case it is formulated as a question that demands an answer. The Basic Question once formulated
should be highly relevant to the CSO in question and ideally formulated by a group of stakeholders
with an interest in the organisation and able to do something about it. The Basic Question guides
the whole ID/OD process and application of tools, so it is important to ensure it is properly
formulated from the start.
Lesson 3: Quick Scan
In this part you will learn how to use Quick Scan, a tool that gives you a way of getting a
quick impression of the most relevant features of an organisation when observed from
outside. The core elements of the Quick Scan are: mission, inputs, outputs and users.
Lesson 4: Environmental Scan
This is a powerful tool that provides you with a systematic overview of external and internal factors
and actors that are of importance to your organisation’s ability to achieve long-term objectives. It
will help you to identify the potential positive or negative impact of relevant factors in the
environment of the work of your organisation as well as to reflect and take action or to adopt
yourself to your environment. The main elements of the Environmental Scan tool are: demand
factors, supply factors, policy factors and competitive, collaborative and opposing actors.
Lesson 5: Institutiogramme
This tool will help you to identify and visualise relations between various relevant actors in the
institutional setting and depict the nature of their relations and interdependencies, intensity of and
potential for improving existing relations.
Lesson 6: The Integrated Organisation Model
The Integrated Organisation Model (IOM) is a tool that will help you to analyse, to describe and to
diagnose organisation and its immediate environment. IOM integrates a number of institutional
and organisational tools into one. Its main elements are all interconnected and, ideally, in balance.
The main external elements are mission, inputs, outputs, factors and actors, while its internal
elements are strategy, system, structure, management style, staff and culture.
Lesson 7: Strategic Orientation and Planning
With Strategic Orientation (SOR) as a tool you will learn how to combine internal (strengths and
weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats) analyses to identify core elements of your
organisational strategy. In the final step of the tool SOR your will learn how to formulate your
organisations’ strategic options which will facilitate how to take action on each of your strategic
goals and translate them into performance through detailed long-term planning.
Lesson 8: Change Management
This part of the course will help you to learn how to move from the current situation to the desired
future situation i.e. how to successfully manage changes within your organisation. Here you will
get acquainted with the organisational change cycle that consists of five major phases which most
organisations go through in order to accomplish a successful change process. These phases are:
TACSO Regional Office • Potoklinica 16 • 71 000 Sarajevo • t: +387 33 532 757 • f: +387 33 532 757 • e-mail: info@tacso.org
SIPU International AB Sweden • Civil Society Promotion Centre Bosnia and Herzegovina • Human Resources Development Foundation Turkey
Foundation in Support of Local Democracy Poland • Partners Foundation for Local Development Romania
Technical Assistance for
Civil Society Organisations
Regional Office
This project is funded
by the European Union.
common reference (creating awareness), preparedness (creating willingness), organising (detailed
planning), implementing (developing ability) and consolidating (institutionalising change).
Each lesson will include interactive course and assessment material such as manual on CSO
Management – Practical Tools for Organisational Development Analysis, assignments, journals, quizzes,
survey, facilitation tips, questions for discussion etc. The final detailed agenda will be provided
upon the enrolment in the course. In order to make the course interactive as well as to encourage
online networking social course material such as chats, forums and wikis will be utilised.
What will the participants learn by the end of this course?
Upon the completed module course participant will be able to:




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Understand all elements of institutional and organisational development;
Perform strategic analysis of your organisation including positioning in the local and
international context and identification of internal organisational strengths and
weakness;
Design institutional/organisational interventions important for strategic management of
your organisation;
Develop useful and practical documents like new/revised strategic plan, HRM and other
systems and procedures;
Successfully manage how to introduce changes in your organisation so as to improve its
performance and work.
Who can apply?
CSOs with legal personality and belonging to non-governmental organisations, trade unions, mass
movements, cooperatives, professional associations, cultural and religious groups and grassroots
community groups operating in the Western Balkans and Turkey are eligible to apply. Each
organisation interested in this E-learning course will nominate an individual to participate. Once
admitted to the course the participating CSO will commit itself to ensure full participation of its
participant throughout the foreseen steps in the course including its practical assignments that
require some work in the organisation i.e. to apply the tools that s/he will learn in this course as a
part of the learning process by organising meeting, workshops and/or similar (to be determined in
the final Course Agenda).
Required qualifications of the participants






University degree or equivalent is required. Master degree would be considered as an
advantage;
At least five years of proved practical experience in CSO management on executive,
middle management or governance positions as manager, leader, coordinator or similar;
At least five years of experience in the work of Civil Society Organisations;
Excellent computer literacy;
Excellent communication, presentation and report writing skills;
Excellent command of the English language.
TACSO Regional Office • Potoklinica 16 • 71 000 Sarajevo • t: +387 33 532 757 • f: +387 33 532 757 • e-mail: info@tacso.org
SIPU International AB Sweden • Civil Society Promotion Centre Bosnia and Herzegovina • Human Resources Development Foundation Turkey
Foundation in Support of Local Democracy Poland • Partners Foundation for Local Development Romania
Technical Assistance for
Civil Society Organisations
In order to attendRegional
the course
you need to have access to a computer and Internet.
Office
This project is funded
by the European Union.
Application procedure
Interested CSOs from the countries of the Western Balkans and Turkey were requested to submit:
 Application form submitted by applying CSO;
 Updated Curriculum Vitae of the nominated participant;
 One-page motivation letter in which the expected contribution of the project activity to the
development of the organisation will be explained;
The application is to be submitted by 3 April 2011 at the latest to one of the following emails
depending on where the applying CSO is situated:
Albania, info.al@tacso.org
Croatia, info.hr@tacso.org
Bosnia and Herzegovina, info.ba@tacso.org
Kosovo, info.ko@tacso.org
Montenegro, info.me@tacso.org
Serbia, info.sr@tacso.org
Turekey, info.tr@tacso.org
Macedonia, info.mk@tacso.org
Only selected CSOs will be contacted. Upon the enrolment the selected participants will be
provided with manual on CSO Management – Practical Tools for Organisational Development, Guide for
use of TACAO E-learning Tool, Course Agenda, practical assignments/exercises etc. These
materials will be sent to the address of the organisation. The participants will be given a password
so as to be able to access E-learning Tool where the course will take place.
In order to ensure good representation of CSOs in our project activities, we at TACSO
strongly encourage organisations of different types, profiles and backgrounds, and those
operating in urban as well as rural areas to apply for participation in this E-learning Course.
TACSO Regional Office • Potoklinica 16 • 71 000 Sarajevo • t: +387 33 532 757 • f: +387 33 532 757 • e-mail: info@tacso.org
SIPU International AB Sweden • Civil Society Promotion Centre Bosnia and Herzegovina • Human Resources Development Foundation Turkey
Foundation in Support of Local Democracy Poland • Partners Foundation for Local Development Romania