Interorganizational Decision Making in the Establishment of an Educational Project in a Third World Country

Establishment of large‐scale education projects in developing nations is often problematical. After project approval it is sometimes difficult for initiatives to “get off the ground”. Examines one type of difficulty, interorganizational behaviour patterns, which may beset project establishment. The analysis is contextual. It draws on the experiences of Research Country (pseudonym) as this developing nation struggles to initiate its Third Education Project, approved for implementation by the World Bank. The data, gleaned from Government files and project documents, are presented in a scenario; and two major concepts in organizational theory, organizational myths and organizational goals, provide the frame of reference against which the data are analysed. The results reveal that the behaviour of organizations involved can influence the decision‐making process in project establishment, and as a result can slow down the process of project implementation.