An Organisational Study of the Free Kindergarten and Playcentre Movements in New Zealand

<p>The free kindergarten and playcentre organisations were subjects of case studies for an examination of strategic choice processes in voluntary organisations, using an open-systems theoretical framework. The patterns of strategic choices in each movement, over time, were described; then four recent decision processes and their consequences analysed. The data about the strategic choice processes gathered by participant observation were validated by three small surveys: one of 138 parents of pre-school children, one of 62 free kindergarten and playcentre staff, and one of 162 playcentre and kindergarten volunteers. General conclusions are that the patterns of strategic choice processes both reflect and influence each organistion's structure and functioning. Both voluntary organisations are constrained from making strategic choices which would satisfy the demands of prospective clientele who desire new forms of early childhood education services – the playcentre movement is constrained by its ideology and its method of delivering pre-school education via parent participation in all aspects of the organisation; and the kindergarten movement is constrained by the accumulation of many rules which inhibit the organisation's ability to adapt to changing social conditions. The playcentre organisation's pattern of decision making has been ahead of its time in the extent of members' participation, and so also has it been with its dual education programme – children and parents learning together; but the kindergarten organisation's children's programme – children and parents learning together; but the kindergarten oganisation's children's programme is better matched with the greater demand for kindergarten pre-school education.</p>

An Organisational Study of the Free Kindergarten and Playcentre Movements in New Zealand

<p>The free kindergarten and playcentre organisations were subjects of case studies for an examination of strategic choice processes in voluntary organisations, using an open-systems theoretical framework. The patterns of strategic choices in each movement, over time, were described; then four recent decision processes and their consequences analysed. The data about the strategic choice processes gathered by participant observation were validated by three small surveys: one of 138 parents of pre-school children, one of 62 free kindergarten and playcentre staff, and one of 162 playcentre and kindergarten volunteers. General conclusions are that the patterns of strategic choice processes both reflect and influence each organistion's structure and functioning. Both voluntary organisations are constrained from making strategic choices which would satisfy the demands of prospective clientele who desire new forms of early childhood education services – the playcentre movement is constrained by its ideology and its method of delivering pre-school education via parent participation in all aspects of the organisation; and the kindergarten movement is constrained by the accumulation of many rules which inhibit the organisation's ability to adapt to changing social conditions. The playcentre organisation's pattern of decision making has been ahead of its time in the extent of members' participation, and so also has it been with its dual education programme – children and parents learning together; but the kindergarten organisation's children's programme – children and parents learning together; but the kindergarten oganisation's children's programme is better matched with the greater demand for kindergarten pre-school education.</p>

The Accountability of Voluntary Organisations: Implications for Government Funders

<p>The mechanisms of accountability of government-voluntary sector contracting are problematic for both government agencies and voluntary organisations. If they are to be revised, new mechanisms need to be appropriate for both parties. While the public accountability system has been relatively well described and analysed, the accountability systems of voluntary organisations have not. This research aimed to explore accountability from the perspective of voluntary sector managers and board members asking to whom, for what and why they thought themselves accountable. Four organisational case studies were undertaken involving 34 in-depth interviews with managers and board members. Interview data was triangulated with document analysis and supplemented with field observations. The results showed that respondents thought themselves most accountable to their clients. Clients were prioritised because respondents were focused on maintaining their organisations' legitimacy. Being seen to provide quality services to clients meant that their organisations were viewed in a positive light by key stakeholders, including funders. A group of internal stakeholders (staff, members and the board) were considered second most important. Staff were seen as important because they delivered the organisations' services. The support of members also brought legitimacy. Government agencies were ranked third. Government funding was viewed as a 'means to an ends': an input needed to provide a quality service to clients. An implication of the findings for the reform of the accountability mechanisms of contracting is that the assumptions that the current system is based on - influenced by agency theory - may not be valid. Respondents were found to have similar goals to government agencies: achieving positive outcomes for clients. The goal incongruence assumed by agency theory was not identified.</p>

The Accountability of Voluntary Organisations: Implications for Government Funders

<p>The mechanisms of accountability of government-voluntary sector contracting are problematic for both government agencies and voluntary organisations. If they are to be revised, new mechanisms need to be appropriate for both parties. While the public accountability system has been relatively well described and analysed, the accountability systems of voluntary organisations have not. This research aimed to explore accountability from the perspective of voluntary sector managers and board members asking to whom, for what and why they thought themselves accountable. Four organisational case studies were undertaken involving 34 in-depth interviews with managers and board members. Interview data was triangulated with document analysis and supplemented with field observations. The results showed that respondents thought themselves most accountable to their clients. Clients were prioritised because respondents were focused on maintaining their organisations' legitimacy. Being seen to provide quality services to clients meant that their organisations were viewed in a positive light by key stakeholders, including funders. A group of internal stakeholders (staff, members and the board) were considered second most important. Staff were seen as important because they delivered the organisations' services. The support of members also brought legitimacy. Government agencies were ranked third. Government funding was viewed as a 'means to an ends': an input needed to provide a quality service to clients. An implication of the findings for the reform of the accountability mechanisms of contracting is that the assumptions that the current system is based on - influenced by agency theory - may not be valid. Respondents were found to have similar goals to government agencies: achieving positive outcomes for clients. The goal incongruence assumed by agency theory was not identified.</p>

Volunteers as an Integrated Part of the Oil Spill Response Capacity in Finland

ABSTRACT: Responding to a major oil spill is a labour intensive operation and involves several governmental and regional authorities, agencies and voluntary organisations. In Finland, The Finnish Border Guard is the competent pollution response authority that conducts the response measures in the event of an oil spill on the open sea. The RFRSs are in charge of oil spill response operations both in coastal and inland waters. The environmental agencies assist the RFRSs in executing the response operation e.g. by providing expertise in nature protection prioritisation. Along with the authorities, several non-governmental institutions as well as voluntary organisations are involved. Especially the Voluntary Oil Spill Response Troops of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Finland are prepared to assist in responding to an oil spill contaminating shorelines. The response capability of the WWF voluntary troops is based on long-term training and pre-education. Today, the troops consist of over 9000 volunteers, 3000 of which have completed response training and can easily be integrated into an authority driven operation. The collaboration between authorities and volunteers is regularly tested by means of co-operation exercises and real spill response cases. This paper studies the collaboration framework of the voluntary troops and the RFRSs and the benefits of the pre-established system.

Frivillige organisationers resocialiserende arbejde i Kriminalforsorgens institutioner

Outsourcing in the criminal justice system is experiencing growth in the not-for-profit sector in many Western countries. There is, however, no indication of this trend in the Danish Prison and Probation Service. On the contrary, the collaboration between the penal voluntary sector and the Danish Prison and Probation Service is not formalised and knowledge about the penal voluntary sector in Denmark is scarce. This article uses original empirical data to map out the delivery of rehabilitative programmes by the penal voluntary organisations within prison and probation facilities. It also addresses the challenges and potentials of the informal collaboration between the Danish Prison and Probation Service and the penal voluntary sector.

Who helps and why? A longitudinal exploration of volunteer role identity, intergroup closeness, and community identification as predictors of coordinated helping during the COVID-19 pandemic

Mutual aid groups have allowed community members to respond collectively to the COVID-19 pandemic, providing essential support to the vulnerable. While research has begun to explore the benefits of participating in these groups, there is a lack of work investigating who is likely to engage in this form of aid-giving, and what social psychological processes predict this engagement. Taking a Social Identity approach, the present study explored predictors of coordinated COVID-19 aid-giving in pre-existing volunteers. A two-wave longitudinal online survey study (N = 202) revealed participants’ volunteer role identity at T1 (pre-pandemic) positively predicted perceptions of volunteer-beneficiary intergroup closeness at T1, which in turn positively predicted community identification at T1. This in turn positively predicted coordinated COVID-19 aid-giving at T2 (3 months later). This paper therefore reveals the intra- and intergroup predictors of pandemic-related coordinated aid-giving in pre-existing volunteers. Implications for voluntary organisations and emergency voluntary aid provision are discussed.

Collaborating in a penta-helix structure within a community based participatory research programme: ‘Wrestling with hierarchies and getting caught in isolated downpipes’

Background In the light of the existence of social inequalities in health, a CBPR (Community Based Participatory Research) programme for health promotion started in Malmö, Sweden, in 2017. The programme was based on a penta-helix structure and involved a strategic steering group with representatives from academia, voluntary organisations, the business sector, the public sector, and citizens from the community where the programme took place. The aim of this study was to explore how the penta-helix collaboration worked from the perspectives of all partners, including the citizens. Methods Individual interviews, that were based on a guide for self-reflection and evaluation of CBPR partnerships, were conducted with the representatives (N = 13) on three occasions, during the period 2017–2019. A qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the interviews. Results Six themes emerged from the analysis, including Challenges for the partners in the penta-helix collaboration; Challenges for the professionals at the local level; Citizen-driven processes are important for the penta-helix collaboration; Health promoters are essential to build trust between different sectors of society; Shift of power; and System changes take time. The analysis shows that the penta-helix collaboration worked well at the local level in a governance-related model for penta-helix cooperation. In the overall cooperation it was the citizen-driven processes that made the programme work. However, the findings also indicated an inflexibility in organisations with hierarchical structures that created barriers for citizen involvement in the penta-helix collaboration. Conclusion The main issue uncovered in this study is the problem of vertically organised institutions where discovery and innovation processes flow down from the top, thereby eliminating the essential input of the people and community that they are supposed to serve. The success of the programme was based on an interprofessional cooperation at a local level, where local professions worked together with voluntary organisations, social workers, CBPR researchers from the university, citizens and local health promoters.