Managing Voluntary Organisations:

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Managing Voluntary Organisations Enhancing
Employability Through a Live Consultancy
Experience 2005/6 Dr Eleanor Burt Univers
ity of St Andrews
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• What is the voluntary sector?
• The (voluntary) sector consists of a myriad
  organizational
• forms, governance structures, activities,
  sources of income and
• other support, expectations, intentions,
  constraints, histories, and
• futures (Salamon Anheier, 1990).
• A loose and baggy monster (Kendall Knapp,
  1995).
• Formal, independent, non-profit,
  self-governing, voluntarist
• (NCVO Almanac, 2004).
• A set of organisations that offers a
  particularly challenging
• management experience

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• Voluntary Sector Employment Opportunities
• 1. Vital Statistics
• UK
• 169,000 general charities
• 488,000 FTE paid employees
• total income 26 billion
• total assets 66 billion
• contributes 7 billion to GDP (before
  volunteering is added)
• average CEO earnings in charities with income of
  over 60m - 105,000
• International voluntary sector
• voluntary sector expanding in USA, Europe, and
  the
• developing countries.
• Figures from the NCVO Almanac, 2006 and Hill,
  2000

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• Voluntary Sector Employment Opportunities
• 2. Key Industries
• Disaster relief / emergency services
• International aid and development
• Health
• Social services
• Education
• Environment
• Animal rights / welfare
• Culture recreation
• Law / civil rights
  
  

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• Voluntary Sector Employment Opportunities
• 3. Key Recruitment Challenges
• Leadership capabilities
• Strategic management capabilities
• Business skills
• Futureskills survey 2003 in NCVO Almanac, 2004

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• The Module
• Main Stages (A) the Underpinnings
• Stage 1. Applying for funding
• Stage 2. Detailed planning
• Stage 3. Writing the substantive materials (eg
  briefings, de-briefings,
• letters to hosts)
• Stage 4. Administrative support
• Appointing administrative support
• Briefing the appointee and on-going liaison
• Stage 5. Host organisations
• Identifying host organisations
• Getting them on board
• Managing the relationship with hosts

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• The Module
• Main Stages (B) Teaching and Learning
• Stage 1. Classroom-based teaching generic
  foundations
• Overview of the voluntary sector in the UK and
  internationally
• - origins, scope, scale, nature,
  significance, context, difference, challenges
• Stage 2. Classroom-based teaching specific
  preparation for the live consultancy
• Academic literature
• Practitioner literature
• Lectures from practising managers
• Consultancy briefing
• Stage 3. The live consultancy implementation
  and delivery
• In-house documents
• Interviews with Board, Executive Managers,
  professional staff, volunteers
• Analysis, written report, presentation to
  Executive Managers
• Assessment / feedback, including from Executive
  Managers

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• How did the Live Consultancy Enhance
  Employability?
• 1. Intellectual Capabilities and Applied
  Understanding
• Developing intellectual capabilities
• Learning about sectoral distinctiveness and the
  strategic management
• implications
• Learning to question
• Learning to manage complex information
• Learning to integrate academic theory and
  management practice
• Learning to analyse, reflect, understand, and
  explain
• Developing applied understanding
• Engaging with voluntary sector managers,
  professional staff, volunteers
• Experiencing the organisation and its
  environment from the perspectives of these
• groups
• Completing a strategic analysis
• Generating a management report

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• How did the Live Consultancy Enhance
  Employability?
• 2. Personal Attributes and Practical Skills
• Developing personal attributes
  
• Independence
• Responsibility
• Pressure
• Confidence
• Developing practical skills
• Time-management
• Organising
• Interpersonal
• Communication

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What Did the Students Think About the Live
Consultancy? Student 1 my experience at the
Scottish Fisheries Museum was definitely one that
i wont forget. it really brought the past few
months of studying the voluntary sector together.
i was able to experience first hand how
organisations are run in real life settings and
not through text book theory. i would seriously
recommend doing a placement to anyone who wishes
to gain a greater understanding of organisational
culture and operations. Student 2 I think it
was excellent practice of very useful skills. It
gave us a chance to invest more in the outcomes
of our studies where what we said truly
mattered. Student 3 more than any other time
at uni I feel I have really gained a lot of
confidence in public speaking, experience in
working with Powerpoint and knowledge in how to
perform a mini-consultancy. BUT the
majority of students decided not to take the
module in 2005/6 as they felt that the live
consultancy was too much in their Honours years.
In the previous year 42 students took the module.
This year only four students took the module.
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What Did the Host Voluntary Organisations Think
About the Live Consultancy? Host 1 It was a
useful exercise and prompted me to think again
about some aspects of the organisation. The broad
focus of the case study was perhaps not as
informative as a more in-depth analysis of a
specific area would have been. However, it was an
impressive outcome from a single day (within the
organisation) an extended project may be more
practical if this could be arranged in
future. Host 2 Perhaps a little longer (time
in the organisation) and maybe problem-focused.
As an organisation we welcomed the opportunity to
work with the student and would recommend the
experience to others. Host 3 I agree with the
suggestion of considering a problem-centred
study. A slightly longer placement time would
have been good but this would need to be balanced
by demands made on the organisations time.
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• What was the Module Leaders Evaluationof the
  Live Consultancy?
• Personal
• Satisfying, exciting buzz
• Hugely demanding of time and energy stressful
• Professional
• Raised profile within local voluntary sector /
  developed contacts
• Not weighted/credited against overall work
  load, with implications for research
• career.
• Practical
• Having an excellent placement administrator (I
  was extremely lucky this time)
• Finding organisations to host the placements (We
  had to work very hard on this.)
• Knowing enough about the hosts to judge their
  suitability (We were fortunate this time.)