Stories Visions And Values In Voluntary Organisations

Christina Schwabenland's book is based on extensive research into stories told by people working in voluntary organizations in the UK and in India. With a view to social change, the author employs hermeneutic methods to explore how stories create and sustain meaning and how storytelling contributes to the making and remaking of our social world. Specific topics addressed in the book include the role of storytelling in starting a new organization, managing hope and despair, empowering participatory leadership, and stimulating creativity and innovation. The book will be of interest to theorists and practitioners interested in the role of storytelling in organizational analysis, the role of organizations in achieving social change, the growing centrality of the voluntary sector in public policy, and the intersection between the corporate, public and voluntary sectors.

Women are at the heart of civil society organisations. Through them they have achieved many successes, challenged oppressive practices at a local and global level and have developed outstanding entrepreneurial activities. Yet Civil Service Organisation (CSO) research tends to ignore considerations of gender and the rich history of activist feminist organisations is rarely examined. This collection examines the nexus between the emancipation of women, and their role(s) in these organisations. Featuring contrasting studies from a wide range of contributors from different parts of the world, it covers emerging issues such as the role of social media in organising, the significance of religion in many cultural contexts, activism in Eastern Europe and the impact of environmental degradation on women’s lives. Asking whether involvement in CSOs offers a potential source of emancipation for women or maintains the status quo, this anthology will also have an impact on policy and practice in relation to equal opportunities.

What can we learn from leaders in the public and third sectors? This book is unique in that it provides an opportunity for the voices of these individuals to be heard. Each leader considers what leadership means to them, their experience of it, and the complex challenges they face as a result of profound changes in the economy, polity and society.

Funded by taxation, public spending cannot be separated from politics and ensuring efficiency and effectiveness is always high on the political and policy agenda. Accounting, accountability, governance and auditing are essential ingredients in evaluating public sector performance. Australia and New Zealand are world leaders when it comes to public sector accounting—such as being the first to introduce transaction-neutral accounting standards. This edited collection considers current issues impacting the public sector by primarily drawing upon experiences of Australia and New Zealand. Then, by combining history (from the time of the Domesday book, early sovereignty and Shakespeare) with current practice (differential reporting, international financial reporting standards, government performance, voter turnout, joined-up government and auditing practices), we use these experiences to illuminate the global issues of public sector accounting, accountability and governance. Based on rigorous research by top public sector researchers, this edited collection offers a multitude of future research ideas to enable those interested in following this pathway—whether they are in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Europe, the United States of America, Africa or anywhere else in the world—an avenue to traverse.

Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Research Methods in Bolton, UK, on 28-29 June 2011

The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Business and Management Research Methods provides a state-of–the-art overview of qualitative research methods in the business and management field. The Handbook celebrates the diversity of the field by drawing from a wide range of traditions and by bringing together a number of leading international researchers engaged in studying a variety of topics through multiple qualitative methods. The chapters address the philosophical underpinnings of particular approaches to research, contemporary illustrations, references, and practical guidelines for their use. The two volumes therefore provide a useful resource for Ph.D. students and early career researchers interested in developing and expanding their knowledge and practice of qualitative research. In covering established and emerging methods, it also provides an invaluable source of information for faculty teaching qualitative research methods. The contents of the Handbook are arranged into two volumes covering seven key themes: Volume One: History and Tradition Part One: Influential Traditions: underpinning qualitative research: positivism, interpretivism, pragmatism, constructionism, critical, poststructuralism, hermeneutics, postcolonialism, critical realism, mixed methods, grounded theory, feminist and indigenous approaches. Part Two: Research Designs: ethnography, field research, action research, case studies, process and practice methodologies. Part Three: The Researcher: positionality, reflexivity, ethics, gender and intersectionality, writing from the body, and achieving critical distance. Part Four: Challenges: research design, access and departure, choosing participants, research across boundaries, writing for different audiences, ethics in international research, digital ethics, and publishing qualitative research. Volume Two: Methods and Challenges Part One: Contemporary methods: interviews, archival analysis, autoethnography, rhetoric, historical, stories and narratives, discourse analysis, group methods, sociomateriality, fiction, metaphors, dramaturgy, diary, shadowing and thematic analysis. Part Two: Visual methods: photographs, drawing, video, web images, semiotics and symbols, collages, documentaries. Part Three: Methodological developments: aesthetics and smell, fuzzy set comparative analysis, sewing quilts, netnography, ethnomusicality, software, ANTI-history, emotion, and pattern matching.