Eleanor Burt

New Technologies, Embedded Values, and Strategic Change: Evidence From the U.K. Voluntary Sector

Advanced information and communication technologies (ICTs) have the capability to support strategic innovation within voluntary organizations as they seek to respond to shifts in their environments. Evidence from this study of two U.K. voluntary organizations demonstrates that they are using ICTs to reconfigure key information flows in support of enhanced campaigning and more effective user services. The study also reveals that adherence to embedded values and relationships tempers the extent to which the organizations are able to exploit opportunities for radical shifts in organizational arrangements that the transformational potential of the technologies makes possible. This article describes the way in which emergent tensions have been reconciled as both organizations seek to exploit the transformational capability of ICTs in ways that accommodate, and largely sustain, their organizational values.

WHEN 'VIRTUAL' MEETS VALUES: INSIGHTS FROM THE VOLUNTARY SECTOR

Electronic networking can support strategic re-positioning within organizations seeking to respond effectively to deep shifts in the social, economic and political regimes in which they operate today. Evidence, though, from our large-scale survey of core UK voluntary organizations suggests that voluntary organizations do not always seek to exploit this capability. Instead, our survey indicates that voluntary organizations are exploiting information and communication technologies (ICTs) in conventional ways to enhance administrative and operational efficiency and effectiveness. There is little evidence of more strategic applications supporting reconfiguration of the organization internally, redefinition of relationships across organizational networks or the extension of business scope. Further research based upon in-depth case studies demonstrated that social conditions are active in shaping the uptake and application of information and communication technologies within voluntary organizations. Within volunteer-intensive settings in particular,founding philosophies and the deeply rooted values that accompany these can have a profound effect. Ultimately,the technologically supported transformations, which occur within the organizations that we examine here, emerge from the inter-play between historically institutionalized values, strategic objectives and technological capability.

Not-for-profits in the democratic polity

Three findings bring this thesis to life. The first is the rapid reduction of active party memberships since the 1950s. Even in instances with noted surges in party membership, such as the height of the recent popularity of Britain’s Labour Party, the numbers subsequently dive to pre-existing levels or lower. The second finding regards lower electoral turnouts. For example, the turnout for the last general election in the U.K. was the lowest for such an election in the 20th century. Moreover, the turnout, even for highprofile local and regional elections in the Some of the best examples of using technologies to strengthen the democractic role can be found in the efforts of voluntary campaign organizations.

Advanced Networked Technologies in the U.K. Voluntary Sector

Advanced networked technologies have the potential to support deep strategic and operational transformation within voluntary organizations as they seek to respond to shifts in the social, economic, and political spheres in which they operate. Evidence form our study of U.K. voluntary organizations demonstrates relatively low uptake of the core networking technologies and applications essential to support such transformation. Friends of the Earth and The Samaritans are exceptions to this trend. Case studies of these organizations demonstrate that they are using advanced networked technologies to reconfigure key information flows and relationships, in support of enhanced campaigning and more effective user services. The extent to which these organizations are able to exploit the transformational potential that the technologies present is tempered by historically institutionalized relationships and values by which they are characterized.

Freedom of Information and Scottish Local Government: Continuity, Change and Capabilities in the Management of Information

Abstract The Freedom of Information [Scotland] Act 2002 (FOISA) offers opportunities to local governments to generate strategic and operational level organisational change centred around the management and flow of information. Our research findings show, however, that while FOISA is perceived to contribute to change it is not perceived as a catalyst for radical strategic transformation in its own right. Instead, the tendency is towards its absorption within the existing bureaucratic-administrative culture and organisational arrangements embedded within Scotlands local governments.

Striking the Regulatory Balance in the Unique Case of the Voluntary Sector

This article considers the requirement for a regulatory regime for the UK voluntary sector that is sensitive to the unique features of the sector, while also maximizing public trust and safeguarding the interests of wider stakeholders. Regulatory Impact Assessments are important mechanisms in the achievement of this complex and delicate balance. However, these and other regulatory instruments need to be underpinned by a deep understanding of the voluntary sector ‘persona’, including and most particularly the voluntary ethos that is its core.

HOW WELL DO VOLUNTARY ORGANIZATIONS PERFORM ON THE WEB AS DEMOCRATIC ACTORS

Voluntary organizations are key actors within contemporary democratic polities. To be so raises crucial questions about their performance along three dimensions of democratic behaviour – their citizen engagement, their legitimacy, and their public accountability. These questions of performance are made sharper as the World Wide Web brings forward new imperatives and opportunities for these organizations to perform along each of these three dimensions. This article develops and sets out an analytical framework through which an evaluation can begin of whether and how voluntary organizations are using the Web to support and enhance their engagement along these three democratic dimensions.

Drawing Voluntary Organisations into the Information Polity: Information Resources and Macro Politics

This article examines the ways that voluntary organisations are re-positioning as democratic actors as they are drawn into new (electronic) relationships with government. Drawing upon our own empirical research we examine the new information resources and requirements that are emerging around these organisations as this re-positioning is played out. We look, too, at the emergent information relationships and capabilities that are enabled as voluntary organisations begin to harness information and communication technologies (ICTs) in pursuit of democratic objectives. Employing the concept of the ‘information polity’ we map out a framework for the sustained empirical enquiry that will allow new patterns of influence to be mapped and understood.

Introduction to the freedom of information special edition: emerging perspectives, critical reflections, and the need for further research

This Special Edition on Freedom of Information (FOI) hosts a small, but engaging and thoughtprovoking collection of papers. While it has been disappointing that,despite circulating the call for papers through a number of high profile ‘alert lists’ of both UK and international scope, the calls for papers did not generate a substantial groundswell of submissions and that not all of the submitted papers made it through the rigorous peer-reviewing process, the papers that were finally accepted for publication are worthy contributions to this important topic. A relatively new and under-researched area currently, it is hoped that this special edition will not only inform, but will also generate new questions and debate. It is hoped, too, that it will both inspire those already researching this topic and excite those not yet engaging with FOI to develop the longer-term research trajectories that will bring crucial depth of specialist knowledge, critical reflection, and understanding to FOI-related theorising, public policymaking, and practice. Finally, the special edition brings together a collection of papers of relevance to scholars and practitioners alike. We are fortunate in this special edition to have empirically-based research papers from new and established scholars on the one hand, together with commentaries and contributions from a number of authoritative and high-profile practitioners and “FOI-insiders” on the other;these latter in the form of a “viewpoint essay” from Kevin Dunion, the Scottish Information Commissioner, and two highly readable and informative book reviews from Carole Ewart, The Campaign for Freedom of Information in Scotland, and Rosalind McInnes, BBC Scotland.The papers brought together in the special edition each adopt a different vantage point on Freedom of Information. The special edition opens with the nicely polemical, but measured viewpoint essay from the Scottish Information Commissioner. Dunion asks if access to material through channels such as “the upstart Wikileaks” has “upstaged” the more formal routes encapsulated in Freedom of Information legislation and its associated structures, processes, and procedures. Acknowledging that problems arise whatever channels are employed he reflects that perhaps “an uncoordinated synergy is occurring between the various routes by which information can be secured – official inquiry, legal access and unauthorised disclosure”. Noting “worrying signs of decay and antipathy” developing in relation to the sustainability and strengthening of Freedom of Information legislation, Dunion concludes in defence of peoples’ “legitimate right to information”. Spence and Dinan’s research paper examines Freedom of Information through the lens of Scotland’s voluntary sector. The complex inter-relationship that exists between voluntary organisations and the government and public sector bodies that fund them is shown to impact on the extent to which and how voluntary organisations employ Freedom of Information in support of their activities. The authors offer

Evaluating Intermediation: The Electronic Mixed Economy of Public Service Delivery

Abstract As part of its major programme of ‘modernisation’ the UK Government is seeking to implement an electronic mixed economy that will deliver public services through private firms, voluntary organisations and ‘second party’ public bodies. Such bodies have been styled ‘intermediaries’ by Government. This article is based upon a preliminary, exploratory study of the electronic mixed economy in its early stages of delivery. Focusing largely upon the relationship between a large Government department, the Department of Work and Pensions, and a leading national voluntary organisation, the Citizens Advice service, the authors examine the distinctive arrangements underpinning this initiative together with the emerging policy and management issues to which these arrangements are giving rise.