Hosted by: Funded by: Exploring organisational change insights from a qualitative longitudinal study of the third sector Rob Macmillan and Malin Arvidson Third Sector Research Centre University of Birmingham University of Southampton Interdisciplinary perspectives on continuity and change: What counts as QLR? Southampton, 15 th November 2012

In summary 1.Thinking about organisational change 2.Conceptualising organisational change in the third sector – change as threat or risk 3.Longitudinal research - seeing things differently? – a case study example: a crisis in ‘Hawthorn’

‘Real Times’ in a nutshell… Overall aim To establish, maintain and analyse a qualitative longitudinal sample of third sector organisations, groups and activities Research structure and timing Diverse set of 15 core case studies plus a range of related ‘complementary’ case studies Spring 2010 to Summer 2013: 4 (+1) waves of interviews, observations and documentary analysis Purpose and research questions Understanding how third sector activity operates in practice over time Fortunes, strategies, challenges and performance What happens, what matters, and understanding continuity and change

1. Thinking about organisational change Starting with structure and agency “You beat your wings all your life, but in the end the wind decides where you go” Exploring the qualities of change AND collapsing the distinctions Experiencing, explaining and narrating change as Endogenous/exogenous Deliberate/imposed Anticipated/unforeseen Fast/slow Rough/smooth Incidental/consequential

1. Thinking about organisational change organisation – noun or verb?; thing or process? – stability and routine – synoptic (‘from state A to state B’) and performative accounts evolutionary accounts of organisations – life cycles and stage models: liabilities of newness and age – inertia, selection and adaptation institutions and institutional work – enduring rules, routines and regulations – process and practice: ‘the world inside the process’ organisations in/as fields - the struggle for ‘room’ – strategic action fields: interdependence and proximity – unsettlement – ‘a stone thrown into a still pond’

2. Organisational change in the third sector Three key concepts in studies of change in TSOs: Mission drift Isomorphism Hybridisation What is the nature of change? What is the source of change? What has methods got to do with this?

Change as a result, not a process Change as unintended process, little agency Change poses risks and threats How can a change in methodological approach contribute to a different understanding of change?

A case study example: ‘Hawthorn’… boundaries and informality who’s in charge - leadership crisis legacies? a synoptic account? Pre-Wave 1 Established 2004 – informal drop-in sessions Five year foundation grant and LA funding from expansion and paid staff 1 Apr-Jul ’10 Crisis - dismissal of founding coordinator; torn loyalties; new coordinator recruited 2 Dec ’10 Stabilisation and new developments – new systems; re-branding; introduction of more structured services 3 Aug-Oct ’11 Internal conflict – over the loss of original ethos and new professional identity; new business plan 4 Aug-Sept ’12 Uncertain future – 6 months of grant funding left; LA commissioning process Wave ‘A family support and parenting project’

Four tensions for discussion 1.Synoptic and performative accounts – aren’t some unfolding processes are more important than others? 2.Constructions and experiences of ‘organisation’ and ‘change’ – research and participant perspectives 3.Accounting for change with theories prioritising stability and reproduction? 4.Back to structure and agency…?