Constrained by managerialism: Caring as participation in the voluntary social services

Abstract

Apetheker (1989) argues that people resist in the ways they have open to them and the tactics and storylines available in often constricted contexts. Focusing on the voluntary social services sector, this article suggests that workplace participation operates in the same way-strategies and tactics used in workplace participation reflect people's perceptions of the possibilities available to them in any given context or regime and their calculations of constraints and risks. In general, workplace participation in the public and private sectors is thought to be based on a combination of self-and collective interests (Marchington, 1992). In the voluntary social services sector, participation also draws strongly on notions of care, which involves a values-based, emotionally laden form of other-directed interests. Though workplace participation in the form of militant unionism is often associated with maleness and generally begins and ends in the workplace itself, participation in the form of values and affinity are associated with naturalized caring roles for women and leak out of the workplace to the larger community and home life (Author A, 2006). In the voluntary sector, care is a highly gendered and contested terrain in which the workforce and service users demand greater participation in all aspects of care provision (Van Til, 2001; Weeks, 1994). Participation in the predominantly female voluntary social services is assumed the norm that most workers expect, but little is known about how participation plays out in the circumscribed realities of managerialism and outsourcing. This article asserts that three kinds of overlapping participative processes exist in the voluntary social services including: 1) procedural-formal; 2) practice-professional; and 3) affinity-processes that

Nonprofit Organizations Becoming Business-Like

“…However, studies using Foucauldian theory, labor process theory, or critical discourse analysis have documented a weakening of beneficiary positions (e.g., Baines, Cunningham, & Fraser, 2011;Treleaven & Sykes, 2005). Studies on market orientation suggest that NPOs should more strongly orient themselves toward beneficiaries, which would result in higher satisfaction of the latter.…”

“…Paid staff can experience positive (Melnik, Petrella, & Richez-Battesti, 2013) or negative (e.g., Baines et al, 2011) effects. NPOs usually face similar pressures exerted by external stakeholders and increasingly constrained resources.…”

Geographies of labour in the third sector: making Hybrid Workforces in Place

“…Second, the contracting out of statutory services to third sector organizations has led to a rise in the number of health and social care staff in the sector (Moro and Mackay 2009). This work is low paid, with poor and often worsening working conditions both in the UK (Cunningham 2008;Cunningham and James 2009) and elsewhere (Baines 2009;Baines et al 2011). Thus, although there has been some attention to the careers and motivations of third sector employees (Lewis 2008;Amin 2009) and particularly to the challenges of retaining workers despite the worsening terms and conditions of employment (Baines and Cunningham 2011) the central focus is on the dynamics shaping these worsening terms and conditions, underpinned by a broader critique of neo-liberal welfare policy.…”

Nonprofit organizations in between the nonprofit and market spheres: Shifting goals, governance and management?

“…This conviction, denoted by the concept “managerialism,” can take root on an internal and external level (Meyer, Buber, & Aghamanoukjan, ). Internally, a managerial organization is characterized by a close control over operational processes, interchangeably manifested through (a) the presence of performance measurement (Carnochan et al, ), (b) standardization of organizational processes (Baines, Cunningham, & Fraser, ), (c) the use of corporate management tools (Hvenmark, ), or (d) the introduction of managerial professionals (Hwang & Powell, ). Externally, managerialism induces an economic outlook on the organizational environment that consists out of “products, consumers and investors.” This in turn can be related to the concepts of “consumerism” (clients become consumers), “commodification” (nonprofit services and goods become commodities produced in accordance to market demand), “market‐orientation” (stakeholder communication becomes marketing), and “venture philanthropy” (donations become investments) (see e.g., Chad, Kyriazis, & Motion, ; Edwards, ; Garrow & Hasenfeld, ; Sturgeon, ).…”

“…On the level of organizational governance and management , our findings show that hybridization towards the market domain can hamper the participatory character of a NPO. Both the standardization of operational procedures as well as the introduction of corporate management instruments can erode workplace democracy (Baines, ; Baines et al, ), which in turn can fuel organizational tensions (Kreutzer & Jäger, ) and increased levels of unionization (Baines, Charlesworth, Turner, et al, ). Similarly, McDermont () describes how board professionalization infused by a managerial mindset can limit participation.…”