Trust, Confidence and Voluntary Organisations: Between Values and Institutions

Abstract

Recent debates within social and political theory, and within the public sphere more generally, reveal growing concern with issues of `trust'. While forms of voluntary association frequently are cited as prime examples of trust relations, they rarely provide a focus for such debates. In this paper we examine current developments within the voluntary sector in Britain, arguing that the relation of voluntary organisations to questions of trust is increasingly problematic. In particular a tension exists between trust relations based on principles of voluntarism and linked to shared values, and relations of confidence that are mediated by institutional and contractual forms. After surveying recent theoretical accounts of trust and confidence, we consider the relevance of these debates to the British voluntary sector. We then draw on a range of quantitative and qualitative research on the voluntary sector to examine how trust and confidence are negotiated with a number of key constituencies: the general public; government and institutional funders; business; and users or beneficiaries. Our argument is that, while resources of trust are linked to their core values, voluntary organisations are increasingly governed by formal measures designed to promote confidence.

Interpersonal trust and voluntary associations: examining three approaches

“…Tonkiss and Passey (1999) are in a minority when they argue that trust forms the basis for voluntary association itself, and suggest, following Luhmann (1988), that trust rests on shared values in contrast to the interest-based notion of con dence, which involves contractual relations among participants. In fact, sociologists have moved away from treating trust as one singular phenomenon and have begun to examine different dimensions and facets of trust in differing contexts and circumstances.…”

Reshaping Employment Relations in the UK Voluntary Sector: an Exploratory Study into the Impact of Best Value

“…Instead, legitimacy was based increasingly on exhibiting the qualities of efficiency, effectiveness and 'value for money' (Kramer, 1990;Billis & Harris, 1992;Batsleer, 1995;Harris, 2001). This resulted in voluntary organisations facing greater regulation and financial uncertainty under local government contracts (Russell et al, 1996;Perri 6 & Kendal, 1997;Tonkiss & Passey, 1999). From the 1980s, the latter led to continuous pressure on employment costs in voluntary organisations and a drift away from a reliance on public sector pay comparability as a way of determining rewards (Cunningham, 2001;Knapp et al, 2001).…”

Developing and validating a multidimensional nonprofit brand orientation scale

“…Efforts should be directed toward building brand trust, aligning a brand's identity with the inherent psychological needs and desires of potential donors and communicating these points of difference to stakeholders (Saxton, 1994;Tapp, 1996). In so doing, an organization is better able to use its brand to communicate its organizational values to stakeholders (Tapp, 1996), change public opinion (Lindsay and Murphy, 1996), build donor trust (Tonkiss and Passey, 1999), achieve its objectives (Graham et al, 1994;Hankinson, 2002;Simoes and Dibb, 2001) and also attract a higher proportion of voluntary income (Hankinson, 2001). In spite of the potential benefits, however, brands still remain a largely underutilized strategic asset within the nonprofit sector (Tapp, 1996).…”