Internet, where you will find relevant web-sites.
Library, where you will find relevant textbooks, journals, and audio-visual materials.

This module enables you to explore the changes, both external and internal, faced by voluntary sector organisations. We will begin by examining the policy debates surrounding the future of the sector in the United Kingdom, then explore recent developments in voluntary sector organisations and the ways in which changes in community governance are posing new challenges and opportunities for those working in the voluntary sector. We will analyse the professionalisation of the voluntary sector, the impact of recent policy initiatives on the role of voluntary organisations, the challenges and opportunities posed by the partnership role of voluntary organisations in community governance, and possible avenues of future development for the voluntary sector. The module will also explore the process of organisational change in voluntary sector organisations and how it can be managed. It examines a range of management styles in knowledge-based organisations and how such management styles can be put into practice in different contexts. We will analyse the definition and recognition of change, the specific managerial challenges of voluntary sector organisations, and the practical tools available to manage change.

A report of 3000 words. The report will require you to demonstrate the reading of relevant texts and use of other sources in order to show your critical understanding of the ways in which changes in policy and practice have impacted on a specific voluntary sector organisation as well as the ways in which the challenges of organisational change have been (or should be) met in the organisation. To this end you will be required to demonstrate your critical understanding of the different tools for managing change and how these might be applied in the context of a voluntary sector organisation.

This module incorporates three inter-related learning strategies. The three day-long workshops will be used for the consideration of core issues and key tools relating to the changes facing voluntary sector organisations. The tutorials will allow discussion of the individual critical research students are undertaking to prepare their reports, and support for any study skills needs the tutor and students identify. The independent study will allow reading around selected topics, the development of individual critical responses to the reading and the preparation for the work-based case studies.

Deakin, N. (2000) Putting Narrow-mindedness out of countenance: The UK voluntary sector in the new millenium, Civil Society Working Paper no. 4, London School of Economics, January. Available @ www.lse.ac.uk/Depts/CCS/
Courtney, R. (2002) Strategic Management for Voluntary Nonprofit Organisations, London: Routledge.
NCVO Future Foresight Programme @ www.ncvo-vol.org.uk