Stakeholder Contributions and Benefits: A Case Study of a Third Sector Organisation in Wales

Abstract

In this thesis, I aim to identify all stakeholders’ voluntary contributions and the benefits it brings to a South West Wales charitable organisation, the local community and to the contributing individuals. There is a large body of research that is concerned with the contributions of traditional volunteers and there are many examples of how traditional volunteering benefits society through a variety of approaches in the literature examined. However, I found that not all stakeholders, or their voluntary contributions and its benefits, are currently being measured in one all-encompassing model and it was therefore found to be an under-researched area. This thesis focuses on the four categories of stakeholders of consultants, traditional volunteers, paid employees and board members. In order to establish if all stakeholders voluntarily contribute, and whether there were any benefits of this activity, a pragmatic research approach by means of a case study is adopted. The research includes mixed methods and uses the research tools of questionnaires, interviews and the scrutiny of organisational documentation. The analysis refers to the period between January and December 2014. As there was found to be a significant amount of all stakeholders’ voluntary contributions and benefits, (ASVCB) to the SWWales Charity, this thesis concludes with a new all-encompassing model which is used to show their annual contribution and highlights the augmentation that it brings. There is a recommendation for future research as the new model shows that all categories of the SWWales Charity’s stakeholders contribute a significant amount of time and effort, which benefits the organisation, the community and themselves. The impact of ASVCB is positive and significant in a period where much of the reform in public services is focused on co-producing services with stakeholders in all sectors, and this is my contribution to knowledge.

Date of Award	Mar 2018
Original language	English
Supervisor	Catherine Farrell (Supervisor) & Jennifer Law (Supervisor)