L IBERTAD CULTURAL, UNA DIMENSIÓN DEL DESARROLLO HUMANO AÚN NO EXPLORADA

Introduction

This chapter presents and reflectively analyses the research design and methodological approach that underpin the thesis. The options that were considered during the process of designing the research are discussed and the methods that were selected to explore trustees’ experiences - principally qualitative research techniques and a grounded theory orientation (Corbin and Strauss, 2008) - are justified.

In total, 46 qualitative interviews were conducted: 25 with trustees of local voluntary sector organisations; 10 with Chief Executives (or equivalent) of local voluntary sector organisations; and 11 with representatives of influential ‘policy community’ organisations at both national and local levels. (Here, “local” is defined as the county of Merseyside.) A detailed description of the process of selecting research participants from these three groups is given in the following section.

The chapter discusses and reflects on the experience of employing the methodological approach and the issues and challenges that arose during the research process. Furthermore, the chapter considers the ethics of the research, including measures taken to protect participant confidentiality and comply with relevant University of Liverpool and British Sociological Association guidelines. Finally, the techniques used to prepare and analyse the data generated are discussed.

Overview

A central aim of the research is to elicit trustees’ experiences, perceptions and conceptualisations of their roles during a time of significant and

substantial social policy reform. Accordingly, the research seeks to assess the impacts of social policy developments relevant to the voluntary sector, specifically from a trustee perspective. In addition, interviews were conducted with senior charity staff and with members of the policy community, to elicit views on trusteeship from other related perspectives. To achieve these aims, the research and analysis was conducted using an approach based on grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006; Corbin and Strauss, 2008). This method involves taking an inductive approach to the data, a “type of reasoning that begins with a study of a range individual cases and extrapolates from them to form a conceptual category” (Charmaz, 2006: 188). Although the grounded

theory method has been both contested and adapted (Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Charmaz, 2006; Corbin and Strauss, 2008), it has become the most widely used qualitative research method (Bryant and Charmaz, 2007). Its key elements, which I have adopted in this study, are its “systematic, inductive and comparative approach” and the “researcher’s persistent interaction with their data” (Bryant and Charmaz, 2007: 1). My

approach to data analysis - using grounded theory principles - is detailed later in the chapter. Qualitative, semi-structured interviews informed by a schedule (see Appendices A, B and C) were used to elicit the views of participants and to place trustees’ own perspectives and experiences at the heart of the research. Furthermore, I sought to acknowledge my own place as researcher within the study and adopted a reflexive approach (Stanley and Wise, 1993; Harris, 2001b; Rubin and Rubin, 2005). This is also discussed in more detail later in the chapter.

Qualitative semi-structured interviews were adopted as the primary research methodology to create an opportunity for the experiences of individual trustees to be explored in depth (see Appendix D). The research addresses a relative shortage of qualitative research studies of trustee experiences, and supplements the available quantitative evidence pertaining to the experiences of individuals volunteering as charity trustees (Working Party on Trustee Training, 1992a and 1992b; Cornforth, 2001). The research here contributes to filling the gaps in

knowledge about trustees’ own perceptions and lived experience of the role. As such, individual trustees (rather than charities) are the primary unit of analysis and the selection process (as detailed in the following sections) sought to recruit participants with a diversity of personal characteristics. In addition, the research acknowledges the fact that, in some cases, individuals volunteer as trustees for multiple organisations, and some participants reflected on their experience of being a trustee in more than one organisation (as discussed in Chapters 5 to 8). Furthermore, earlier research into issues affecting trustees has often centred on the perspectives of paid charity staff or has been limited to interviews with Chairs of trustee boards (Harris, 2001a: 183; Rochester, 2003: 116). The qualitative interviews with trustees occupying various committee roles in this study have placed trustees’ own perspectives and experiences at the heart of the research.

Given research evidence indicating differences in perspective between trustees and senior paid staff within voluntary agencies (Harris, 1989; 1992) and of tensions between paid staff and members of trustee boards (Widmer, 1993; Chadwick-Coule, 2011), interviews were carried out with senior members of staff in a small number of voluntary organisations, usually the Chief Executive or a Deputy, who work closely with the trustees of their voluntary organisation and are usually present at trustee meetings (see Appendix E). The interviews with these senior staff members explored parallel themes to those examined in the interviews with trustees to provide an insight into particular perspectives relating to policy issues or aspects of the trustee role. The rationale of these interviews was to identify and explore the perceived implications of social policy developments upon organisations within the sector and, in turn, upon the trustees charged with governing such organisations.

A further aim of the research was to critically examine official representations of the trustee role, and the extent to which these align (or not) with operational realities within voluntary agencies and the experiences of trustees. Therefore, interviews were sought with a

number of individuals representing organisations at both national and local levels that make up what I have termed the ‘policy community’ to supplement analysis of current government policies and the grey literature relating to the role of voluntary organisations, their relationship with government (and the state more broadly), and the role and responsibilities held by volunteer trustees. At a national level, the ‘policy community’ comprises a number of government departments including the Office of the Third Sector10, the independent charity regulator The Charity Commission, and the key national umbrella bodies that represent the views of the voluntary sector, trustees and chief executives, such as the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) and the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO). At a local level, representatives of local umbrella bodies representing the sector and offering training and support to trustees were included, as well as senior representatives of the local Primary Care Trust and local authority who have responsibility for commissioning services from voluntary sector agencies. A full list of the organisations represented within the ‘policy community’ interviews can be found at Appendix F.

A detailed description of the process of selecting research participants from the three groups (trustees, senior staff and policy community representatives) is provided in the following section.