Over the last decade government policy has transformed many aspects of the welfare state and contracted out to private or voluntary non-government organisations many of the services previously provided by the state. Currently there is very little research on the benefits or disadvantages regarding standards of professional practice and delivery of these services when controlled by voluntary organisations and this research is a case study investigating these concerns.
By using the case study method it is possible to understand issues by incorporating concrete examples of practice within the context that it takes place, as it is only when seen in its proper setting that the general and conceptual significance of practice is understood.
This case study explores the relationships of power, control and accountability in one such non-governmental organisation, the Royal New Zealand Plunket Society and the implications these have for professional staff in the delivery of the service. The study uses the archaeology and genealogy methods suggested by Foucault. Archival material was gained from the Minutes of the meetings of the Plunket executive (1917-1984), constitution and rules. These serve to demonstrate the historical power relationships in the organisation, Plunket nurses� working conditions and how some nurses were treated. The dominant discourse in the archaeology contains two major themes, one being volunteers� autonomous 'ownership' of the organisation, and the other, the subordination of professionalism through the discipline and management of the nursing workforce.
Those same themes are also dominant in the contemporary data studied in the genealogy, which highlights the constraints imposed by volunteer 'ownership' in the contemporary period. It is a feature of the "path dependency" of the organisation that the belief that volunteers had a right to discipline and control the nursing workforce has remained largely unchanged in the contemporary period.
The practice and the context are personalised through interviews with some nurses so that their real-life experiences may give an in-depth understanding of the processes going on for them as professionals. This is one of multiple sources of evidence, including reports, reviews and research, used to triangulate the findings. Through the totality of these methods, insight into Plunket�s decision-making is made possible.
These serve to underline the continuing lack of accountability for service delivery of nonprofessional 'owners' of the voluntary organisation and the negative impact it can have on the delivery of professional services although the greater depth in the contemporary data also highlights two new subsidiary themes; the dominance of lay knowledge over both professional and managerial knowledge, and volunteers� motives for volunteering.
The contemporary interview data demonstrated how the historical culture of the organisation enabled this process to continue through poor workplace conditions, high staff attrition and, in some cases, severe personal pressure akin to workplace bullying.
This study exposes the significance of the culture of organisations, and reveals that the substance of apparent altruistic voluntary organisations may be much more complex and problematic than the ideology would lead us to believe. In a field such as this, where an NGO has sole national responsibility for such an important area and where the outcomes are so poor, change must be considered. While a path dependency explanation is pessimistic about change, it is argued that the only option for professional standards of service for this, and other NGOs, lies in much more accountability and democracy in stakeholder relationships. Recommendations are made in that direction.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/217758 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Favell, Margaret Elizabeth, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Otago. Department of Social Work and Community Development |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://policy01.otago.ac.nz/policies/FMPro?-db=policies.fm&-format=viewpolicy.html&-lay=viewpolicy&-sortfield=Title&Type=Academic&-recid=33025&-find), Copyright Margaret Elizabeth Favell |
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