Leadership Choices, Resource Dependencies and Legal Pressures: Understanding Continuity and Change of Non-Profit Governing Models in the UK

All non-profit membership organisations - independent of the type of membership and their core function e.g. advocacy groups, service providers as well as inward-looking leisure groups - are valued for the opportunities that they provide for the development of broad political and civic skills (Freise and Hallmann 2014; Warren 2001). Hence studying the internal governance of non-profit membership organisations helps us understand the extent to which members have a chance to develop such skills. In this study I particularly focus on members’ formal voting rights and their usage on the one hand, and board professionalisation on the other. These aspects of internal governance are important because they outline the governing model of an organisation that can range from membership centred - where members engage in rule-based participation, meaning that they actively use the formal rights granted to them by organisational statutes and are represented on the boards - to a leadership centred model where members do not engage in rule-based participation and boards are dominated by external professionals. The study aims to understand why some organisations adopt and maintain membership centred governing model while others shift to a leadership centred governing model during their lifetime? Particularly, the study focuses on the combination of leadership choices, funding structure, membership size and legal form as key factors in understanding changes in governing model or their lack thereof. To address the research question, four non-profit membership organisations are selected in the UK, two environmental and two health organisations which differ in the outcome of interest. The study draws on vast empirical data including interviews, organisational newsletters and public documents. The study enhances our understanding of the conditions under which organisations alter their governing model by building on conceptual and theoretical work in the third sector and the interest groups literature.