Karen Culver – 5001. Thesis
Update
Aim of the MA Thesis
The MA thesis is to look at effective government policies
and institutional policies and management practices that will promote
volunteering in the cultural heritage sector.
Based on research of different
volunteering practice in general, and several case studies, I aim to develop
solid and specific advice on how different institutions can recruit, manage and
retain the active involvement of volunteers in a variety of tasks and over a reasonable
time frame. Case studies of good management practice with
volunteers will be taken from Hungary and UK and compared with case studies of
less successful volunteer management practice.
Target Audiences
The main audience for the thesis will be the academic staff
of the CEU as the work is aimed towards an academic qualification.
The non-academic target audience is primarily Hungarian
cultural institutions as there is strong implication that volunteering for them
is not as wide spread or successful as they would wish. However,
the thesis report will also be offered to the UK institutions that were
directly involved. This will be done out
of respect and aiming to be transparent with my results.
The target audience is divided into several groups of
institutions.
- 1. The initial audience will be those institutions that have supported the research and are known to have an interest in working with volunteers. These will be from UK and Hungary – see above.
- 2. A second layer of audience will be other cultural institutions that are part of the network of the original research group. These are equally important but I will only have contact with them through the institutions that have been involved in the research. Currently I assume these will be only Hungarian institutions, but may include some in the UK. I will send the report directly to this group, but only on recommendation of the institutions in first group.
- 3. A third group is all other institutions that I have been in direct contact with for various activities over the two year study period, for example, those that supported my work for various term papers.
I consider it highly unlikely that there will be any
possible direct influence on the policies of the Hungarian government and so
they are not a target audience. I expect
there will be notes within the thesis of what good government policy would be
and how this could be implemented. If
the Hungarian cultural institutions wished to take this further, they could
collectively approach the government with policy suggestions.
Communication & Presentation Method
As part of the thesis, I expect to produce several clear recommendations
for recruiting, managing and retaining good volunteers engaged in different
activities within a variety of cultural heritage environments. All recommendations will be based on the
research and case studies and should be clearly referenced into the stated
challenges and /or solutions of working with volunteers. I
anticipate that following the academic process in presenting and defending the thesis,
I would personally take the final report to the institutions and individuals
mentioned in 1) above. This would be to
thank them for their support and to present and discuss the results.
It is possible that as part of the final thesis report, I
will produce an outline training workshop which could be delivered to the
management staff of interested heritage institutions.
As the thesis is an academic document, I assume it will
written in an academic manner with full references of primary and secondary
sources of researched information.
However, as it is also a report for cultural institutions and their
management teams, the writing style will be non-academic and more aligned to management
reporting as I hope this would be easier to read and more accessible to the
cultural institution managers. As a
non-academic, I will also find it easier to write.
