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date: 25 June 2022

Abstract and Keywords

The community and voluntary sector sits alongside the state sector and the private sector. As such, it is sometimes referred to as the ‘third sector’. Organizations within this sector play a number of important and active roles in society. Some of these roles are either relatively new or have changed over the years. Many of them involve different types of inter-organizational relations. For instance, as an advocate for change on behalf of their constituents, voluntary and community organizations (VCOs) have often formed coalitions involving a number of VCOs working together. This article highlights the changing role of VCOs, with an emphasis on their role as a partner with government and others. It draws on extant literature including a suite of case studies undertaken across a number of sectors and from a range of disciplines including public administration, community and urban development, and integrated service delivery.

Keywords: community, voluntary sector, organizations, inter-organizational relations, voluntary and community organizations

Myrna P. Mandell

Myrna P. Mandell is Professor Emeritus at California State University, Northridge, and an adjunct faculty at the School of Management at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. She is recognized as a researcher and consultant in the fields of networks, network structures, and inter‐governmental management in the public sector. She is currently involved in research on networks in California. Her work will lead to a book for practitioners on best practices for networks. In addition she has written chapters for books on citizen participation/empowerment and an international book on community building and is working on developing a new concept of leadership in networks (with her colleague, Dr Robyn Keast). She has also done work on performance measures for networks that is scheduled to be published in two journal symposiums.

Robyn Keast

Robyn Keast is Senior Lecturer in the School of Management, Queensland University of Technology. Her research interests include networks and collaborative arrangements, government/community relations, and knowledge and innovation clusters. She has published in leading international journals such as Public Administration Review, Social Policy and Administration, and Policy and Politics. A current focus of her work is on establishing alternative leadership roles and performance measures for networks and other relationship‐based organizational forms. In undertaking this research portfolio she works closely with both the government and community sectors and, in doing so, contributes to policy and service development initiatives.

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