Sally Vivyan

Leadership practice in new Asylum Seeker and Refugee Charities

My thesis explores leadership practice in new asylum seeker and refugee charities which have been established in the context of mandatory dispersal of asylum seekers by the UK government. This policy, in place since 1999, has raised questions about how to settle, support and integrate new arrivals (Griffiths et al., 2006). The voluntary sector has been active in trying to find answers (MacKenzie et al., 2012; Wren, 2007). My study will contribute to two literatures; that of the UK voluntary sector and Leadership- as- Practice (L-A-P).

In this study I adopt an L-A-P lens; rather than paying attention to the individuals in leadership positions, as is the focus of traditional heroic leadership theories, I am concerned with the relationships between people and the context in which they work (Raelin, 2016a). L-A-P sees leadership as an assemblage of activities that combine and interact to make meaning, and which set or change the flow of work. It takes account of the mundane, the everyday and materiality i.e. seeing material things as having a role to play in how things get done (Raelin, 2016b).

In keeping with L-A-P scholarship, my philosophical stance is constructionist and my approach to learning is inductive. To operationalise this approach, I am working through a mixed (qualitative) methods case study process which involves observation, document review and semi structured interviews. At the point the UK Covid-19 lockdown began I was eight weeks into fieldwork with a charity. Based on early data analysis, four themes relating to leadership practice had begun to emerge:

1. Leadership as collective but contracting over time. Collective and representative leadership is embedded in the charity’s structure, history and culture but over time these principles have been diluted by the need for quicker decision making.
2. The invaluable but fallible contribution of volunteers. Volunteers and the way they relate to the charity can be hugely productive and beneficial, but over reliance on them can also create inconsistency in its operations.
3. The inverted swan. The charity can feel chaotic both in the physical spaces in which it works, and because activity is constantly interrupted and redirected. However, responsiveness is central to its mission and there is always an undertow of directional logic.
4. The importance of place. The charity is both committed to and defined by the place in which it operates. It’s deeply integrated with all relevant services and authorities. It directly plugs gaps in services or more often facilitates others to do so.

I am now approaching a crossroads in my fieldwork with a choice to make about whether to continue with the original plan, which was to conduct three separate case studies, or switch to a single place-based case study. The first option may allow for meaningful comparison between organisations and a clear contribution to the emerging voluntary sector literature on leadership (Terry, et al., 2019). The second approach may be a more Covid proof approach, focusing as it does on one city with the launch base of a charity I am already embedded with. With its in depth consideration of how context intertwines with practice, it may also help to develop the L-A-P literature which has been criticised for apparent neglect of the influence of wider social and political influences on practice (Collinson, 2018; Jackson, 2019).

Find out more from Sally, including how COVID-19 has impacted her research: