Giving Miss Marple a makeover: graduate recruitment, systems failure, and the Scottish voluntary sector

Hurrell, S. A. , Warhurst, C. and Nickson, D. (2010) Giving Miss Marple a makeover: graduate recruitment, systems failure, and the Scottish voluntary sector. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 40(2), pp. 336-355. (doi: 10.1177/0899764009344100)

Abstract

The voluntary sector in Scotland, as in many other countries, is becoming increasingly business like. Resultantly, there is an increasing demand for graduates to work in business and support functions. In Scotland, however, despite an oversupply of graduates in the labor market, the voluntary sector reports skills shortages for graduate-level positions. Through exploratory, mainly qualitative research, this article demonstrates that one reason for this mismatch between the supply of and demand for graduates is a systems failure within the sector. Many graduates and university students remain unaware of potentially suitable paid job opportunities, in part because of the sector’s voluntary label. To rectify this systems failure, thought needs to be given to the sector’s nomenclature and the manner in which voluntary sector organizations attract graduate recruits, for example, through levering value congruence in potential recruits.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article: The initial research from which this article partially draws was from a research contract awarded to the Scottish Centre for Employment Research from the Scottish Voluntary Sector HR Forum. The three authors of the article were, at that time, members of this Centre. The award was £19,000. Permission was granted by the Forum to publish from the research; the Forum has not informed the content of the article in any way. The supplementary research under-taken by the team and also reported in this article was unpaid and did not involve the Forum.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Hurrell, Dr Scott
• Authors: Hurrell, S. A., Warhurst, C., and Nickson, D.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Management
• Journal Name: Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly
• Publisher: Sage
• ISSN: 0899-7640
• ISSN (Online): 1552-7395