Corporate Governance of Charities in Ireland

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would first like to express my gratitude for my research supervisor, colleagues, peers and family whose immense and constant support has been a source of continuous guidance and inspiration.

DECLARATION

I [type your full first names & surname here], declare that the following dissertation/thesis and its entire content has been an individual, unaided effort and has not been submitted or published before. Furthermore, it reflects my opinion and take on the topic and is does not represent the opinion of the University.

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ABSTRACT

Corporate governance has emerged as one of the most important issues for non-governmental organisations. Charity organisations in Ireland are playing a vital role in providing services the general public but there seems to be a lack of accountability and corporate governance within the charity organisations working in Ireland. This dissertation highlights the importance of corporate governance principles and practices being used in Irish charity organisations. The first two chapters were completed earlier, providing introduction to the topic, followed by relevant literature review. This particular part of dissertation starts with the third chapter, in which methodology is presented. The researcher has used mixed method approach. The findings and the analysis of data are covered in the fourth chapter, while the paper concludes with the fifth chapter, providing useful implications and recommendations for future research.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTII

DECLARATIONIII

ABSTRACTIV

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY1

Mixed Method Research1

Research Approach2

Research Questions and Hypotheses4

Research Design6

Procedures8

Role of the Researcher12

Researcher Bias12

Quality and Verification13

Reliability/Dependability13

Validity15

Ethical Considerations17

Data Security: Participant Anonymity and Document Retention18

Summary19

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS21

Restatement of the Purpose21

Data Analysis21

Situational Analysis23

Survey Results27

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS50

Summary50

Observations52

Implications for the Study60

Limitations65

Recommendations66

Future Research70

Conclusions73

REFERENCES82

APPENDIX A85

APPENDIX B87

APPENDIX C89

APPENDIX D92

APPENDIX E95

APPENDIX F96

APPENDIX G97

APPENDIX H99

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

Mixed Method Research

The technique in which the qualitative and quantitative techniques are used collectively for data collection purpose is called mixed research. Mixed research method is the third most important kind of research. The results of the mixed methodology are more reliable because it is more descriptive in nature. The supporters of this methodology usually stick to the philosophy of pragmatism and the compatibility thesis.

The concept of compatibility thesis is that the quantitative and the qualitative methods both are related and compatible to each other and their combination can be used to analyse the data in one research. On the other hand the pragmatism philosophy suggest that the techniques used for the data analysis should be such that provide the proper and practical result and the approaches must be applicable in the real world as well (Claessens, 2002, 71). Nowadays the mixed method supporters use the fundamental principles of mixed research and this principle suggests that the researcher must use such approaches which collectively have more strength and less weaknesses. This way the results would be more validated and accurate.

This research focused on the collection of secondary and primary data. The extraction of data has been done from a number of sources like questionnaire, interviews, surveys, articles, journals, internet publications and books. Mixed research aims at gathering information through different mediums like broadcast media, literature, publications and other kinds ...