Since 1999 UK employment programmes (known as welfare-to-work programmes)
have been delivered through the procurement of services from organisations
outside of the public sector. Managed by contractual arrangements and arranged in
a quasi-market system controlled by the state, private and third sector organisations
compete to secure contracts predominantly based on payment-by-results and
competitive tendering processes. This thesis used an instrumental case study to
analyse the impact of the welfare-to-work quasi-market on a third sector
organisation based in Scotland. Using a qualitative mixed-methods research
strategy including 20 in-depth interviews, 150 documents, an ethnographic study
and financial analysis of the organisation’s accounts, the thesis presents an in-depth
insight into the development of the welfare-to-work market and its changes over
time and the impact this had on instigating organisational change in a third sector
organisation. Drawing on transaction cost theory, neoinstitutional theory and
resource dependency theory the study found that activities, structure, and
management processes changed in line with changes in its organisational field in
order to attract and maintain resources and gain legitimacy. Furthermore, the
organisation under investigation faced financial management tensions as it sought
to balance its involvement in service delivery with transaction costs associated with
market participation. The thesis found that the dependence on resources from
complex quasi-markets relations creates new power asymmetries between delivery
organisations and the state