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Managing culture in virtual realms: policy provisions and issues - a European perspective
c) organizations governed by their board of directors or steering committees 18
(35.3%) and
d) organizations with flexible governing structures 19 (29.5%).
Following on from this, the outlines of management structures are diverse: most
organizations are managed by the portal or network director and by the portal or
network coordinator. Only a couple of organizations are managed by editors. All
organizations have administrative staff, content editors and technical coordinators.
Half of the responding organizations have staff delegated for coordinating research
while a third employ staff in charge of finance and only one organization has a
communications manager. Also, only one organization has a marketing officer.
Organizational decision-making procedures for 9 out of 17 of the organizations
(53%) follow the management structures (directors/coordinators/editors take all the
everyday decisions) in collaboration with staff and periodical reports to higher levels
(boards, etc.) while the remaining 8 organizations (47%) have stated that their
decision-making procedures require approval from the boards, assemblies or the
founders.
Of the surveyed organizations, 53% evaluate their organization’s governance and
management structures as efficient. The ones that considered their organization to be
efficient state that independence in decision-making is the main element of efficiency
whereas the main reason behind the unsatisfactory responses is the size and
complexity of the structure and decision-making process.
Finally, the main sources of funding for 10 organizations (59%) are listed as:
a) governmental (EU, supra-national, national and local),
b) cultural foundations,
18 Boards of Directors and Steering Committees are made up of the representatives of the key
interested parties or stakeholders.
19 We used the term “flexible” as the governing structures in some organizations are
changeable according to the management set-up or are duplicating managing structures
(managers, coordinators, employees and volunteers participate both in decision-making
and executive roles according to the work requirements). It is to be noted that all of the
surveyed organizations which have this kind of set-up are predominantly the result of
artistic initiatives which heavily rely on a volunteer workforce. There is also an example
where governance and management structures are duplicated in one role - the Chairperson
of the Board of the Directors is also the acting manager and works voluntarily. Through
informal conversations with portal and network representatives, we gathered that these
flexible structures lead to a significant amount of financial insecurity but are more efficient
in the sense of the decision-making procedures (less time-consuming, less demand for
administration work and also lower financial costs in setting up and organizing meetings of
representative bodies).
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