ABSTRACT
Third sector organizations, according to Anheier and Siebel, are those organizations that lie between profit-making and government organizations. They include charities, trade associations, credit unions, social enterprises and voluntary organizations. Members of the third sector have traditionally had an ethical stance that is rooted in the desire to shape society as a result of their ideology and their reliance on full volunteer workforce. In recent years there has been a growing shift to encourage third sector organizations to become more focused on performance management and corporate sustainability. The current UK government has launched its flagship policy of Big Society to rebalance the economy from a predominantly state provision of public services to a more mixed solution of public, private and third sector participation. The Big Society is both a nebulous and a divisive term. It is nebulous in the sense that it is unclear what the Big Society is trying to achieve, and how it intends to deliver these objectives.
