Letter of Information for Implied Consent
Strategic Planning and the Balanced Scorecard at The Green Timbers Heritage Society
You are invited to participate in a study entitled “Strategic Planning and the Balanced Scorecard at The Green Timbers Heritage Society” that is being conducted by Kuldip Kang. He is a graduate student in the School of Public Administration at the University of Victoria and you may contact him if you have further questions by email to kskang@uvic.ca.
As a graduate student, I am required to conduct research as part of the requirements for a master’s degree in public administration. It is being conducted under the supervision of Dr. J. Barton Cunningham. You may contact my supervisor at 250-721-8059 or by email to bcunning@uvic.ca.
This study is also being conducted for a client: Mr. Don Schuetze, president, of The Green Timbers Heritage Society (the “society”).
This research is not being funded by any persons or organizations.
Purpose and Objectives
The purpose of this research is to help the society with its strategic planning. The researcher will learn about the society’s vision, mission, values, along with its priorities and expected results. The researcher will then help the society determine the objectives it should pursue, along with identifying accompanying measures, targets, and initiatives. The project will conclude with the creation of strategic plan for the society, including a strategy map and a balanced scorecard, along with recommendations on how the society can implement their strategy.
Importance of this Research
Research of this type is important because organizational effectiveness can be improved through strategic planning. This can support nonprofit organizations generate public value by fulfilling their mandates and realizing their vision. It can also help create actions and decisions that form and guide why the organization exists, what works it carries on and why.
Participants Selection
You are being asked to participate in this study because you are a member of the society. As such, you have a genuine interest in the success of the society and important knowledge, views, concerns, and ideas that are essential to the strategic planning process. All members of the society are being asked to participant, except for the board of directors whose participation will be in the format of a focus group.
What is involved
If you consent to voluntarily participate in this research, your participation will include responding to a survey asking open-ended questions on the objectives the society should pursue in order to realize its mission, along with the accompanying measures, targets, and initiatives. This survey can either be taken in paper format or online. Both versions are identical.
Inconvenience
Participation in this study may cause some inconvenience to you. The expected inconvenience is your time to complete the survey which may range from 20 to 60 minutes depending on how much you input you have. This inconvenience will be mitigated by giving participants a three-week window to respond, which will give greater opportunity to complete the survey at a time that is more convenient.
Risks
There are no known or anticipated risks to you by participating in this research.
Benefits
The potential benefits of your participation in this research include increasing participants’ knowledge on strategic planning and their ability to think strategically. Strategic planning can also help improve the organizational effectiveness of the society. Finally, while the results of the project are not expected to be generalizable to other situations, they may be subject to reasonable extrapolation where modest assumptions on their likely applicability can be made to other similar, but not identical, settings.
Voluntary Participation
Your participation in this research must be completely voluntary. If you do decide to participate, you may withdraw at any time without any consequences or any explanation. If you do withdraw from the study your data will be removed from the data set and not used in the study.
Anonymity
Participants will not be anonymous in the data gathering phase of the research. This is to ensure that survey responses are only received from members of the society. Once this is confirmed, the researcher will remove any identifying information from the survey data before any analysis takes place. This also means that survey participants will be anonymous in any findings from the survey and any subsequent reporting.
Confidentiality
Your confidentiality and the confidentiality of the data will be protected by ensuring any physical records are kept in a locked container and any electronic records are maintained in an encrypted file/drive.
Dissemination of Results
The results of this study will be shared with others in the following ways: (1) provided to Mr. Schuetze in electronic format; and (2) published on the University of Victoria website where it will be freely accessible to members of the public.
Disposal of Data
Data from this study will be disposed of within 30 days of the successful conclusion of the research project. Physical records will be destroyed by cross-cut shredding. Electronic files will be securely deleted using specialized software.
Contacts
Individuals that may be contacted regarding this study include the researcher Kuldip Kang by email to kskang@uvic.ca or his supervisor Dr. J. Barton Cunningham by email to bcunning@uvic.ca. In addition, you may verify the ethical approval of this study, or raise any concerns you might have, by contacting the Human Research Ethics Office at the University of Victoria (250-472-4545 or ethics@uvic.ca).
By completing and submitting the questionnaire, YOUR FREE AND INFORMED CONSENT IS IMPLIED and indicates that you understand the above conditions of participation in this study and that you have had the opportunity to have your questions answered by the researchers.
Please retain a copy of this letter for your reference.