Role
Tracey is a visiting professor at Nottingham Business School, working primarily with the VCSE Data and Insights National Observatory and the People, Work and Organisational Practice research centre (CPWOP). She has collaborated with Professor Daniel King at NBS over an extended period, including through the School’s seminar series in 2017, and more recently as co-investigator on the ESRC-funded project, COVID-19 and VCSE Organisations’ Response (2020-2021) and a related client-funded evaluation project for Communities 1st in 2021.
In her role as visiting professor she provides advisory input into strategic development of the VCSE National Observatory, alongside career development, income capture and publication support to researchers associated with CPWOP and/or the National Observatory.
Career overview
Prior to joining academia, and whilst completed a part time PhD, Tracey worked in research and policy analysis roles in the local authority and VCSE sectors. She joined Sheffield Hallam University in 2007 as a Research Fellow, progressing through to Professor in 2019. Tracey is passionate about developing the next generation of scholars and has dedicated significant energy to doctoral/emerging scholar education and training in the UK (via the DBA programme at SHU, the Northern Advanced Research Training Initiative and White Rose Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership), Europe (via EMES international research network and ISTR) and Africa (via ARNOVA). Between 2016 and 2022 she was the academic lead for the pan-university Voluntary Action Research Group (formerly the Centre for Voluntary Sector Research) at Sheffield Hallam University (SHU).
Tracey served on the editorial board of Voluntary Sector Review and as a Board Member for the EMES international research network. Tracey was awarded the title of Emeritus Professor on leaving SHU in 2022 and remains Research-to-Practice Editor at the journal, Nonprofit & Voluntary Sector Quarterly (NVSQ).
Research areas
Tracey’s research focusses on organizing and managing work in nonprofit organizations and its linkages to wider societal arrangements, supplemented by a strong interest in research philosophy and methodology. Specifically, she conducts research on forms and processes of governance and accountability, public service innovation in nonprofits, the role and power of nonprofits in institutional change and nonprofit-state relations.
Her recent focus has been on advancing critical perspectives in the field. Alongside Jennifer Dodge and Angela Eikenberry, she was guest editor for the 2022 NVSQ Symposium on Critical Nonprofit Studies and is co-editor, with Roseanne Mirabella and Angela Eikenberry, of a forthcoming Handbook of Critical Perspectives on Nonprofit Management and Voluntary Action for Edward Elgar. Tracey has published research monographs (Routledge), chapters in several edited handbooks and papers in international journals such as NVSQ, Public Administration, and Business and Society.
Publications
Coule, T.M. (2023). Principal-Agent Theory. In Encyclopedia of Nonprofit Management, Leadership and Governance by K.P. Kearns and J.W. Wang (Eds.). Edward Elgar: Cheltenham.
Smith, S., Coule, T and King, D. (2023). Paying the Price of “Doing Good” in the Face of Crisis. In J. Rees, R. Macmillan, C. Dayson, C. Damm, and C. Bynne (eds), COVID-19 and the Voluntary and Community Sector in the UK: Responses, impacts and adaptation. Bristol: The Bristol University Press.
Coule, T.M., Dodge, J. and Eikenberry, A.M. (2022). Toward a Typology of Critical Nonprofit Studies: A Literature Review. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 51(3), 478-506.
Coule, T.M. & Bain, C.A. (2021) Organizing Logics, Nonprofit Management and Change: Rethinking Power, Persuasion and Authority. Routledge.
Dodge, J., Eikenberry, A.M., and Coule, T.M. (2021). Illustrating the Value of Critical Methodologies through Third Sector Gender Studies: A Case for Pluralism". VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations.
Mendoza, F., Coule, T.M. and Johnston, A. (2021). Entrepreneurship Education and Entrepreneurial Identity: Beyond Stereotypes. In P. Jones, N. Apostolopoulos, A. Kakouris, C. Moon, V. Ratten & A. Walmsley (eds), University and Entrepreneurship: Meeting the Educational and Social Challenges. Bingley: Emerald Publishing.
Bennett, E., Coule, T., Damm, C., Dayson, C. and Macmillan, R. (2019). Civil Society Strategy: A Policy Review. Voluntary Sector Review. 10 (2), 213-223.
Coule, T.M. and Bennett, E. (2018). State-voluntary relations in the contemporary welfare era: New politics or voluntary action as usual? Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. 47(4_suppl.), 139S-158S.
Dick, P. and Coule, T. (2017). Non-compliance with regulatory codes in the non-profit sector: Accountability and the discursive coupling of means and ends. Business and Society, 59(4), 749-786.
Coule, T. and Bennett, E. (2016). Rhetoric, Organizational Category Dynamics and Institutional Change: A Study of the UK Welfare State. Public Administration, 94(4), 1059-1076.
Coule, T. (2015). Nonprofit Governance and Accountability: Broadening the Theoretical Perspective. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 44(1), 75-97.