Paper/Speech Details of Conference Program for the 29th NISPAcee Annual Conference Program Overview Poster Session Author(s) Danijel Baturina University of Zagreb Zagreb Croatia Title The human factor X ? Sustainability of human resources in the Croatian third sector File Paper files are available only for conference participants, please login first. Presenter Danijel Baturina Abstract Since the theory of human capital (Mincer, 1958.; Becker, 1964) human capital is viewed as an important aspect of the organization's development, but also of impact on the work careers and life satisfaction of individuals. Various papers highlighted positive impacts that accumulated with paid staff in third sector organizations. Some of them are related to motivation for working in the sector (Leete, 2000), some to work and life high satisfaction (Benz, 2005; Borzaga and Tortia, 2006; Tortia 2008) or value alignment (Lee, 2015; de Cooman et al., 2011). Also, the working environment can be a factor that has an impact on the employees in the sector (Leroux and Feeney, 2013) Human resources are seen as an important aspect of the development of third sector organizations, but they are not sufficiently explored within the third sector in Croatia. Based on the results of empirical qualitative research, the main goal of this paper is to show what kind of impact third sector stakeholders and processes in Croatia have on human resources in it. Questions how third sector is attracting, developing and retaining talented personnel will be put in focus. We have analyzed the motivation for working in the third sector, the importance of human resources in the sector, their role and the impact that works in the sector has on them. Qualitative research design has used a flexible research strategy (Ritchie and Lewis, 2003) and included analysis of policy documents and the legal framework for sector development and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders, research participants. The sampling strategy for interview participants was based on a deliberate stakeholder sample according to the "best informant" criterion. The sample selected 16 key stakeholders. The analysis strategy was thematic analysis (Milas, 2005: 603). At the level of motivation for engagement in the third sector, the results suggest that the most common reason is altruism. The third sector human resources have greater opportunities to learn and strengthen their knowledge and have developed flexibility through project work. Some of the negative effects of the work in the sector are related to constant job insecurity and certain working conditions. Volunteering is not yet sufficiently valued in society. The results will be discussed in light of current trends in the development of the Croatian third sector and recent changes in the labour market. Results would be put in the context of the changes in post-socialist countries third sector (Vandor et al, 2017; USAID, 2018) and implication on adopting new strategies of human resources development in response to changing circumstances.
