Small Community Groups Decision Making Process and Sustainability in Rural England - a case for Lincolnshire

<p dir="ltr">Small community groups play a pivotal role in society and have long been considered critical components of the processes of community change particularly in the development of rural community. Nevertheless, their value and contributions are often overlooked due to their non-existence on the register of regulatory bodies and lack of access to mainstream media due to their informality. Small community groups are branded as ‘grassroots’, ‘below or under the radar’, ‘volunteer-based’ or ‘unregulated’. They do not have formal structures and have very little or no income. Nonetheless, small community groups are more resilient and likely to survive in times of austerity (Davidson and Packman, 2012).</p><p dir="ltr">To date, little is known about small community groups their operations and, in particular, the nature of their decision-making process. This research dips into the proverbial meaning of ‘small community groups’. It draws attention to some aspects of leadership theory to investigate mechanisms for improving their decision-making processes leading to their sustainability. Using a multiple domain approach such as ‘leader-member exchange’ (LMX) could help unveil the right leadership approach for this group. This investigation will use interpretivist research, a framework in social research that uses humanistic qualitative approach (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2019). This is vital in gaining in-depth insights into the individual respondent’s meaning and motives and utilising first-hand experience and knowledge by the researcher of the community sector’s capacity development, to analyse data.</p>