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- Genre: Doctoral Dissertation
Description
Cross-sector interactions are regularly seen in healthcare, education, defense, public safety, and other social service contexts where the public interest and the private individual intersect. While interest in cross-sector relationships is neither new nor novel, the organizational dynamics and contexts continue to change and challenge our understanding of what is meant by partnership, alliance, collaboration, or cooperation between independent organizations from different sectors. One type of cooperative arrangement between nonprofits and government are affiliated foundations, which are part of the landscape of emerging organizational hybrids and expanding government-nonprofit relationships. Affiliated foundations are nonprofits designed to support a specific entity by generating charitable resources. This dissertation looks at one specific context for affiliated foundation/ "parent" relationships through a multi-case study of local educations in Florida. Specifically, this research examines how local education foundations carry out a partnering relationship with the school district. Through a combination of three instrumental case studies of local education foundations, and fifteen other purposely selected foundations, this dissertation presents the results of a cross-case analysis of the partnership between local education foundations and school districts. Partnership is conceptualized across four dimensions: 1) attention, 2) successive engagement, 3) resource infusion, and 4) positional identity. This research reveals that through the four dimensions of partnership, we can account for the variation across embedded, interdependent, or independent local education foundations in relation to the school district, or their "parent" organization. As a result, local education foundations reflect different relationships with school districts, which ultimately impacts their ability to carry out their work as charitable organizations, derived from the community in which they operate, and designed to generate resources and support for public education. By looking at this specific context, we can consider the complexities of an affiliated relationship between two structurally separate but linked organizations assumed to act as partners, but working to achieve a partnership. Where cooperation, collaboration, and innovation are intended outcomes of affiliated foundation/government relationships, this research considers the role of affiliated foundations among more traditional cross-sector relationships where services and contracts tend to dominate.
ContributorsFernandez, Kandyce Michelle (Author) / Lucio, Joanna (Thesis advisor) / Hager, Mark A. (Committee member) / Maroulis, Spiro J (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Tewa Women United (TWU) is a Native women-founded, centered and run organization located in northern New Mexico, in the original boundaries of the Tewa homelands. TWU is the only independent Native women’s non-profit organization providing direct services, advocacy and prevention services in the Pojoaque-Española Valley area within Northern Santa Fe and Rio Arriba Counties. TWU believes in building beloved families and communities to end all forms of violence against women, girls and Mother Earth and have been working for the past 25 years toward fulfillment of this vision. This dissertation, including a journal article, book chapter, and policy red paper, looks at what happens when Pueblo/ Tewa women become active agents in resistance to the Colonial-White Supremacist Capitalist Scientist Patriarchy. In these distinct dissertation pieces, I examine how TWU has developed a theory of Opide (pronounced Oh-Peh-dee) and Research Methodology to design and implement culturally responsive programs and projects which support ending violence against Pueblo/ Tewa women, girls and Mother Earth. In this instance looking at a campaign and project that Tewa Women United has developed: The Protect Those Most Vulnerable Campaign under the Environmental Justice and Health Program and A’gin Healthy Sexuality and Body Sovereignty project under the Women’s Leadership and Economic Freedom Program. Opide means braiding and weaving together, it is a theory of practice to action.
ContributorsSanchez, Corrine Monica (Author) / Brayboy, Bryan (Thesis advisor) / Sumida-Huaman, Elizabeth (Thesis advisor) / Swadener, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Trujillo, Patricia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
The purpose of this study was to understand what promotes or hinders the implementation of a high school education reform policy in Arizona schools from the perspective of a nonprofit organization that served an active and intentional role as an intermediary organization working directly with schools and policymakers. The study was intended to facilitate implementation of the education reform policy in the school sites, to gain knowledge that will be used to inform future cycles of planning and implementation, and to influence state policy. This study was an explanatory nonexperimental multiple case study involving five high schools across Arizona. The study focused on the early phase of implementation of the education reform policy. A mixed methods case study design grounded in the tradition of participatory action research was employed. Data were collected through surveys, interviews, observations, focus groups, and a document review. The results suggest that the education reform policy was implementable in diverse schools across the state. However, how the education reform policy was implemented in each school site appeared to vary. A number of factors seemed to influence the actual implementation process including the design and understanding of the reform, selection process, district context and school characteristics, and school capacity to undertake the reform. The findings suggest that the nonprofit organization that served as an intermediary organization within the study influenced the implementation process. It appears that this primarily took place by providing direct assistance to the schools, creating opportunities for collaboration and communication across the multiple school sites implementing the same education reform policy, and serving as a connector to other organizations, policymakers, and the larger public. The study resulted in the nonprofit organization's deeper understanding of the complexity of implementing the education reform policy, the challenges schools face in implementing the reform, and the factors that appear to promote or impede the implementation process.
ContributorsBurke, Amanda (Amanda Marie) (Author) / Jimenez-Castellanos, Oscar (Thesis advisor) / Gonzalez, Gustavo S (Committee member) / Duvall, Debra (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Achieving high performance is a crucial issue in modern organizations including public, for-profit, and nonprofit even though there is no consensus about what performance means. How to obtain resources is important for boosting organizational performance. Furthermore, resource acquisition capacity is closely associated with the survival of modern nonprofit organizations. Resource Dependence Theory (RDT) notes that dependence on critical resources influences diverse actions and behavior of organizations. The study examines the relationship among Resource Dependence Patterns (RDPs), organizational behavior, and organizational performance in nonprofit organizations. This study introduces five dimensions of RDPs (the appearance of the resource inflow): resource dependency, resource diversity, resource uncertainty, resource abundance, and resource competitiveness. This research suggests that a nonprofit's RDPs affect its behavior, performance, and survival. A main research question can be phrased as: How are RDPs of nonprofit organizations related to organizational behavior and performance? Data are mainly gathered from financial officers, managers, and directors in the nonprofit sector. Multivariate data analytic techniques including factor analysis, multiple regression analysis, and path analysis are used for testing the proposed hypotheses and answering the research question. The empirical findings reveal that the Resource Dependence Patterns directly or indirectly affect organizational behavior and performance in nonprofit organizations. Resource dependency (where resources come from) has substantive and wide impacts on the overall nonprofits' behavior and structures. High dependency on government funding (high resource dependency) is positively associated with organizational hierarchy and frequent goal changes; on the other hand, it has a negative effect on participatory decision making. This study suggests that goal clarity has the strongest direct impact on nonprofits' performance. Clear organizational goals increase the likelihood that nonprofits show a higher level of performance. The paths of both resource diversity and resource competitiveness also have direct impacts on organizational performance and their impacts are statistically robust. Path analysis verifies the fact that the other three RDP variables account for organizational performance via organizational behavior variables (indirect causality on performance). This study of RDPs, behavior, and performance contributes practically to the effective management of nonprofit organizations and contributes to consolidating and expanding Resource Dependence Theory (RDT). In addition, the information about resource dependence patterns will help funders including governments, foundations, and individual donors to understand the fiscal environment that an organization faces.
ContributorsSeo, JungWook (Author) / Cayer, N.Joseph (Thesis advisor) / Lan, G. Zhiyong (Thesis advisor) / Shangraw, Ralph Frederick (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
ABSTRACT This multi-case study research, using qualitative and quantitative methods, examines, compares, and validates the traits, behaviors, and formulas for success utilized by four experienced, long-term, exemplary executives who lead nonprofit organizations (NPOs) that serve homeless and "at risk" populations. Service longevity is a measure of success in this study and each leader subject must have served a minimum of five years at their NPO to participate, though most have been leading their respective NPOs far longer. An NPO leader affects not only an organization but individual constituents and the entire community. Each leader subject is considered successful by numerous constituents and the community. Anyone is at risk for homelessness and its effects on the entire community are boundless. Traits and formulas for success are measured using three surveys: Kouzes & Posner's 360 LPI and Most Admired Characteristics surveys and Cialdini's Influence IQ Test. Additional data sources are personal interviews, organizational 990s, annual reports, and other financial and programmatic data. The instruments for data analysis are a Likert 7 Point Importance Scale used for the program and organizational evaluations by NPO professional outside raters and the Strategic Plan. Analytic tools are the Pearson Product Moment Correlations, the organization's 990s, a 3 year annual report comparison, and participant observation. This study measures the leaders against the ideal. One common theme among all the leaders is consistency, one of Cialdini's Six Principles of Influence; ii
ContributorsOstrom, Martha (Author) / Cayer, N. Joseph (Thesis advisor) / Cialdini, Robert B. (Committee member) / Schlacter, John L (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
At their cores, both rhetoric and public sphere theory have conceptualized how membership in public and counterpublic settings, as well as participation in public life and discussion, is cultivated, shared, contested, and shaped. Previous case studies on publics and counterpublics have looked at the experiences of individuals and collectives who enact practices in rhetorical invention that mark participation in public life. Much of public sphere scholarship focuses squarely on seasoned individuals in positions of authority and decision making in mainstream publics. Conversely, counterpublic spheres focus on the labor of individuals who have extensive experience in articulating discursive practices in response to dominant publics. However, a quietude that has permeated much of rhetoric and public sphere scholarship comes by way of the absence of youth-based voices in the public sphere. It is these same youths who are expected to lead the very publics that claim to represent them, yet do not afford them a mode of participation or agency in their own right. Given that studies in critical and vernacular rhetoric invest significant inquiry into the ways that marginalized communities enact responses towards dominant and mainstream ideologies, it is necessary to consider how these youthful perspectives contribute to rhetoric and the public sphere writ large.
In an effort to inform the rhetorical tradition of its potential in accounting for the voices of youth, this study explores the ways in which youth speak, perform, and embody the various ways in which they belong to a public sphere. Through fieldwork in the LGBTQ youth organization One n’ Ten, I aim to speak to the ways in which rhetorical scholarship can begin to move towards a rhetoric of youth in public life. In this field, I utilize the concepts of enclaving and imagining in counterpublic spheres to examine the practices, discourses, and values that give rise to a queer counterpublicity that emboldens LGBTQ youth to speak and act in a way that honors their identities. Moreover, I draw on theories of critical and vernacular rhetorics to make sense of how One n’ Ten provides youth with opportunities to enact rhetorical agency conducive toward participation in public and counterpublic spheres. Finally, I discuss implications pertaining to how the experiences of young individuals stand to substantially inform theories in public, counterpublic, critical, and vernacular rhetorics, all of which contain opportunities to represent the experiences of both LGBTQ youth and youth writ large as members of public life.
In an effort to inform the rhetorical tradition of its potential in accounting for the voices of youth, this study explores the ways in which youth speak, perform, and embody the various ways in which they belong to a public sphere. Through fieldwork in the LGBTQ youth organization One n’ Ten, I aim to speak to the ways in which rhetorical scholarship can begin to move towards a rhetoric of youth in public life. In this field, I utilize the concepts of enclaving and imagining in counterpublic spheres to examine the practices, discourses, and values that give rise to a queer counterpublicity that emboldens LGBTQ youth to speak and act in a way that honors their identities. Moreover, I draw on theories of critical and vernacular rhetorics to make sense of how One n’ Ten provides youth with opportunities to enact rhetorical agency conducive toward participation in public and counterpublic spheres. Finally, I discuss implications pertaining to how the experiences of young individuals stand to substantially inform theories in public, counterpublic, critical, and vernacular rhetorics, all of which contain opportunities to represent the experiences of both LGBTQ youth and youth writ large as members of public life.
ContributorsFlores, Carlos A (Author) / Brouwer, Daniel C (Thesis advisor) / Hess, Aaron R (Thesis advisor) / Long, Elenore (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
In the U.S., one of the most affluent countries in the world, hunger and food waste are two social problems that coexist in an ironic way. Food banks have become one key alternative solution to those problems because of their capacity to collect and distribute surplus food to those in need as well as to mobilize collective efforts of various organizations and citizens. However, the understanding of U.S. food banking remains limited due to research gaps in the literature. Previous public values research fails to address the key role of nonprofit organizations in achieving public values, while prior nonprofit and food bank studies suffer from insufficiently reflecting the value-driven nature in evaluating overall social impacts. Inspired by these gaps, this study asks the following question: how does food banking in the U.S. respond to public value failure?
To address this question, this study employs the interpretive approach as the logic of inquiry and the public value mapping framework as the analytic tool to contemplate the overall social impacts of U.S. food banking. Data sources include organizational documents of 203 U.S. food banks, as well as other public documents and literature pertaining to U.S. food banks.
Using public value mapping analysis, this study constructs a public value logic, which manifests the dynamics of prime and instrumental values in the U.S. food banking context. Food security, sustainability, and progressive opportunity are identified as three core prime public values. Instrumental values in this context consist of two major value categories: (1) intra-organizational values and (2) inter-and ultra-organizational values. Furthermore, this study applies public value failure criteria to examine success or failure of public values in this context. U.S. Food banks do contribute to the success of public sphere, progressive opportunity, sustainability and food security. However, the practice of U.S. food banks also lead to the failure of food security in some conditions. This study develops a new public value failure criterion based on the inherent limitations of charitable service providers. Main findings, contributions, and future directions are discussed.
To address this question, this study employs the interpretive approach as the logic of inquiry and the public value mapping framework as the analytic tool to contemplate the overall social impacts of U.S. food banking. Data sources include organizational documents of 203 U.S. food banks, as well as other public documents and literature pertaining to U.S. food banks.
Using public value mapping analysis, this study constructs a public value logic, which manifests the dynamics of prime and instrumental values in the U.S. food banking context. Food security, sustainability, and progressive opportunity are identified as three core prime public values. Instrumental values in this context consist of two major value categories: (1) intra-organizational values and (2) inter-and ultra-organizational values. Furthermore, this study applies public value failure criteria to examine success or failure of public values in this context. U.S. Food banks do contribute to the success of public sphere, progressive opportunity, sustainability and food security. However, the practice of U.S. food banks also lead to the failure of food security in some conditions. This study develops a new public value failure criterion based on the inherent limitations of charitable service providers. Main findings, contributions, and future directions are discussed.
ContributorsTsai, Chin-Chang (Author) / Bozeman, Barry (Thesis advisor) / Stritch, Justin (Committee member) / Corley, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017