Interorganizational Cooperation: How Effective for Grassroots Organizations?.
TL;DR: The authors empirically examined the value of interorganizational relations to voluntary associations; the data are from questionnaires sent to rape crisis centers in the United States. But no relationship was found between structure and cooperation; however, centers with staff tended to have community ties and more of them.
Abstract: The study empirically examined the value of interorganizational rela tions to voluntary associations; the data are from questionnaires sent to rape crisis centers in the United States. Interorganizational cooperation was studied as it was associated with structural variations and as it affected organizational effectiveness. No relationship was found between structure and cooperation; however, centers with staff tended to have community ties and more of them. The more centralized the decision making, the more organizational contacts; the difference between this and previous research seems to be due to differences in conceptualization of centralization. Cooperation was not found to be related to demands for services or speakers; there was a relationship to the extent of programs designed to train agency personnel. The number of interorganizational contacts was directly related to the number of volunteers active in a center and to the number of minority-group members. It was concluded that there are no benef...
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TL;DR: The development of coalitions of community agencies, institutions and concerned citizens to combat chronic health conditions is gaining popularity as an intervention aimed at strengthening the social fabric.
Abstract: In the last several years, health promotion specialists have stressed the importance of multiple interventions aimed both at individuals who are at health risk, and at risk-producing environments and policies (Milio, 1980; McLeroy et al., 1988; Pentz et al., 1989; Winett et al., 1989). The current emphasis on multiple interventions at multiple levels of the 'social ecology' is a response to the severity and complexity of chronic health conditions that are rooted in a larger social, cultural, political and economic fabric. The current wisdom in health promotion holds that targeting the behavior of individuals, without also intervening at these other social levels that shape behavior, will not have as great an impact on health status (McLeroy et al., 1988; Minkler, 1989; Hawkins and Catalano, 1992; Stokols, 1992). The development of coalitions of community agencies, institutions and concerned citizens to combat chronic health conditions is gaining popularity as an intervention aimed at strengthening the social fabric. Currently, hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in coalition development as a health promotion intervention. For instance, both the COMMIT and ASSIST community tobacco control programs, funded by the National Institutes for Health, require coalitions of citizens in order to develop local strategies to decrease tobacco use (National Cancer Institute, 1988; Shopland, 1989).
657 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyze feminist organizations as a species of social movement organization and identify 10 dimensions for comparing feminist and non-feminist organizations or for deriving types of feminist organizations and analyzing them.
Abstract: This article analyzes feminist organizations as a species of social movement organization. It identifies 10 dimensions for comparing feminist and nonfeminist organizations or for deriving types of feminist organizations and analyzing them. The dimensions are feminist ideology, feminist values, feminist goals, feminist outcomes (for members and society), founding circumstances, structure, practice, members and membership, scope and scale, and external relations (legal-corporate status, autonomy, funding, and network linkages). I argue that many scholars judge feminist organizations against an ideal type that is largely unattainable and that excessive attention has been paid to the issue of bureaucracy versus collectivism to the neglect of other organizational qualities. The varieties of ideology, form, and strategy that feminist organizations embody should be analyzed in relation to outcomes for women, the women's movement, and society. As has recently begun to occur, feminist scholars are encouraged to cl...
256 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated the range of center types, services offered, staffing, involvement in community networks, funding and affiliation with criminal justice, counseling, and human services agencies.
Abstract: Using data from a nationally representative sample of 50 rape crisis centers, this article investigates the range of center types, services offered, staffing, involvement in community networks, funding and affiliation with criminal justice, counseling, and human services agencies. The evolution of the rape crisis center from the few prototype centers opened in 1972 to the many different models existing today is traced. The most important finding is that rape crisis centers today do not fall neatly into types. Rather, they have developed to fit their communities, making choices about whom to serve, where to locate a service, how to work with other agencies in the community, how, when, and where to do community education, and how to establish financial security. A decision about one such dimension does not necessarily predict what the decision will be about the other dimensions.
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Book•
01 Jan 1938
6,904 citations
"Interorganizational Cooperation: Ho..." refers background or methods in this paper
..., the processes used, the population served, and the services provided (Benson, 1975; Clark & Wilson, 1961; Downs, 1967; Levine & White, 1961; Meyer, 1975). When a group has identified a need, reached a different population, or adopted a new process, existing organizations may argue that they have the capacity to carry out these functions. The possibility of conflict increases if the specific policy ends and the appropriate actions are ambiguous (Holden, 1966). Gillespie and Perry (1975) found that new...
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...Drake and Cayton (1945) observed that these factors influenced membership patterns of middle class blacks....
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1,165 citations
TL;DR: The interorganizational network is itself linked to a larger environment consisting of authorities, legislative bodies, bureaus, and publics, and the flow of resources into the network depends upon developments in this larger environment as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: J. Kenneth Benson The interorganizational network may be conceived as a political economy concerned with the distribution of two scarce resources, money and authority. Organizations, as participants in the political economy, pursue an adequate supply of resources. Interactions and sentiments of organizations are dependent upon their respective market positions and power to affect the flow of resources. The interorganizational network is itself linked to a larger environment consisting of authorities, legislative bodies, bureaus, and publics. The flow of resources into the network depends upon developments in this larger environment.
1,071 citations
Book•
01 Jan 1970
TL;DR: DecDecisions and Nondecisions: An Analytical Framework for Power in Contemporary Society as discussed by the authors is a seminal work in the field of non-decision-making, focusing on the problem of power in contemporary society.
Abstract: Preface Like so many of its kind, this book was hatched in the classroom. More than ten years in the making, it grew out of a jointly taught seminar at Bryn Mawr College for undergraduate students in political science and economics. The result of many hours of discussion, research, and refinement of written drafts, the book is truly a joint product. To put it another way, although our individual contributions are still identifiable in the final version, everything in the book bears both our imprints. Our original interest in the subject matter is well suggested by the title of our course, The Problem of Power in Contemporary Society. Intrigued by the controversy between "elitist" and "pluralist" students of community power, typified respectively by Floyd Hunter and Robert A. Dahl, we focused initially on the limitations of each approach. Out of this came our first joint article, "Two Faces of Power," reprinted almost unchanged as Chapter I of this book. The next step was definitional. Early on, we had been impressed with the many meanings assigned to power, meanings unstated as often as not. We also observed that the concepts of power, authority and influence were often used inter-changeably, leading to imprecision of analysis and, not seldom, confusion. The product of our musings along these lines was "Decisions and Nondecisions: An Analytical Framework," first published in 1963 and reprinted here in modified form in Chapter II and part of Chapter III. Neither of these articles attracted much attention at the time it first appeared. Within a few years, however, they "caught on," attracting both devotees and severe critics. The latter, by and large, acknowledged the theoretical significance of the nondecision concept, which is our major innovation, but they directed strong (and still continuing) fire at the empirical worth of the notion. How, they asked, can anyone establish the existence of a "non-event"? The criticism, though anticipated and though inappropriately put (nondecisions are anything but non-events), was basically well taken and had to be met. As soon as possible after each of us had fulfilled independent commitments of other kinds, we rejoined forces for an empirical analysis of the relationship between the anti-poverty effort and the political process in Baltimore, Maryland. Our chief objectives were: to clarify the concept of nondecision-making, demonstrate its empirical utility, and analyze the diverse means of exercise and the impact of power and its correlates in relationship to political ideology and institutions in a community undergoing change. The city of Baltimore was admirably suited to our purposes. Throughout the period of our field research, long-submerged tensions rose to the surface, culminating in a major race riot which signaled the beginning of an overt political conflict between leaders of "inner-city" blacks and white political elites. ……
944 citations
"Interorganizational Cooperation: Ho..." refers background in this paper
...Bachrach and Baratz (1970) postulated that community values, institutional procedures, legislative decisions, and administrative actions, respectively, pose impediments to change....
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