This study examined the roles academic researchers can play to inform policy and environmental strategies that promote health and prevent disease. Prevention Research Centers (PRCs) engage in academic-community partnerships to conduct applied public health research. Interviews were used to collect data on the roles played by 32 PRCs to inform policy and environmental strategies that were implemented between September 2009 and September 2010. Descriptive statistics were calculated in SAS 9.2. A difference in roles played was observed depending on whether strategies were policy or environmental. Of the policy initiatives, the most common roles were education, research, and partnership. In contrast, the most prevalent roles the PRCs played in environmental approaches were research and providing health promotion resources. Academic research centers play various roles to help inform policy and environmental strategies.
This article proposes that leadership, as a relationship, is necessary to reinvigorate social responsibility in organizations. Further, the call for social responsibility compels us to engage in relationships that are inspired by the common good and promote substantive change. Moreover, this article embraces the call for action to transcend the status quo through the reexamination of relationships between women and men in organizations--a pivotal point as we approach the twenty-first century. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to highlight the importance of relationships in organizations "as purposeful social systems" (Dixon, 1994, p. xiv).
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