Self-direction or social support? nonprofit empowerment and the tacit employment contract of organizational communication studies

Ashcraft, Karen Lee; Kedrowicz, April A.

doi:10.1080/03637750216538

Cited by 73 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Volunteers, contrariwise, can ''vote with their feet'' (Harris, 1998, p. 154), making them rather difficult to manage, just as CoPs cannot be managed but must be nurtured and ''cultivated'' (Wenger et al, 2002). Volunteers do not fit the normal model of work and management (Ashcraft & Kedrowicz, 2002;Cnaan & Cascio, 1999). As a result, elements such as negotiation of a joint enterprise and mutual engagement are less likely to be under managerial control.…”

Section: Case Selectionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Communicating Knowing Through Communities of Practice: Exploring Internal Communicative Processes and Differences Among CoPs

Iverson

McPhee

2008

Journal of Applied Communication Research

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Section: Case Selectionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Communicating Knowing Through Communities of Practice: Exploring Internal Communicative Processes and Differences Among CoPs

Iverson

McPhee

2008

Journal of Applied Communication Research

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“…Although there are many different ways to conceptualize empowerment (for instance, see reviews in Ashcraft & Kedrowicz, 2002;Papa, Singhal, Ghanekar, & Papa, 2000), Chiles and Zorn (1995) conceptualize empowerment as both a perception and a process. In their model, empowerment includes a person's perception that he/she has the opportunity and ability to act effectively and control their environment.…”

Section: Communication Perspectives On Empowermentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Negotiating Refugee Empowerment(s) in Resettlement Organizations

Steimel

2016

Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies

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Abstract:In-depth interviews with both organizational staff and refugee-clients in two American refugee resettlement organizations explore how empowerment is communicated to and understood by refugees being "empowered." This study found that while organizational staff professed empowerment focused on self-sufficiency as self-determination, in practice their communication to clients defined self-sufficiency a priori in economic terms. Refugee-clients instead constructed empowerment(s) in economic, educational, personal, and family terms.These findings highlight the need for changes in US resettlement policy and for theoretical and practical understandings of refugee empowerment to recognize polysemic and conflicting empowerments in different life arenas and from different positionalities.

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“…Based on this, an appropriate combination is needed: an organization in which employees on the one hand, and volunteers on the other work together, could develop the reflexive and professional potential necessary to mediate between purposive-and value-oriented communications (Satow 1975;Adams and Shepherd 1996;Ilsley 1990;Ashcraft and Kedrowicz 2002).…”

Section: Explaining Politicization and Economizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

In the Triangle of Civil Society, Politics, and Economy: Positioning Magazines of Nonprofit Organizations

Hoffmann

2010

Voluntas

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Nonprofit organizations, though rooted in civil society and primarily committed to value rationality, must work legitimately to influence political and economic systems. To a certain degree, therefore, they must adapt to the purposive logic of power and money. This study analyzes the way in which nonprofit organizational communications respond to such tensions, using a nationwide survey of editors-in-chief responsible for magazines issued by nonprofit organizations in Switzerland as the empirical basis. These magazines often function as steering tools targeted toward members, following the logic of power and there is less danger of them being ''colonized'' by economic logic. The results indicate that large organizations that rely on paid staff tend to cut their ties with civil society and the ''lifeworlds'' of their members.Résumé Les organisations à but non lucratif, bien qu'ancrées dans la société civile et principalement attachées aux actions rationnelles en valeur, doivent oeuvrer légalement à influencer les systèmes politiques et économiques. Elles doivent par conséquent, et dans une certaine mesure, s'adapter à la logique téléologique du pouvoir et de l'argent. Cette étude analyse la façon dont les moyens de communication des organisations à but non lucratif réagissent à ces tensions, en utilisant les données recueillies d'une enquête nationale des rédacteurs en chef de magazines publiés par des organisations à but non lucratif en Suisse. Ces magazines fonctionnent souvent comme des instruments d'orientation destinés à leurs membres, en suivant la logique du pouvoir, ce qui présente peu de danger pour eux d'être « colonisés » par la logique économique. Les résultats indiquent que les grandes organisations qui comptent sur des employés salariés ont tendance à couper leurs liens avec la société civile et le « monde vécu » de leurs membres.

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Self-direction or social support? nonprofit empowerment and the tacit employment contract of organizational communication studies

Cited by 73 publications

References 41 publications

Communicating Knowing Through Communities of Practice: Exploring Internal Communicative Processes and Differences Among CoPs

Communicating Knowing Through Communities of Practice: Exploring Internal Communicative Processes and Differences Among CoPs

Negotiating Refugee Empowerment(s) in Resettlement Organizations

In the Triangle of Civil Society, Politics, and Economy: Positioning Magazines of Nonprofit Organizations

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