Developing a Theoretical Framework of Responsiveness in Educational Institutions and Non-Profit Organizations

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Date

2013-10-03

Authors

Bheda, Divya

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Publisher

University of Oregon

Abstract

A number of education institutions and non-profit organizations seek to be responsive toward the stakeholders they serve. They engage in numerous organizational and evaluative processes to be perceived as responsive. They consider evaluating and improving responsiveness, important to their practice. Unfortunately, such efforts are often impeded because there is a lack of clear understanding regarding what "responsiveness" means. One reason is that the current professional literature on responsiveness provides fragmented, ambiguous, and limited definitions of responsiveness. This theory-building dissertation offers a clear, expansive, and more holistic theoretical understanding of responsiveness. The derived definition and understanding of responsiveness is then used to develop and test a theory-driven process model (r-CriDo model) that serves as a tool to catalyze and monitor responsiveness in educational institutions and non-profit organizations. The r-CriDo model draws from critical feminist and subaltern theories where r stands for reflexive, Cri stands for critical and decolonizing, and the Do stands for action. This dissertation offers an overview of how professional practice could benefit from the tools derived in this study and ends with a discussion of the model's strengths, limitations and future research possibilities.

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Keywords

Learning organizations, Nonprofit management, Program evaluation, Responsiveness, Social justice, Theory building

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