Carl Milofsky
I have a long-standing interest in nonprofit organizations, especially small, community-based organizations. I have edited the NONPROFIT AND VOLUNTARY SECTOR QUARTERLY and currently I am Chair of the Publications Committee as a board member of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA). In the last two years I have been particularly interested in grass roots development organizations.
I teach courses in medical sociology and am involved in a community action research network that, among other things, focuses on community networks and health. We have been interested in integrating the mapping of electronic health records with ethnographic community research. We also are working to build a "community platform", which is a cooperative network of local nonprofits that uses computer mapping and networking software to strengthen our social partnerships. This is a project we are doing in a relationship with Tom Polack of the Urban Institute.
I teach courses in medical sociology and am involved in a community action research network that, among other things, focuses on community networks and health. We have been interested in integrating the mapping of electronic health records with ethnographic community research. We also are working to build a "community platform", which is a cooperative network of local nonprofits that uses computer mapping and networking software to strengthen our social partnerships. This is a project we are doing in a relationship with Tom Polack of the Urban Institute.
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Many programs and policies, however, vary greatly from place to place and they are built and shaped by creative, professionalized workers that Lipsky calls "street level bureaucrats".
This chapter argues that we can understand these diverse organizations and policy settings if we understand that action often is structured around conflicting role demands and values (which Robert K. Merton calls "coordinate norms"). Actors struggle to creatively resolve role conflicts and when actors in similar roles do this together they generate consistent organizational cultures. To outsiders these cultures seem opaque but to practitioners they are logical, necessary, and predictable.
Institutional structures must be understood as the product of historical and action contexts rather than of objective goals or program activities.
This paper applies the theory of authority to empirical studies of voluntary organizations conducted by the author. These include studies of emergency medicine, the Episcopal Church, special education, nontraditional elementary education, and community self-help organizations. We learn that three tasks are critical for authoritative leaders: (1) they must help subordinates further learning and personal development. (2) They must support cooperate, interdependent task groups. (3) They must develop the myth of the organization and lead symbolic, ritual events that make the specific activities of the organization seem important in terms of larger life issues and concerns.
In general, however, school systems are more attentive to the needs of teachers and children in regular school programs and both diagnosis and implementation of tailored teaching programs was vague and not targeted at actual learning problems. Rather, children referred to the learning disability class were generally the biggest discipline problem children in the school. The special teacher, seeking to build a more legitimate role in the school, accepted these children and did her best to teach them well. But the program amounted to little more than the labeling of deviants and social control of troublemakers.
The perspective of this book draws heavily on the thinking and work of Seymour B. Sarason at Yale. Since I had the privilege of working with Seymour at Yale from 1978 to 1982 many of the ideas in this book were worked into the later book, THE SOCIOLOGY OF SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY with help from Sarason's insightful suggestions.
Many programs and policies, however, vary greatly from place to place and they are built and shaped by creative, professionalized workers that Lipsky calls "street level bureaucrats".
This chapter argues that we can understand these diverse organizations and policy settings if we understand that action often is structured around conflicting role demands and values (which Robert K. Merton calls "coordinate norms"). Actors struggle to creatively resolve role conflicts and when actors in similar roles do this together they generate consistent organizational cultures. To outsiders these cultures seem opaque but to practitioners they are logical, necessary, and predictable.
Institutional structures must be understood as the product of historical and action contexts rather than of objective goals or program activities.
This paper applies the theory of authority to empirical studies of voluntary organizations conducted by the author. These include studies of emergency medicine, the Episcopal Church, special education, nontraditional elementary education, and community self-help organizations. We learn that three tasks are critical for authoritative leaders: (1) they must help subordinates further learning and personal development. (2) They must support cooperate, interdependent task groups. (3) They must develop the myth of the organization and lead symbolic, ritual events that make the specific activities of the organization seem important in terms of larger life issues and concerns.
In general, however, school systems are more attentive to the needs of teachers and children in regular school programs and both diagnosis and implementation of tailored teaching programs was vague and not targeted at actual learning problems. Rather, children referred to the learning disability class were generally the biggest discipline problem children in the school. The special teacher, seeking to build a more legitimate role in the school, accepted these children and did her best to teach them well. But the program amounted to little more than the labeling of deviants and social control of troublemakers.
The perspective of this book draws heavily on the thinking and work of Seymour B. Sarason at Yale. Since I had the privilege of working with Seymour at Yale from 1978 to 1982 many of the ideas in this book were worked into the later book, THE SOCIOLOGY OF SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY with help from Sarason's insightful suggestions.