TY - JOUR
T1 - The boundary-spanning role of a cooperative support organization
T2 - Managing the paradox of stability and change in non-traditional organizations
AU - Harter, Lynn M.
AU - Krone, Kathleen J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Lynn M. Harter is an Assistant Professor at Minnesota State University Moorhead; Kathleen J. Krone is an Associate Professor at University of Nebraska Lincoln. This study is based upon the first author’s doctoral dissertation conducted under the direction of the second author. The data collection was funded by a grant provided by the Edith and Robert Day Foundation. The authors gratefully acknowledge the substantive feedback provided by Dan O’Hair and three anonymous reviewers. This article is dedicated to the Nebraska Cooperative Council for their support of the cooperative movement. Address: Lynn Harter, 116 G Center for the Arts, Dept. of Speech Comm. and Theater Arts, Minnesota State Univ.-Moorehead, Moorehead, MN 56563.
PY - 2001/8
Y1 - 2001/8
N2 - This project provides an interpretation of how one cooperative support organization, the Nebraska Cooperative Council, discursively functions to help its constituent cooperatives consolidate resources in order to better intersect with organizations in a larger bureaucratic system. In analyzing qualitative data collected through in-depth interviews, surveys, and organizational documents, we found the paradox of stability and change a revealing prism through which to make sense of participants' experiences. We work toward locating and describing how the Council, through its boundary-spanning activities, helps cooperatives manage the paradox of stability and change while protecting their core participatory ideologies. By providing networks of learning, promoting the legitimacy of cooperative forms of organizing, and protecting cooperatives' interests, the Council is an entity helping cooperatives to reconcile their internal requirements for democracy with the external demands of the marketplace.
AB - This project provides an interpretation of how one cooperative support organization, the Nebraska Cooperative Council, discursively functions to help its constituent cooperatives consolidate resources in order to better intersect with organizations in a larger bureaucratic system. In analyzing qualitative data collected through in-depth interviews, surveys, and organizational documents, we found the paradox of stability and change a revealing prism through which to make sense of participants' experiences. We work toward locating and describing how the Council, through its boundary-spanning activities, helps cooperatives manage the paradox of stability and change while protecting their core participatory ideologies. By providing networks of learning, promoting the legitimacy of cooperative forms of organizing, and protecting cooperatives' interests, the Council is an entity helping cooperatives to reconcile their internal requirements for democracy with the external demands of the marketplace.
KW - Boundary spanners
KW - Democratic ideologies
KW - Non-traditional organizations
KW - Paradox of stability and change
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U2 - 10.1080/00909880128111
DO - 10.1080/00909880128111
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0035536739
SN - 0090-9882
VL - 29
SP - 248
EP - 277
JO - Journal of Applied Communication Research
JF - Journal of Applied Communication Research
IS - 3
ER -