Date of Award
Spring 5-11-2012
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Executive Doctorate in Business (EDB)
Department
Business
First Advisor
Lars Mathiassen
Second Advisor
Richard Baskerville
Third Advisor
Pam Scholder Ellen
Abstract
Current literature on the developmentally disabled indicates they represent a large untapped labor pool that is significantly inhibited in its inclusion in the community. To address this unnecessary isolation, Right in the Community (RitC), a voluntary agency in Cobb County, Georgia, wanted to innovate its service offering by providing meaningful and sustainable work opportunities for those that are severely developmentally disabled. The Competing Values Framework (CVF) offers a dynamic and robust theoretical framework that has been adapted to explain many business factors in addition to organizational effectiveness. Based on a fourteen-month action research engagement at RitC, I adapted the CVF to concentrate on the dimensions of organizational focus, strategy formation and motivational traits to understand and guide service innovation in a voluntary organization. My research aided RitC’s development of a program to provide meaningful and sustainable work opportunities for those that are severely developmentally disabled. From a theoretical standpoint, I have added new knowledge on managing service innovation in voluntary organizations and adapted CVF for understanding and guiding service innovation in that particular context.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.57709/2816293
Recommended Citation
Neher, Cathy Sue, "Service Innovation in a Voluntary Organization: Creating Work Opportunities for Severely Developmentally Disabled Adults." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2012.
doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/2816293