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Women creating a caring organization : the public dimensions of care Smith, Linette Wright

Abstract

The purpose of this ethnographic study is to describe and illustrate how the Board members of a nonprofit organization have constructed and sustained a caring organization. The study answers the ethnographic questions that framed the research purpose and focus: What are the organization's core values? Where, when, how and by whom are they articulated? How do the participants enact these core values in their practice? What is the role of learning in a caring organization? What does care look like in a caring organization? The focus of this study's description and analysis are the interactions and practices of the women trustees as they engaged in the work of governance within routine Board of Directors' meetings. The data collected include field observations of Board meetings, interviews with Board members and organizational documents. The study conceptualizes meetings as the primary process and form in which organizational members create, maintain, and re-create their organization (Schwartzman, 1989). The study uses a multi-perspective approach (J. Martin, 1992) to organizational culture in order to describe elements of congruence, difference and contradiction in a caring organization. The study describes and illustrates how the organizational members developed care as a central organizing principle, a moral practice and a political idea (Tronto, 1993). The members' values, beliefs, and practices had moved care from the private realms of caring work into the public realms of caring practice, expanding care from its predominantly private interpretation to a larger public notion. The organization studied was one that was founded by women, governed by women and predominantly staffed by women. It provides programs, services and resources to meet the child care needs of families, children, child care providers, child care related organizations and the community. The study's findings have implications for practice in the development of nonprofit organizations that support caring practice and caring work.

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