Placed-Based Organizational Design and Operation: Community-Organizational Alignment for Social Economy Organizations

The overarching purposes of this paper are twofold. The first purpose is to underscore the importance of adopting a contextually based contingency approach in designing and operating social-economy organizations, particularly... [ view full abstract ]

The overarching purposes of this paper are twofold. The first purpose is to underscore the importance of adopting a contextually based contingency approach in designing and operating social-economy organizations, particularly for communities in which either cultural diversity or particularly distinct cultural values are pronounced. More specifically, its purpose is to explore the importance of adopting a place-based approach in aligning the design and operation (i.e., the governance, management and administrative structures, composition of the board and management/administrative units, functions, processes and values) of social economy organizations with the composition, interests and values of their respective communities and members.

The second overarching purpose is to proffer a model intended to highlight the key elements of places and organizations that must be aligned to increase the likelihood of the successful design and operation of social-economy organizations within various communities, as well as a set of principles that should be followed in doing so. The model and principles will focus both on what might be termed the community-organization interface and on the intra-organizational interface. In the case of the community-organizational interface, the model and principles will underscore that the key elements of places and organizations that must be properly aligned include the demographic composition, interests, and values of the community and its members on one hand, with the composition, interests and values of the organization on the other. In the case of the intra-organizational interface the model will underscore that the key elements that must be properly aligned include the composition and operation of the organization’s governance, management and administrative frameworks.

The central theme and major conclusion of this paper is that without the requisite degree of either community-organizational alignment or intra-organizational alignment, social-economy organizations are bound to struggle. Their success depends on understanding and achieving the requisite degree of alignment at both of those levels.

In providing practical examples of alignment challenges the paper will focus on the challenges that have been faced and must be overcome by social-economy organizations in Canada, with a particular focus on smaller rural and remote communities with and without Indigenous populations. Nevertheless, the models and principles profiled in this paper will have more general relevance and application globally.