Service Innovation in a Voluntary Organization: Creating Work Opportunities for Severely Developmentally Disabled Adults

17 Pages Posted: 18 Jun 2012

See all articles by Cathy S. Neher

Cathy S. Neher

Georgia State University

Lars Mathiassen

Georgia State University

Date Written: June 11, 2012

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, a voluntary agency in Georgia, wanted to innovate its service offering by providing meaningful work opportunities for those that are severely developmentally disabled. The Competing Values Framework (CVF) offers a theoretical framework that has been adapted to explain many business factors in addition to organizational effectiveness. Based on a fourteen-month action research engagement, the authors adapted CVF to concentrate on organizational focus, strategy formation and motivational traits to understand service innovation in a voluntary organization. The authors aided the voluntary organization’s development of a program to provide meaningful work opportunities for those that are severely developmentally disabled, added new knowledge on managing service innovation in voluntary organizations and adapted CVF for understanding and guiding service innovation in that particular context.

Keywords: Voluntary organization, action research, wicked problems

Suggested Citation

Neher, Cathy S. and Mathiassen, Lars, Service Innovation in a Voluntary Organization: Creating Work Opportunities for Severely Developmentally Disabled Adults (June 11, 2012). The Second International Conference on Engaged Management Scholarship, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2086314

Cathy S. Neher (Contact Author)

Georgia State University ( email )

35 Broad Street
Atlanta, GA 30303-3083
United States

Lars Mathiassen

Georgia State University ( email )

35 Broad Street
Atlanta, GA 30303-3083
United States

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