Why primary prevention is important,and how to promote resilience: CADCA

Last week's annual leadership meeting of Community Anti‐Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) focused, as it always does, on primary prevention. This is defined as preventing the use of drugs (including alcohol), mainly in youth. There were more than 3,200 attendees, 500 of whom were middle and high schoolers drawn from the coalitions funded by the Drug‐Free Communities (DFC) program, with CADCA member organizations benefiting from training in how to use this funding.     

Role analysis using the ego-ERGM: A look at environmental interest group coalitions

Interest groups coordinate to achieve political goals. However, these groups are heterogeneous, and the division of labor within these coalitions varies. We explore the presence of distinct roles in coalitions of environmental interest groups, and analyse which factors predict if an organization takes on a particular role. To model these latent dynamics, we introduce the ego-ERGM. We find that a group's budget, member size, staff size, and degree centrality are influential in distinguishing between three role assignments. These results provide insight into the roles adopted in carrying out coalition tasks. This approach shows promise for understanding a host of networks.     

Briefly Noted

Drug‐Free Communities (DFC), a significant prevention grant program totaling more than $101 million and administered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), will be moving to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), but the change is mainly one that affects interagency machinations in Washington and not the end recipients of the funding — drug‐free coalitions. The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) will retain the program and policy oversight. The funding will go to the ONDCP, and then be distributed to the CDC instead of to SAMHSA, as it has been in the past. The DFC grant program funds anti‐drug coalitions ‐‐ there are more than 700 across the country. Most are members of Community Anti‐Drug Coalitions of American (CADCA), which has 5,000 members. The CDC will be the new agency that subcontracts with the ONDCP to do the day‐to‐day administration of the DFC program. The change was announced Feb. 4 at CADCA's National Leadership Forum by ONDCP Director James Carroll. For a 2019 fact sheet on DFC, see https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp‐content/uploads/2019/12/FY‐2019‐DFC‐Fact‐Sheet‐20191220‐converted.pdf .     

Special interest group coalitions: Ethical standards for broad-based support efforts

Coalitions are an increasingly important tool of special interest group public affairs efforts. While coalitions are not usually formed with the intent to deceive, some groups take shortcuts which amount to buying results and manipulating the public. These “front” groups which deceive or mislead the public or policy-making bodies can undermine the professionalism of public relations and damage the public trust.The author examines case studies of coalitions formed by a for-profit corporation, a trade association and a foreign government. Findings were that: (1) coalitions perform an important role if they represent a broad public interest but if they do not represent a broad base, they may be deceptive, unethical, and potentially damaging to the public interest; (2) media play an important role as diligent watchdogs but don't always rise to this responsibility, and (3) the public relations profession bears the brunt of public and media concern over unethical coalition activity. Ethical guidelines for coalition development are offered.     

A Coalition Perspective on Nonprofit Governance Quality: Analyzing Dimensions of Influence in an Exploratory Comparative Case Analysis

We answer the call that governance research should focus more on processes outside the boundaries of boards, especially for nonprofit organizations. In particular, we suggest and elaborate concrete steps with respect to the advantages of a leadership coalition perspective to focus more on the behavioral and informal aspects of governance. Through a comparative case analysis of five nonprofit organizations, we explore contingencies between characteristics of nonprofit leadership coalitions and governance quality. We identify two dimensions to classify leadership coalitions: centralized versus diffused influence and specific versus holistic influence. These dimensions are subsequently related with observed governance quality. We frame our finding in the existing literature on group faultlines, which are socially constructed dividing lines within groups, and we discuss the importance of establishing a balanced coalition between a weak or nonexisting and a strong dominant coalition to ensure high governance quality. We also present propositions on how governance quality and its various sub-dimensions can be studied as a complex, nonlinear intermediate concept between coalitional aspects of leadership groups and nonprofit organizational performance. Finally, we discuss concrete avenues for further testing and verification of our theoretical interpretation.     

Exploring the Dynamics of Volunteer and Staff Interactions

The quality of the relationships between volunteers and paid staff can have far‐reaching consequences for organizations that utilize volunteer programs to support service delivery. We utilize a mixed methods case study design to explore volunteer and staff perceptions of their mutual interactions within a large library system in the southeastern United States. We consider which areas of these interactions might be vulnerable to conflict. Our findings suggest that conflict is likely to arise due to communication problems, behavioral or attitudinal issues, perceptions of job vulnerability, divergent expectations, lack of trust, and workflow integration hurdles. We argue that to avoid these tensions and promote effective service delivery, staff members must have appropriate training and preparation to interact successfully with volunteers.     

The sexual division of leadership in volunteer emergency medical service squads

This article reports on theoretical and empirical research that explored the hypothesis that there is a sexual division of leadership in volunteer emergency medical service (EMS) squads. This hypothesis was tested against survey data obtained from 216 current members of nine upstate New York volunteer EMS squads. Despite several mitigating characteristics of these organizations, and despite the lack of supporting statistical evidence at the aggregate level of officership, the research found statistically significant confirmation of sex bias in officer selection when leadership was disaggregated into line and staff officer positions. Medical qualifications and length of EMS squad membership were also included in the model as determinants of leadership experience. These results are discussed relative to the question of the sexual division of leadership in the overarching nonprofit and voluntary sector of the U.S. economy.     

A Differentiated Model of Role Identity Acquisition

The differentiated model builds on Burke's control system model by emphasizing the importance of multidimensionality and how role usage variation affects identity formation. In a study of 146 entering university students, differentiating the college student role into multiple meaning dimensions results in significant variation in degree of role identification improvement. This model ties differences in role use in interaction to identity formation by specifying that the self‐referent feedback necessary for role/identity discrepancy reduction must come from members of a specific referent group who consider the role “real” based on its usefulness as a resource for accomplishing group goals.     

Leadership within Australian voluntary sport organization boards

This article applies leader‐member exchange theory to the study of dyadic relationships between leaders (board chairs and paid executives) and members (volunteer board members) within the boards of Australian voluntary sport organizations. The article specifically examines leader‐member exchanges within a sample of six Queensland State sport organizations and their relationship with board performance. It was found that leadership within voluntary sport organization boards emanates from either board chairs or executives and that when the individuals fulfilling these roles are able to develop a mature working relationship, the board's ability to perform is enhanced. These findings extend our understanding of the importance of leadership roles held by volunteers and paid professionals for the achievement of organizational outcomes.     

Coalitions on mental health and aging: lessons learned for policy and practice

Elders with mental health needs have been poorly served. Private and government agencies have given this issue a low priority, which is reflected in service delivery and funding. Coalitions have developed in states around the country and have engaged in a variety of tasks, including training techniques and collaborative efforts to advocate successfully for appropriate services. While accomplishments vary, the coalitions should continue their work, and others should organize in order to reach the goal of having accessible and appropriate elder mental health services.     

The Effects of Different Group Sex Compositions on Support Rates and Coalition Formation

Une réplique des expériences de T. M. Mills sur des coalitions dans les triades, en variant la composition par sexe du groupe, met en lumière le fait que les femmes apportent un meilleur appui que les hommes, qu'elles établissent un plus grand nombre de coalitions et répartissent leur appui de f aeon plus équitable parmi les autres membres lorsqu'elles entrent en interaction avec des personnes de meme sexe. Tandis que le membre le plus inactif de la triade masculine devient un isole, le moins actif de la triade féminine regoit le meilleur appui émotif. Le modele de coalition typique dans la triade masculine est une coalition de deux membres et un isolé: dans le groupe féminin les trois membres du groupe etablissent des coalitions. Dans les triades mixtes, l'impact de l'interaction des membres d'un sexe avec ceux du sexe opposé est de faconner leurs comportements à l'image de ceux des autres. On suggère que le processus qui influence la constitution de coalitions dans les triades mixtes est reliéà la concurrence que se livrent les deux membres du meme sexe pour obtenir l'appui du membre du sexe opposé. Dans une telle situation il n'est pas rare de constater que le membre du sexe minoritaire devient un mediateur entre les deux membres majoritaires du sexe opposé. II s'ensuit une formation de deux coalitions composée du membre minoritaire et d'un membre majoritaire et parfois, des coalitions entre les trois membres du groupe. A replication of T. M. Mills' experiments dealing with coalition-formation in triads, varying the sex composition of the group, reveals that females are more supportive, form more coalitions and distribute their support more equally among others when interacting with members of the same sex, than males do. While the least active member of the triad becomes an isolate in the 3-male groups, the least active member in 3-female groups receives more support than any other group member. The typical coalition pattern in the 3-male groups is a coalition between two, with the third being an isolate: in the 3-female groups, coalitions develop between all three members of the group. In the mixed-sex groups, the effect of interacting with members of the opposite sex on both men and women is to make their behaviour more like the other's. It is suggested that the process that governs the formation of coalitions in mixed-sex triads is that of competition between the two majority-sex members for the support of the one member of the other sex, which often leads to the minority-sex member mediating between the competing pair of the opposite sex, and this results in the formation of two coalitions between the minority-sex member and each of the majority-sex members in the group, and sometimes even in the eventual establishment of coalitions between all three members of the group.     

Social movement coalitions: Formation,longevity, and success

Social movements rely on coalitions to help mobilize the mass numbers of people necessary for success. In this article, we review the literature on social movement coalition formation, longevity, and success. We identify five factors critical to coalition formation: (a) social ties; (b) conducive organizational structures; (c) ideology, culture, and identity; (d) the institutional environment; and (e) resources. Next, we explore the extent to which coalition survival is influenced by these same factors and argue that emergent properties of the coalition, such as commitment and trust, also facilitate longevity. Our review of the literature reveals that two factors specific to coalitions influence their success: coalition form and the nature of institutional targets. Interaction, communication technology, and the availability of physical and virtual spaces that facilitate communication are themes that run throughout our discussion, as they undergird many of the elements that shape coalition formation and survival. We conclude by evaluating the state of the research area and suggesting directions for further research.     

Labor‐Environmental Coalition Formation: Framing and the Right to Know1

This article examines the formation of a cross‐movement coalition between elements of the labor and environmental movements in New Jersey. We explain the successful formation and initial political campaign of the New Jersey Work Environment Council with an expansion of the theoretical perspective of frame analysis. We propose a model of a coalition collective action frame that offers several important insights into the active role coalition actors play in the construction of a common frame uniting union and environmental activists. Using qualitative data gathered from interviews, observations, and document analyses of two major campaigns, we argue that the coalition frame allowed new political opportunities to be created, leading to the establishment of the most sweeping right‐to‐know laws in the United States. We conclude the discussion of coalition framing by examining political constraints on the framing possibilities of coalitions, specifically by exploring how the discursive shift from the right to know to the right to act failed to expand the influence of the cross‐movement coalition as originally expected by its members.     

Differences between paid and unpaid social services for beneficiaries

In many Western welfare states, social work services that have traditionally been provided by paid employees are being replaced by family support, community support, informal networks, and volunteering. For the field of social work, it is relevant to know what it matters to beneficiaries whether services are provided by volunteers or by paid employees. The central question of this article is therefore as follows: What are the differences between unpaid and paid social services for beneficiaries? The article is based on literature review and focus groups. Our results suggest that beneficiaries do experience some differences regarding the advantages of volunteer services for beneficiaries that can be summarized in three propositions: (1) services provided by volunteers are more relational than are services provided by paid employees, and they are therefore perceived as more equal, flexible and sincere. (2) The effects of volunteer services for beneficiaries are not exclusively positive. (3) Although particular tasks may appear to be interchangeable to some extent, the relative advantages of a given task depend upon whether it is performed by a paid worker or by a volunteer. Additional research is needed in order to provide further validation.     

Kingmakers and leaders in coalition formation

Assume that players strictly rank each other as coalition partners. We propose a procedure whereby they “fall back” on their preferences, yielding internally compatible, or coherent, majority coalition(s), which we call fallback coalitions. If there is more than one fallback coalition, the players common to them, or kingmakers, determine which fallback coalition will form. The first player(s) acceptable to all other members of a fallback coalition are the leader(s) of that coalition. The effects of different preference assumptions—particularly, different kinds of single-peakedness—on the number of coherent coalitions, their connectedness, and which players become kingmakers and leaders are investigated. The fallback procedure may be used (i) empirically to identify kingmakers and leaders or (ii) normatively to select them. We illustrate the model using data from the U.S. Supreme Court, 2005–2009.     

Empowerment in Coalitions Targeting Underage Drinking: Differential Effects of Organizational Characteristics for Volunteers and Staff

Social work has adopted the Grand Challenge to reduce and prevent alcohol misuse and related consequences. This study extends previous research through a macro examination of distinct roles within coalitions implementing prevention strategies targeting underage alcohol use. The purpose was to determine whether hypothesized relationships among organizational characteristics, empowerment variables, and perceived effectiveness differed for 2 subgroups (i.e., volunteers and paid staff). The sample was comprised of 357 survey participants affiliated with a statewide substance abuse initiative. Structural equation modeling was used to examine hypothesized relationships between study variables and found differences among subgroups. Results can inform organizational processes within coalitions that focus on engaging different groups to have a stronger impact on community issues, such as substance use consequences.     

The evolution and formation of amicus curiae networks

This paper sheds light on two age-old questions of interest group behavior: how have interest group coalition strategies changed over time and which factors determine whether interest groups work together? Through the creation of a new network measure of interest group coalitions based on cosigner status to United States Supreme Court amicus curiae briefs, we illuminate the central players and overall characteristics of this dynamic network from 1930 to 2009. We present evidence of an increasingly transitive network resembling a host of tightly grouped factions and leadership hub organizations employing mixed coalition strategies. We also model the attribute homophily and structure of the present-day network. We find assortative mixing of interest groups based on industry area, budget, sales and membership.     

Factors characterizing the most effective nonprofits managed by volunteers

This article reports on an empirical study of thirty-nine volunteer-managed nonprofit organizations (voluntary associations, not paid staff nonprofits) in a small suburb of Boston. Reputation for effectiveness in achieving goals has been found to be significantly associated with nonprofit nature, governance, and formalization. Many hypotheses suggested by others for nonprofit organizations with paid staff do not seem to transfer to volunteer nonprofit groups. Practitioners can utilize the present findings to improve volunteer nonprofits.     

Membership rules and stability of coalition structures in positive externality games

This paper compares the stability of coalition structures under six institutional settings of treaty formation in positive externality games. We argue that many economic problems belong to the class of positive externality games (i.e. outsiders benefit from the formation of coalitions) and hence our results can be applied to many situations. It is shown that it is easier to sustain agreements under exclusive than under open membership and the higher the “degree of consensus” necessary to form a coalition.