This dissertation explores how a nonprofit network orchestrator went through revolutionary change in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout data collection, the nonprofit sector grappled with uncertainties about the funding landscape (Batsell, 2020), how to deliver programming when in-person interactions were impossible (Warren, 2020), substantial job losses (Newhouse 2021a; Newhouse 2021b; Salamon & Newhouse, 2020), and decreased revenue (Forefront, 2021; La Piana, 2020). The site for this dissertation was the Illinois Literacy Association (ILA), a literacy-focused network of nonprofit organizations. In addition to founding a network of literacy organizations, the ILA founded the Literaspace, a trendy 51,000 square foot coworking space in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood. ILA staff and ILA members were deeply passionate about the Literaspace. The COVID-19 pandemic prevented in-person interactions, significantly decreasing the use of the Literaspace. Not being able to use the Literaspace prevented the ILA from continuing to carry out orchestrator activities in the same ways that they had been doing pre-pandemic. As a result, the ILA underwent revolutionary change, fundamentally transforming its approaches to network orchestration. This dissertation investigated how revolutionary change occurred at the ILA. The data revealed three major findings about how a sudden, unanticipated external event influences former network orchestration activities. The first is that even when undergoing revolutionary change, orchestrators continue carrying out the same types of activities that they engaged in before revolutionary change. The second is that during revolutionary change, orchestrators reflect on the work that they want to accomplish as a network. This is because revolutionary change is a “critical crossroads” moment for networks, where the orchestrator and network members question the network’s existence (D’Aunno & Zuckerman, 1987, p. 543). The third finding is that the way that orchestrators engage in activities before revolutionary change creates vulnerabilities in how network members respond to the renegotiated forms of those activities. This suggests that revolutionary changes to orchestrator activities are subject to path dependence (Vergne & Durand, 2010), where pre-revolutionary change activities lock orchestrators into certain responses from member organizations during revolutionary change.

Creator

• Childs, Kaitlyn Margaret

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-sykv-t654

Subject

• Communication

Language

• en

Alternate Identifier

• etdadmin_upload_897092
• http://dissertations.umi.com/northwestern:16001

Date created

• 2022-01-01

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright