An Investigation of Competing Values in Development of a Voluntary Organization

Competing Values Framework (CVF) has attracted attention in the organization literature but little is known about how competing values can inform development of voluntary organizations. Against this backdrop, we present an action research study into Right in the Community (RitC), a voluntary agency which provides services to developmentally disabled in Cobb County, Georgia. Collaborating with researchers and agency management, staff, and board, the study had a dual purpose: 1) develop agency’s identity, organization, management practices, and ability to plan for the future, and 2) adapt CVF to support development of voluntary organizations. Thus, we demonstrate the value of CVF for developing voluntary organizations by revealing how its dimensions of organizational focus, structural preference, and managerial concern positively informed the efforts at RitC. Also, tensions between heart and head were important and, therefore, in the context of voluntary organizations we propose to extend the CVF with a dimension of motivational trait