ABSTRACT

Community-based coalitions seek to distribute leadership and decision-making broadly among participants to build capacity for improving local conditions. This is often difficult to achieve, however, due to a variety of structural and contextual factors. This study examines variance in decision-making influence among participants in 40 county-level substance abuse prevention coalitions. Participants’ duration and frequency of involvement and the number of roles each member has played within the coalition were tested as predictors in multilevel regression models. Predictive values from the model show meaningful differences in perceived decision-making influence at the individual and coalition levels as participants take on additional roles. We also explore qualitative data on satisfaction with progress in coalitions with highest/ lowest levels of perceived influence in decision-making. Findings provide support for the concept of opportunity role structure, conceptualized as a component of organizational empowerment, and suggest strategies for building and assessing the capacity of community coalitions.

摘要

基于社区的联盟寻求在参与者之间广泛分配领导权和决策权，以建立改善当地条件的能力。然而，由于各种结构和背景因素，这通常难以实现。本研究调查了 40 个县级药物滥用预防联盟的参与者在决策影响方面的差异。参与者的持续时间和参与频率以及每个成员在联盟中扮演的角色数量在多级回归模型中作为预测变量进行了测试。当参与者承担额外的角色时，模型的预测值显示了在个人和联盟层面上感知决策影响的有意义的差异。我们还探讨了对决策中感知影响水平最高/最低的联盟的进展满意度的定性数据。调查结果为机会角色结构的概念提供支持，将其概念化为组织赋权的一个组成部分，并提出建立和评估社区联盟能力的策略。