Addressing Exclusion in Organizations

Social Desire Paths and Undocumented Students Attending College

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2245261
AutoresLaura Nichols (0000-0003-0113-0109, Santa Clara University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2019
Páginasspz021
Fecha de publicación2019-07-25
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSocial Problems (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0037-7791 • E-ISSN: 1533-8533
EditorialOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/socpro/spz021
OpenAlexW2962890699
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas31

With data from a national study of a network of 28 private, non-profit colleges in the United States, I show how the individual actions of high school and college staff became collective 'social desire paths' to introduce new organizational practices to enroll students who were undocumented. In interviews with staff, four factors emerged as important in enrolling students: (1) the way social desire paths started as ad hoc processes and then were entrenched through the collective and similar responses of staff; (2) identification of financial, administrative, structural, and cultural barriers to inclusion that formed the basis for the development of social desire paths; (3) the way staff innovated paths by reforming current procedures as well as developing new practices; and (4) the role of organizational values in supporting social desire paths. Along with uncovering the processes and practices, I also argue that using a social desire path approach helps researchers and managers detect organizational structures that exclude desired populations, and provides a means by which the actions of 'street-level bureaucrats' that become collective can address social problems at the organization level

Identification (biology) · Political science · Public relations · Social exclusion · Sociology · Homelessness and Social Issues · Law · Migration, Health and Trauma · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Psychology · Social Psychology