Organizational transformation and community building: An exploration in the field

This dissertation explores organizational transformation and community building through a case study of the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC), an international relief and development organization headquartered in North America serving North America, Africa, Asia and Latin America. Through the methodologies of Action Research, Appreciative Inquiry and Ethnography I formed relationships with CRWRC and it's partner organizations around the world that allowed me to collect stories regarding CRWRC's history and transformation(s). Through these stories I created a meta-narrative that I used as data to study organizational transformation.;The overall findings from the study are that organizations are human-centered social systems that flourish when building the organization as a community. Community building and organizational transformation are the result of people interacting with one another and engaging in transformational conversations that result in symbiotic (mutually enriching) relationships. Organizations that recognize, appreciate and structure themselves to be human-centered communities that facilitate symbiotic relationships and place high value on aspiring to achieve heightened levels of human community through collaboration, inclusion and diversity are egalitarian organizations.;Through this study I present the following meta-provocative proposition and six processes of organizational transformation: Egalitarian organizations are communities that facilitate symbiotic relationships that inspire curiosity, learning, care, trust and authenticity amongst its members. The environment evokes inclusion, collaboration and continuous learning so that its members have the opportunity to expand their intellectual, emotional and social selves in a process of co-creation of the self and others. As such, egalitarian organizations strive to bring us all to a level of higher human community by evoking our humanity and inspiring us to see the best in ourselves and others. These processes provide leverage of the best in order to create a human presence that values and utilizes the unique contributions of people internal and external to the organization in order to expand the organization's capacity.;The Six Processes of Continuous Organizational Transformation in Egalitarian Systems are Evoking Transformational Dialogue, Building Community, Inclusive Leadership, Continuous Learning, Living Vision, and Perpetual Egalitarian Organizing.