Identifying the organizational changes taking place in Somali community-based organization (CBO) in response to new patterns of immigration: implications for adult community education.

Abstract

This dissertation focuses on changes in the organizational development of community-based organizations (CBOs) within the context of new patterns of immigration, in the United States. Organizational development is considered within the context of dialects of growth, change and transformation of communities in transition. The primary goal of this investigation was to examine how and why Somali community-based organizations are established, how they grow, manage change, the challenges they face and the strategies they adopt to circumvent them. A secondary and related objective was to explore the relationship between managers' education and community culture on the success of Somali nonprofit organizations. The study was guided by three general questions: (1) what are the pressing challenges facing new immigrants' nonprofit organizations? (2) What are the emerging challenges that could have a major impact on their development? (3) What issues, not now being discussed, could emerge and potentially revolutionize new immigrant nonprofit organizations? In order to answer these questions a case study emerged as an appropriate methodology to guide my research because the case study method has the capacity to accommodate a variety of research techniques. This study found that running and managing organizations require leadership, expertise and resources. The dynamics of economic and political relations have implications for the powerless. While growth is evident, this growth is organic and does not transcend its ethnic leanings. There is duplication of services and competition for resources. Culture and religion has an impact in the work of Somali community-based organizations. The relationship between managers' education and the success of the organizations they serve was hard to quantify because of the subjectivity of measures of success.