Legitimizing Organizations via Research: Facilitating Possibilities through the Study of Relational, Emergent, Transformative, and Change-Oriented Organizations (RETCOs)

Abstract

Under multiple public administration reforms since the 1980s, public bureaucracies’ activities range from connecting with markets to inviting the participation of service users, citizens, and networks of organizations in policy development, decision-making, and implementation. Despite this broadening of stakeholder participation, certain organizations are at risk of being overlooked, despite their direct involvement in efforts to engage communities and address persistent social problems. We contend that one reason for this exclusion is that these organizations are not recognized as their own organizational type. This paper identifies Relational, Emergent, Transformative, and Change-Oriented Organizations (RETCOs) as a discrete organizational type, and argues that they should be represented in the model cases that are used to educate public administrators, recognized as worthy of public funding and support, and included in public administration research. Recognizing RETCOs as legitimate stakeholders can correct some of the ethical problems of under-representation of important voices and perspectives in government-citizen interfaces. RETCOs are most appropriately studied through qualitative research methods that are sensitive to what make RETCOs a uniquely responsive organizational type, including their prioritizing of relationships within organizations, emergent rather than fixed organizational forms, goals of transformation, and commitments to liberatory social and economic change.