Date of Award
12-2024
Document Type
Open Access Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Public Policy
First Advisor
Christian Weller
Second Advisor
Heather MacIndoe
Third Advisor
Jeffrey Stokes
Abstract
INTRODUCING A PRACTITIONER’S FRAMEWORK FOR MOBILIZING COLLECTIVE ACTION December, 2024 Matthew P. Bond, B.A. University of North Carolina Greensboro, M.S., University of Massachusetts Boston, M.P.A., Suffolk University, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Boston Directed by Christian Weller Social dilemmas are situations in which individual and collective incentives are at odds, leading to suboptimal collective outcomes that make all individuals worse off. Modeling policy problems stuck in stasis as social dilemmas reveals new solution pathways that promise progressive change. The solution to a social dilemma is collective action, yet since the introduction of the collective action problem in the 1960’s, a solution to this problem that results in a repeatably effective process for mobilizing collective action has yet to be found. Research work on collective action has been mostly theoretical and, particularly regarding applied efforts to combat policy problems in field settings. This study introduces a framework that synthesizes the latest progress in collective action theory to resolve policy problems framed as social dilemmas by outputting issue-specific intervention strategies through a repeatable process. In order to test the framework, I selected a case of a policy problem stuck in stasis, used the framework to design an intervention strategy, and then tested my intervention strategy against alternatives to assess its effectiveness in resolving the problem. Inequitable hiring outcomes for senior positions across all major organizational and institutional settings in the U.S., particularly when focusing on disparities in minority representation in such positions, is an unresolved policy problem that can be modeled as a social dilemma. The National Football League (NFL) is an American institution that has a well-documented history of inequitable hiring outcomes for its head coaching body. Further, the NFL deployed an intervention strategy, the Rooney Rule, in 2003, yet this intervention has achieved no measurable effect on outcomes at all. I developed an intervention strategy from my framework and tested it against the Rooney Rule and the null in a live experimental setting with 661 participants who were asked to engage in simulated hiring and firing cycles over the lifespan of the Rooney Rule (approximately 25 “seasons”). The results of this experiment showed conclusive and substantial progressive effects of the experimental treatment derived from my framework, which significantly outperformed the Rooney Rule and the null while controlling for other factors. These data lend credence to the notion that the practitioner’s framework for mobilizing collective action that I introduced in this study is an effective tool for designing intervention strategies that can resolve the biggest policy problems faced by modern society.
Recommended Citation
Bond, Matthew Paul, "Introducing A Practitioner's Framework for Mobilizing Collective Action" (2024). Graduate Doctoral Dissertations. 1017.
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/doctoral_dissertations/1017
Comments
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