Participatory roles in community coalitions: Associations with perceptions of influence on decision-making

ABSTRACT

Community-based coalitions seek to distribute leadership and decision-making broadly among participants to build capacity for improving local conditions. This is often difficult to achieve, however, due to a variety of structural and contextual factors. This study examines variance in decision-making influence among participants in 40 county-level substance abuse prevention coalitions. Participants’ duration and frequency of involvement and the number of roles each member has played within the coalition were tested as predictors in multilevel regression models. Predictive values from the model show meaningful differences in perceived decision-making influence at the individual and coalition levels as participants take on additional roles. We also explore qualitative data on satisfaction with progress in coalitions with highest/ lowest levels of perceived influence in decision-making. Findings provide support for the concept of opportunity role structure, conceptualized as a component of organizational empowerment, and suggest strategies for building and assessing the capacity of community coalitions.

KEYWORDS:

• Coalitions
• decision making
• roles
• shared leadership
• substance abuse prevention

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Paul Poteat for helpful feedback on a draft of this article.

Funding: This work was funded by a Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment (SAPT) block grant to the State of Tennessee, Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, funded by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP). Contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not represent official views of funding or collaborating agencies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.