Organizing Compassionate Communication: Pragmatic Fieldwork with Nonprofits and Homeless Young Adults by Timothy Huffman A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Approved March 2013 by the Graduate Supervisory Committee: Angela Trethewey, Chair Sarah J. Tracy Mark Hagar ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY May 2013 ABSTRACT In an effort to understand and improve interactions between homeless young adults and the nonprofit organizations that serve them, I engaged in a long-term, qualitative, participatory action project. My project involved input from homeless young adults, nonprofit organizations, volunteers/staff, and communication scholarship. While taking a community-engaged, participatory, and qualitative approach, I focused on the interactions between youth and the organizations. Particularly, I drew on homeless young adult experiences to inform services and illuminate compassion within the context of the nonprofit organizations. In the end, this project extends the individual model of compassion to include presence, identifies potential ruptures in the process of compassion, and models compassionate dynamics in organizations. It also articulates a method I call pragmatic fieldwork, a qualitative and pragmatic approach to participatory action research. Each of these outcomes speaks to varied community interests, from theoretically nuancing scholarly models of compassion to informing policy in the interest of more effectively and compassionately serving homeless youth. i DEDICATION For those who live without homes. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The work described herein would not be possible without three communities: The volunteers of StandUp For Kids, including Anna, Dean, Jacque, John, and Krista. The young adults of StandUp For Kids, particularly Andrew, DK, JD, and Sam. My academic mentors, most notably Angela, Duff, Mark, and Sarah. I am especially indebted to my wife and editor, Kristen. As my partner in all things, she moves with me through every community and is part of all my labors from inception to completion. iii CHAPTER 1 FORWARD ......................................................................................................... 1 2 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 19 Improving Organized Service to Homeless Young Adults .......................... 20 Describing Organized Service to Homeless Young Adults .......................... 21 Explaining Organized Service to Homeless Young Adults .......................... 21 Why Homelessness? ...................................................................................... 22 Project Summary ............................................................................................ 24 Chapter One – Forward.................................................................................. 24 Chapter Two – Introduction ........................................................................... 24 Chapter Three – Context ................................................................................ 24 Chapter Four – Methods ................................................................................ 25 Chapter Five – Individual Compassion in Organizations ............................. 25 Chapter Six – Ruptures in Compassion ......................................................... 25 Chapter Seven – Compassionate Dynamics in Organizations...................... 26 Chapter Eight – Pragmatic Fieldwork ........................................................... 26 Chapter Nine – Implications and Discussion ................................................ 27 Chapter Ten – Conclusion ............................................................................. 27 3 CONTEXT ......................................................................................................... 28 Topical Context: Youth Homelessness ......................................................... 28 Struggles of Being Homeless ........................................................................ 29 (Sub)disciplinary Context: Communication, Nonprofits, and Social Justice ..................................................................................... 31 iv Theoretical Frame: Compassion in Organizations ........................................ 37 Compassion as a Theoretic Frame .................................................... 37 Emotional Labor, Burnout, and Compassion Fatigue ...................... 38 Compassion in Organizations ........................................................... 40 Expanding on Noticing, Connecting, and Responding .................... 43 Ethics and Care .................................................................................. 44 Conceptualizing Compassion ............................................................ 45 Summary of Theoretical Context ...................................................... 48 Research Problem and Research Question ....................................... 48 Conceptual Context ........................................................................................ 48 Paradigmatic Background ................................................................. 49 Pragmatism ........................................................................................ 51 Phronesis ............................................................................................ 56 Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) ...................................... 57 Pragmatism, Phronesis, and POS in Participatory Action Research ................................................................................ 58 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 62 4 METHODS ........................................................................................................ 63 Qualitative Data Collection and Analysis ..................................................... 63 Observation and Fieldnotes ............................................................... 63 SUFK Youth Center .............................................................. 65 Mill Avenue (“The Ave”) ..................................................... 66 Tumbleweed Youth Resource Center .................................. 67 v Phoenix Shelters (“The Zone”) ............................................. 67 Interviews........................................................................................... 68 Participation ....................................................................................... 69 Data Analysis ..................................................................................... 70 Qualitative Analysis and Reasoning ................................................. 71 IRB Approval .................................................................................... 74 5 INDIVIDUAL COMPASSION IN ORGANIZATIONS .............................................. 76 Presence .......................................................................................................... 80 The Basic Relationship: Presence Indicates Care............................. 81 Necessary, but Not Sufficient ........................................................... 84 A Critical Juxtoposition – Human Service Agencies and Disney World ................................................................................................. 86 Immediacy – Initiating and Welcoming Presence ............................ 90 Acts of Service ................................................................................... 93 Embodied Aboutness ......................................................................... 95 Extending Compassion Models ........................................................ 96 On Presence and Compassion ........................................................................ 98 6 RUPTURES IN COMPASSION ................................................................................. 100 Ruptures in Presence – Being Present in a Noncompassionate Way .................................................................................................. 100 Ruptures in Recognition – Noticing Needs Others Do Not Think They Have .............................................................................................................. 103 vi Ruptures in Relating – Relating Interpreted as Noncompassionate as Interpreted by Homeless Young Adults ...................................................... 105 Ruptures in (Re)acting – Noncompassionate Reacting .............................. 110 Other Ruptures Lead to Noncompassionate (Re)acting ................. 110 Ineffective Response ....................................................................... 112 Verb-Preponsition Pairs ............................................................................... 114 Understanding the Prepositions Using Interpellation ................................. 116 The Interpellative Power of “Against” ........................................... 118 The Interpellative Power of “For” .................................................. 118 The Interpellative Power of “With” ................................................ 119 Summary ...................................................................................................... 120 7 DYNAMICS OF COMPASSION IN ORGANIZATIONS ......................................... 121 Modeling the Dynamics of Compassion in Organizations ........................