Assessing and Increasing Organizational Readiness to Collaborate for Equity and Justice: An Action Research Study with a Voluntary Member-Based Professional Association

Despite ongoing calls to achieve health equity by addressing the structural and social determinants of health, inequities persist and, in some ways, have worsened. Reasons are many, but largely due to centuries of unjust, unequal policies and practices stemming from social injustice and racism. If current practices were sufficient, the U.S. would not be experiencing stagnant or growing health inequalities more than 35 years after their reduction was identified as a national priority (Freudenberg et al., 2015). However, public health organizations and their workforce have the potential to fuel real social change.

Professional associations across all disciplines may play many roles in change, including in public health. Associations disseminate outstanding practice, giving professionals a standard against which they can measure themselves and thereby judge if there are internal problems they need to address in their own practice or organizations (Segal, 2010). One way to achieve social change in an organization is to incorporate race equity and inclusion at every stage of work (AECF, 2022). Racial equity strategy requires the development of proactive systems and processes to maintain an organization’s focus. Strategy for achieving racial equity requires moving beyond conversation into action, thinking purposefully about integrating and sustaining racial equity work beyond singular activities, and hosting one-off events or training (Bornstein, 2021). Designing organizational strategies to achieve equity is a multi-layered, multi-faceted effort requiring courage, practice, and action to create change (Aspen Institute, 2022).

In 2020-2021, the National Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE) launched a new strategic management endeavor, formulated by a 5-year strategic plan and updated mission and vision, inclusive of the Health Equity and Anti-Racism (HEAR) Task Force’s early findings to chart the course for the organization, the Board of Trustees, its members, and its Chapters. This pivot is responsive to today’s needs and the future of public health education and promotion, but the readiness for implementation to create the necessary change in practice among and within its Chapter organizations is unknown. Chapters may have the potential to adopt the assigned strategic aim, but a gap remains in how that may be accomplished and to what degree. Chapters are in a unique position to take public health education and promotion to the next level, but there are significant unknowns. Therefore, the opportunity is to explore the current state of SOPHE Chapters’ readiness and what their view of the future state should be concerning the new strategic aim. This is an opportunity to pick up where the strategic planning process ended and forge the contextually inclusive direction among SOPHE Chapters.

This dissertation project used an action research approach in its design, analysis, and preparation of results using mixed and multi-methods across six cycles of look, think, and act. Key concepts of exploration, adoption, and implementation readiness were explored through the interrelatedness of key constructs, including organizational motivation, general capacity, and innovation-specific capacity, and the Principles of Collaborating for Equity and Justice. The study then leveraged the SOAR^™ framework to analyze results by collaboratively determining Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results using a strengths-based inquiry approach, and participants outlined their pathway to the future shared vision through an adapted 5-Ds of Define, Discover, Dream, Design, and Destiny.