Bedford-Stuyvescent Ghetto Regeneration & Antipoverty Models

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Jack Schauer
In Partial Fulfillment
Of The Course Requirements
For a DBA
Argosy University
College of Business
Organizational Theory: Final Reflective Paper
Dr. Pender Noriega
June 23, 2010

Abstract
This study examines Robert Kennedy's 1966 Bedford Stuyvescent ghetto regeneration project in New York City, and specific organizational theories which, this author submits if examined within the context of reducing if not eliminating poverty within the SubSaharan country of South Africa. In addition, this study examines how public policies, business organizations, and ultimately tax policies as well as the people of this ghetto were able to come together, in a spirit of pragmatic action, to regenerate and rejuvenate the Bedford Stuyvescent ghetto in Brooklyn New York. The basic thesis is that through only an open systems model, specifically that of a resource dependency model coupled with an organizational ecological model in the long-run, can the example of the Bedford Stuyvescent ghetto regeneration project be successfully applied to the situation of dire poverty within South Africa.

I. Introduction
The purpose of this final reflective research paper is to examine Senator Robert Kennedy's 1966 ghetto regeneration project in terms of applying those same principles of organizational development, public policies, and leadership management practices, to the sub-Saharan nation of South Africa. This author will initially examine, analyze and evaluate Kennedy's Bedford-Stuyvescent ghetto regeneration project, and the implications of this project in terms of its economic, political and social value(s).
In addition, the basic thesis of this research paper is the author's view that if the combined forces of the European Union, the United States, and, as well, the United Nations were brought together, both on an organizational level, as well as on a specific set of goals involving an umbrella of economic, political and social forces in nature, the issue of Third World poverty could be pragmatically addressed. For it is not due to a lack of resources that the issue of poverty remains a powerful stigma to backward Third World Nations; at heart it is a lack of will on the part of richer nations such as the United States and some within the umbrella of the European Union.
However, in terms of the United Nations and the millennium goals established to end poverty in 2015, the main problems seem to be financial in nature. It is this author's view, that in order for such an antipoverty program to work, there would not only need to be a collusion of forces of the United States and the European Union, but that, perhaps a separate United Nations organization be established and developed for the precise reason of ending poverty and starvation within the Third World.
It is the basic thesis of this paper, that in any analysis or examination of how a separate United Nations organization, working in tandem with the United States and the European Union, in terms of alleviating poverty in Third World countries, that only an open systems paradigm is useful, but one based upon resource contingency theory in the short term as well as an organizational ecological model in the long-term. For example, in terms of characteristics of "learning organizations" which this author believes is a good fit in dealing with the global issues of Third World poverty, its qualities, according to Cummings & Worley (2005) are mutually exclusive and fall into the following five interrelated categories:
1. Structure: Organization structures that emphasize teamwork, lesser number of layers, strong lateral relations and networking across organizational boundaries;
2. Information systems: This involves gathering and processing information in terms of facilitating rapid acquisition, and sharing of rich complex information and help people to manage knowledge for competitive advantage;
3. Human Resources practices: Human resources, involve appraisal, rewards, and training in order to reinforce the acquisition and sharing of new skills and technology;
4. Organizational culture: Strong cultures promote openness, creativity, and experimentation among its members, and encourage members to acquire, process, and share information, and this provides the underlying support for employees to nurture innovation and provide the freedom to try new things, to risk failure, and to learn from mistakes;
5. Leadership: The leaders of learning organizations are able to actively model that openness, risk-taking and reflection necessary for learning; they also are able to communicate a compelling vision of the learning organization and, then, in turn, provide the empathy, support, and personal advocacy needed to lead others in the organization in that direction.
A word about the following chapters of this research paper. After the literature review, this author has decided to examine Kennedy's Bedford Stuyvescent project independently of the problems of poverty in South Africa. However, following the discussion of the Bedford-Stuyvescent project, this author will then devote a separate chapter for the problems of poverty in South Africa. Then, in addressing the implications for the Bedford-Stuy project and the problems of poverty in South Africa, this author will then devote the next chapter(s) in regard to what specific organizational theories might be established on a pragmatic basis; in terms of the focal point of this paper:
Literature Review
Jack Newfield's Memoir of Robert Kennedy describes how the Bedford-Stuyvescent Restoration Corporation (BSRC), founded in 1967, became the nation's first community development corporation, and, in turn, became the model for hundreds of similar groups and organizations founded throughout the United States. Newfield describes the various facets of this community regeneration project, such as a low-cost home improvement program, a mortgage loan fund, job training, and recruitment of businesses into the community, arts programs, and health services among others.
Hannan & Freeman (1989) argue that long-term change in the diversity of organizational forms within a population occurs through selection rather than adaptation. They believe that most organizations have structural inertia that hinders adaptation when the environment changes. Those organizations that become incompatible with the environment are inevitably replaced through competition with new organizations better suited to external demands.
According to Shewchuk (2010) in terms of the study of organizational ecology, it represents a complex mixture of unseen, intangible relationships; relationships between the people, their emotional intelligence, their values, their ethics, their personal knowledge, and their day-to-day experiences; and the interplay between the people and the policies, values, ethics and practices of an organization. According to Shewchuk, what appears to be occurring is more of a dynamic interplay between knowledge creation and knowledge extraction, also known as knowledge management.
Bowman & Collier (2006) examine the contingency approach to resource-creation processes in terms of the power of "strategic choice" of organizations in determining their fate. They examine organizations from the perspective of resource creation processes in terms of the competitive advantage. Citing Mintzberg (1979) Bowman and Collier argue that these two dimensions (environment and the complexity of tasks) are central in consideration of successful resource creation. These authors argue that the outcome of a strategizing activity should be a realization of a resource-creation process; that a contingency theory of resource creation processes should identify the nature of resource advantages in different contexts.
According to Scott (2003) since organizations are viewed as active and not passive agents in determining their own fate, and citing Aldrich and Pfeffer (1976:83), the resource dependence model views organizations as "capable of changing, as well as responding to the environment. Administrators manage their environments as well as their organizations, and the former activity may be, as important, or even more important than the latter." Hence it becomes a ...