Incorporating Immigrant Perspectives Into Organizational Research and Practice: Implementing Inclusive Discussions
Anthropologists have "been in business" with for-profit and not-for-profit organizations (NPOs) for most of the 20th century, and their role as consultants for such corporations, research firms, and local organizations has continued to grow since this time (Jordan 2013). When they invest in community-based research through these partnerships, NPOs often hope to acquire meaningful and relevant evidence about practices in their communities. Yet, NPOs are unable to realize many of their potential collaborations with academics due to their dependency on elaborate and increasingly competitive funding frameworks constructed by granting bodies (INTRAC 2012). Furthermore, Morris and Luque (2011) have argued that community-based organizations and coalitions have limited input from the populations they hope to represent. Consequently, the representation and inclusion of diverse populations throughout the research process continues to be a struggle. This includes participation in data collection, project development, creation of evaluation measures, and the negotiation of program and/or policy development. Despite these limitations, participatory-action research is shown to provide long-term partnerships between both academics and their collaborators (INTRAC 2012).