Research and Knowledge Dissemination
The Centre strives to nurture research partnerships between Centre researchers and the community, and to support the dissemination of research outcomes to the community at large. The Centre's focus is on improving the quality of life for individuals, families, organizations and communities.
Current Projects
FLOURISHING THROUGH TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE
A.I. Capability-Building as a Human Systems Challenge in the Non-Profit Sector
Eight in ten Canadian nonprofits report some use of A.I., but that use remains shallow, mostly brief chatbot exchanges. A different kind of use is now available to people who do not code: tools such as Claude Code or Codex let someone describe a task in plain language and have an A.I. system carry out a complex sequence of work. In this new era, we suggest that the gap between what the technology permits and how it is used is not primarily technical, but a matter of confidence, professional identity, organizational culture and, for mission-driven professionals, ethical judgment.
With support from a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, we are examining what it takes for non-technical professionals to cross that threshold. Participants from selected Canadian nonprofits spend ten weeks online learning to build A.I.-powered workflows for their own work, while simultaneously engaging in a participatory action research process to shed light on the process they are undergoing and the questions it raises. Participants carry their own inquiry questions alongside the funded ones, hold a decision point in every session, re-plan the program's second half, and produce the first collective analysis of what the ten weeks revealed. They also audit the ethics of their own workflows and revise that instrument into a peer-designed version released to the sector.
The nonprofit sector is a key place to examine this transition, since the ethics of automating work are inseparable there from a mission and the people an organization serves. However, the findings bear on any setting where technological capability expands faster than the confidence and institutional capacity of the people expected to use it.
Past Projects
As widespread and popular as coaching has become, we have little empirical evidence about what coaches actually do in sessions and how the pattern of coach interventions may shift over the course of a coaching relationship. With the support of a research grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in Canada, we provided one of the most analytically comprehensive investigation to date of what unfolds during a coaching session in terms of coaching behaviors and session outcomes.
Read the published research here:
When you think of a very hierarchical organization compared to one that is quite flat in its structure, you can imagine that the two cultures would differ. Given that there are different types of coaching, which coaching type creates the most benefit for each type of organizational culture?
We surveyed 115 professional coaches, asking them to estimate how four types of coaching (leadership, performance, life/personal, third generation) would be likely to generate positive results when coaching occurs within four distinct organization cultures (hierarchical, market, clan, and adhocracy). All forms of coaching were estimated to have higher benefits within clan and adhocracy cultures than within hierarchical and market cultures. Leadership coaching was assessed as most beneficial across all organizational cultures, though benefit estimates of other coaching types varied depending on culture and the specific benefit under consideration.
Read the published research here:
Concordia University and the Centre are involved in a consulting project to help CHSSN develop a framework for future leaders within their community network. (2015)
Young people who are placed in group care or foster care because of neglect or abuse often have no alternative but to move out on their own when services end at age 18. AHSC professor Varda Mann-Feder has pulled together a collaborative ad hoc committee of Concordia University students and young adults formerly in care. The committee aims to create the “Youth in Care Network” in Quebec, a first in the province. (2014, ongoing)
This initiative aims to support and strengthen inter-organizational collaboration amongst 25 community organizations in order to meet community needs. A SOAR process was used to develop strategic plans for the various organizations, followed by a summit to present findings and improve cooperation in future service provision. (2013-2015)
ACDPN works with the English-speaking Black community in Montreal to ensure access to services and prevention resources. The Centre and members of the Applied Human Sciences Department are helping ACDPN to build organizational infrastructure, and to identify needs through community consultation. This project is being conducted in collaboration with multiple Black community associations. (2013-2017)
