ABSTRACT
When researchers speak about the role of families in social supports, they often focus their analysis too narrowly. In caring for dependent members, for example, families must work in partnership with formal organizations and other primary groups. Trying to account for what families do without understanding this partnership leads to a misunderstanding of the family's role. In this chapter we will use a theory of organizational effectiveness, the task-specific theory (Messeri, Silverstein, and Litwak, 1993), to examine how this partnership works and under what conditions it works best.
