Driving Questions

1

• Driving Questions
• What is the conceptual definition of
  collaboration?
• Are there differences between forms of
  collaboration that are important for theory and
  empirical study of collaboration?

Forms of Interorganizational Collaboration
Note Interorganizational network is
proposed as the label for the broad category of
forms.
Basic Distinctions Process concepts actions or
changes Class concepts objects or forms (McLeod
Pan, 2005) Collaboration is a process
concept. Coalition, partnership, collaborative,
etc. are class concepts.

• A Common Definition of Collaboration
• Commonalities
• A process of forming a relationship between
  formerly independent parties
• Parties necessarily include organizational
  representatives
• Purpose is to pursue a common goal with the aim
  of combining resources more effectively than when
  working independently
• Interorganizational collaboration is the process
  of forming a relationship between two or more
  representatives of organizations to pursue a
  common goal, with the aim of combining resources
  in a way that brings about change that the
  organizations could not have accomplished
  separately.
• Note Specifying interorganizational
  collaboration distinguishes this from other group
  phenomena (e.g., community organizing, teams,
  international alliances)

CollaborativePartnerships
Collaborative Networks
General
Coalitions
Collaborations
Partnerships
Consortia
Interorganizational Alliances
Collaboratives
Coordinating Councils
CommunityCoalitions
Community-Level Collaborations
Communityhealth partnerships
Collaborative partnerships for community health
and development
Specific
Interorganizational Networks

• Potentially Important Dimensions of Variation
• Definitions of forms of collaboration in Table 2
  (handout) suggest important dimensions of
  variation between specific forms
• Types of organizations collaborating (e.g.,
  social service, for-profits)
• Involvement of private individuals, and degree of
  empowerment (e.g., community coalition)
• Target issue (e.g., substance abuse,
  unemployment)
• Geographic scope (e.g., local, state)
• Size
• Organizational formalization (e.g., memoranda of
  agreement, committee structure, by-laws)
• Others?

• Looking Ahead to a Taxonomy
• Taxonomy and typology are synonymous (Bailey,
  1994)
• Development of a taxonomy would proceed by
• Conceptual identification of dimensions of
  variation
• Operationalization of dimensions
• Observation of actual forms and description in
  terms of dimensions
• Classification in terms of selected dimensions
• Some combinations of dimensions will be more
  common (i.e., types)
• Accumulation of knowledge will lead to focus on
  specific dimensions of variation that are germane
  to theory and empirical study

• Forms of Interorganizational Collaboration
• What types of things collaborate?
• What is the difference between a coalition and a
  partnership and other specific forms?
• There are a larger number of terms in use to
  refer to specific forms of collaboration (Table 2
  provided separately).
• Please see handout.
• We make the following observations regarding the
  current population of terms in use
• There is substantial overlap between definitions
  of specific forms
• There is variance in the specificity of
  terms(e.g., network vs collaborative partnership
  for community heath and development) suggesting a
  typology in use
• There is inconsistency in the selection of
  defining features of specific forms, and terms
  used to refer to specific forms
• There is no empirical basis on which to
  differentiate specific forms

• Discussion
• Interorganizational collaboration (IC) is the
  unifying term, and interorganizational network
  (IN) is the label for the general class of forms
• Naming and definition of specific types of
  interorganizational networks is not consistent
• Extent of generalizability of theory and
  empirical findings across specific types of INs
  is not yet determined
• Studies should relate their content to the
  broader content of interorganizational
  collaboration and address the extent to which
  their specific forms pertain to that general
  domain
• Studies should describe the demographics of their
  INs more exhaustively to aid comparison of
  findings from one specific form to another and
  support gradual taxonomy development

This research was made possible with support from
the Georgia Family Connection Partnership. Address
Correspondence to Adam J. Darnell
adam_darnell_at_yahoo.com