Negotiating Interorganizational Orders*

Strauss' (1978) negotiation paradigm is used to analyze interorganizational relations leading to development of a complex of eleven rehabilitation agencies. Analysis is based on records over a twenty-five year period and four years of participant observation and interviewing. The structural context for the negotiations is described in terms of over-lapping societal, communal, interorganizational, organizational, and interpersonal levels. The analysis points out the importance of covert, informal negotiations to interorganizational relations. The negotiators who initiated the process employed a strategy of multiple-linked negotiations in which they attempted to select negotiators from the other organizations and the issues to be negotiated. Stakes were manipulated according to a cost-reward-involvement formula. Problematic issues were dealt with in informal covert negotiations which preceded overt negotiations in a peer type council. Consideration of the negotiation process aids in understanding several problems in interorganizational relations: power and autonomy and the consequences of interlocking directorates. The negotiated order approach suggests several lines of additional research.     

The effectiveness of nonprofit lead‐organization networks for social service delivery

Public agencies increasingly contract with nonprofit organizations to lead community‐based networks for social service delivery. We explore the role that partnership characteristics play in the effectiveness of these networks. Using data on children and family services in Los Angeles County, we consider the impact of both the motivations for forming partnerships and the nature of the resulting partnerships on perceived outcomes for clients, interorganizational relationships, and organizational learning. We find that client outcomes and interorganizational relationships are enhanced when partnerships are formed to meet certain programmatic and organizational goals. Organizational learning, however, is affected only when partnerships are formed to enhance organizational legitimacy. Partners selected because they share common vision increase effectiveness, while those selected because there are few alternative partners decrease effectiveness. Finally, when partnerships use an interorganizational coordination mechanism, client outcomes are improved. The managerial implications of these impacts for the nonprofit sector are developed. The results lend considerable support to the role of partnership motivation and partner selection in the effectiveness of nonprofit lead‐organization networks, and specificity about the nature of that role.     

Interorganizational network portfolios of nonprofit organizations: Implications for collaboration management

Increasingly, nonprofit organizations engage in interorganizational collaboration to address large‐scale social problems. Scholarship typically focuses on the characteristics of both within‐sector and cross‐sector partnerships of two collaborating organizations or all partnering organizations involved in a collaboration, but we know little about the patterns of interorganizational relationships that single nonprofit organizations maintain. This research draws upon surveys from 452 nonprofits and introduces nonprofit network portfolios, which we define as the number, integration, intensity, and duration of relationships that nonprofits purposefully develop with other organizations. Using 12 network measures, Ward cluster analysis revealed three distinct network portfolios: restricted within‐sector (n = 319, 70.58%), which included limited collaboration and prioritized within‐sector partnerships; robust within‐sector (n = 80, 17.70%), which included more nonprofit partnerships than restricted within‐sector portfolios; and cross‐sector (n = 53, 11.72%), which had a rich assemblage of integrative partnerships with nonprofits, businesses, and government agencies. Further, nonprofits that maintained each type of portfolio differed in their revenue and social mission, suggesting these factors are related to the types of collaboration that nonprofits maintain. This study makes contributions to existing research on interorganizational networks and cross‐sector collaboration and suggests practical and policy implications for nonprofit network management.     

The concept of horizontal hierarchy and the organization of interorganizational networks: A comparative analysis

This paper is an attempt to describe the organization of interorganizational fields with the concept of horizontal hierarchy. It specifies certain structural properties of interorganizational field based on different types of linkages between organizations, and develops testable hypotheses by focusing on the interrelationships between the properties of these linkages within the conceptual definition of horizontal hierarchy. These hypotheses are later tested on data collected from manpower organizations in 17 communities of a large midwestern state.     

Women’s Voluntary Organizations in Canada: Bridgers,Bonders, or Both?

Using a sample of 645 voluntary organizations in Canada, this study explores the differences between women’s voluntary organizations and gender-neutral organizations in their propensity to form a bridging or a bonding interorganizational relationship. The results suggest that not only do women’s organizations in Canada collaborate more than gender-neutral organizations, but also the tendency to have bridging or bonding relationships is significantly different. The factors predisposing women’s organizations to have collaborators inside or outside their network seems to be affected by how much the environmental changes in Canada impact their survival and whether the nature of the causes they support makes them an attractive partner. For gender-neutral organizations the tendency to bridge or bond seems to relate more to traditional organizational characteristics, such as size and staffing efficiency.     

The use of antidepressant medications in substance abuse treatment: the public-private distinction, organizational compatibility, and the environment

Many studies of innovation adoption in health care organizations focus either on organizational characteristics or the institutional environment, but not both. Furthermore, these perspectives are rarely employed simultaneously in both public and private health care organizations. This research considers the public-private distinction, organizational compatibility, and interorganizational referral relationships in the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) by substance abuse treatment organizations. Using data from nationally representative samples of 363 publicly funded and 403 privately funded substance abuse treatment centers, a four-category typology of public and private organizations initially predicted variation in SSRI use. However some differences were no longer significant once organizational and environmental characteristics were added to the statistical model. These data support hypotheses about the associations between organizational characteristics and SSRI use as well as hypotheses regarding the external environment. Future research should continue to integrate both internal and external factors in theoretical explanations of innovation adoption.     

A Collaborator Profile for Executives of Nonprofit Organizations

This study involving ninety‐two nonprofit executive directors who engaged in separate interorganizational collaborations investigated the relationship between a select number of individual characteristics (personality and demographic) and perceived collaboration outcome (successful or unsuccessful). The collaborator profile that resulted suggests that directors who are predisposed to perceiving their respective collaborations as successful are extravert, feeling males who have high role ambiguity and low role boundary occupational stress. Given the increasing need for nonprofit organizations to collaborate with other organizations, it is important for nonprofit executives and their boards to be cognizant of some key factors that can lead to successful interorganizational collaborations.     

The institutional antecedent to firms’ interorganizational network portfolios: Evidence from China

Although the amount of research on interorganizational networks has increased significantly in recent years, few studies have examined the antecedents to interorganizational network portfolios—organizations’ configuration of their relationship networks with other organizations. To address this gap, this study examines how firms’ interorganizational network portfolios vary across three types of ownership structures (i.e., state-owned, private, and multinational enterprises) in China. Cluster analysis of the data on 212 leading firms operating in China revealed two types of network portfolios firms maintain. Specifically, firms maintaining robust cross-sector portfolios had more extensive networks with organizations in the nonprofit and public sectors than firms maintaining limited cross-sector portfolios. Moreover, regression results suggested that firms across different ownership structures had distinct numbers and types of organizational partners, particularly nongovernmental organization (NGO) partners. Theoretical and practical implications are derived from the findings.     

The Parameters of Agency-School Social Work Educational Planning

Abstract

Reduced financial support and increased service demand have led many human service administrators to undertake coordination activities with other organizations in order to maintain services for clients. Many social work administrators have little understanding of interorganizational theory and techniques. This paper suggests, from a political economy perspective, that interorganizational theory and practice skills should be further developed in the social work administration curriculum. As a step in this direction, the paper first identifies key interorganizational concepts and research. Factors crucial to successful coordination are then summarized, and strategies for promoting successful coordination are detailed, with attention to benefits and costs of each strategy. Finally, the paper describes several alternative ways to integrate interorganizational content in the social work administration classroom and field placement.     

Which Nonprofit Gets More Government Funding?

Government represents one of the most important funding sources for nonprofit organizations. However, the literature has not yet provided a systematic understanding of nonprofits’ organizational factors that are associated with their receipts of government funding. This study combines interorganizational relationships and organizational institutionalism literature to examine the determinants of nonprofits’ obtainment of government funding. Based on a survey of human service nonprofits in Maryland, this research finds that nonprofits with higher bureaucratic orientation, stronger domain consensus with government, and longer government funding history are more likely to receive government contracts and grants. Nonprofits’ revenue diversification, professionalization, and board co‐optation might have very limited impacts.     

Cultural differences in an interorganizational network: Shared public relations firms among Japanese and American companies

This article investigates the impact of national culture on interorganizational relationships among the organizations. Thirty-five companies which have stock offerings in U.S (17 Japanese and 18 American) were matched by their business types. The interorganizational network was defined as the number of shared public relations firms among the companies.A network analysis revealed that the network of shared public relations firms was loosely connected and American companies were more central. The companies were generally clustered into two groups, one composed of the Japanese companies and another of the American companies. However, the results also showed that some companies that had the same business type were more tightly clustered than others within the group. These results indicated that the network structure of shared public relations firms was influenced by the differences in national cultures as well as the companies' business types.     

Community as a factor in implementing interorganizational partnerships: Issues,constraints, and adaptations

This article reports findings from a community‐based study of collaboration among seven nonprofit human service agencies in a very low‐income urban neighborhood. The project, funded by a federal demonstration grant, was developed to prevent child abuse and neglect as an alternative to the existing public child welfare system. Findings suggest that privatization, funding uncertainties, and community‐level factors posed external stressors that constrained executives' ability to collaborate. The article identifies five key stressors, analyzes how each constrained the partnership, and then discusses specific adaptations made by executive leadership in political, technical, and interpersonal areas that facilitated strategic adjustment and realignment in a very complex interorganizational arrangement and set of relationships. Finally, implications are drawn for nonprofit managers, social policy, and nonprofit research.     

Exchange and Power in Networks of Interorganizational Relations*

An extension of the exchange model for the analysis of interorganizational relations is developed, incorporating into the model recent developments in exchange theory. Organizational interactions are viewed as networks of exchange relation, and various forms of interorganizational activity such as merger and coalition or alliance formation are analyzed in relation to power and position in the network. Linkages between various types of exchange networks and what economists refer to as market structures are examined. Finally, previous criticisms of exchange formulations are reviewed, and directions for future theoretical and empirical work concerning networks of interorganizational relationships are discussed.     

Collaboration, (Dis)trust and Control in Brazilian Manufactured Public/Non-profit Partnerships

This study seeks to evaluate whether interorganizational trust and interpersonal trust influence the nature of state control in Brazilian public/non-profit partnerships (PNPs) by considering the social organization model with a non-profit partner that did not evolve organically from civil society as an equal and interdependent partner but instead was engineered by the state. We conducted qualitative research on two PNPs and analysed their historical trajectories through participant observation, documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews with the state and non-profit partners as well as other actors involved indirectly in the PNPs. Our findings call into question the assumption of current studies that trust tends to be built over time and reveal that PNPs embedded in state-dominant and low-social-capital contexts are more vulnerable to the effects of interpersonal trust. This vulnerability influences the volatile patterns of the PNPs’ trajectories and leads to strong informal state-partner control as reflected by PNP disruptions and lower levels of interorganizational trust.

     

Interorganizational Groups in Human Services: Environmental and Interpersonal Relationships

Despite the frequent use of interorganizational groups in human services, their performance tends to be uneven. A dual focus on both environmental and interpersonal dimensions is required to understand variations in the development and outcomes of these groups. The author proposes a conceputal framework, grounded in open systems theory, exchange theory, and small group theory, to integrate both external and internal perspectives. Four types of interorganizational groups are identified based on their origin (mandated vs. voluntary) and the source of task structure (externally directed vs. internally developed). The four group types are illustrated with scenarios that highlight potential benefits and concerns. Characteristics of each group type are discussed. Further, administrative and policy guidelines are suggested for improving the performance of each type of group.     

BRINGING PERSONALIZED TIES BACK IN: Their Added Value for Biotech Entrepreneurs and Venture Capitalists Interorganizational Networks

Using a unique data set collected in France among biotech entrepreneurs and their venture capital investors (VCs), we measure the added value of personal relationships at the interorganizational level. Our analyses show that when two entrepreneurs share a personal collaboration tie or a personal friendship tie with a VC investor, the probability of having an advice tie and thus exchange tacit knowledge increases significantly. We confirm the importance of this kind of social embeddedness in the biotech industry where personalized ties––as opposed to institutional and contractual relationships––at the interorganizational level had not yet been examined systematically. Our results suggest that strategies of personalization of exchanges are vital for interorganizational learning. These strategies help entrepreneurs to access resources, participate in knowledge building, and co‐orientate activities in this sector.     

Networks of social capital: Extending a public relations model of civil society in Peru

Scholars have argued that public relations can and indeed must be used to improve society. This article builds on the work of Taylor and Doerfel (2005), who advocated for the continued study of civil society through the lens of public relations theory. This study contributes to a normative public relations model of civil society by examining how interorganizational relationships, which may initially be established for purposes of resource exchange, benefit civil society through the creation and maintenance of social capital. The study examined a segment of Peruvian civil society dedicated to media development, as media is a key partner in building civil society (Taylor, 2009). The results of the study help to explain how interorganizational relationships contribute to the creation of social capital in a civil society network, and how certain network positions are integral to maintaining the social capital of a community of actors. Implications for the role of public relations in building and maintaining networks of interorganizational communities are discussed.     

Competing nonprofit organizations also collaborate

Cooperation among voluntary organizations is examined from the perspective of an Israeli project in which local voluntary organizations formed a joint forum. An analysis of questionnaires filled in by members of nine such bodies (“roundtables”) shows that cooperation among voluntary organizations may be functional in nature and not necessarily based on common goals. The degree of independence of the organizations did not affect their cooperation, but it influenced the way they looked on the “convenor” (external change agent), who played an important role in the process of interorganizational cooperation. The authors show that competition and cooperation are not mutually exclusive among voluntary organizations.     

The Policy Outputs and Conflicts of Large Communities from an Interorganizational Viewpoint

Abstract

An interorganizational framework is employed to merge elitist, pluralist, and dialectic perspectives on the community in this pilot study of 36 large United States cities.

An interorganizational framework is employed to merge elitist, pluralist, and dialectic perspectives on the community in this pilot study of 36 large United States cities.

Where organizations fail to abound, power may be wielded by an organized elite over an unorganized mass, thereby creating the conditions of polarized conflict, undampened by the crosscutting and issue-specific lines of coalition and conflict existing in organizationally richer environments. The indicators of community decentralization did indeed have independent effects upon the absence of conflict, measured by flouridation of the municipal water supply.

Decision by coalition lends special significance to linkage-providing organizations, such as large-scale and diversified municipal government. The idea of organizations with plural interests and values suggests that centralized governments either are weak or exist in organizationally barren communities; neither alternative is conducive to collective community action. The finding follows that seven different community outposts, each one requiring interorganizational cooperation, were positively affected by the scale and diversification of municipal government and/or by its decentralization.

All of this suggests that various small conflicts serve to prevent large ones in the multiorganizational setting and that the power of organizations, even government agencies, depends upon their capacity for coalition-formation, whatever the degree of their political autonomy.     

Aligning for impact: The influence of the funder–fundee relationship on evaluation utilization

Partnerships between nonprofit organizations, as well as between public and private entities, are commonly seen as a preferred method to address complex societal problems. Within these partnerships evaluation is often mandated and considered essential, but questions remain as to the efficacy of the evaluation process. This article incorporates theories on interorganizational relationships and evaluation utilization to investigate the role of the funder–fundee relationship on evaluation use. To accomplish this task, data were collected on a statewide early childhood initiative, Smart Start. Findings indicate that a more coordinated and collaborated relationship has a positive impact on the factors associated with evaluation use and on utilization itself. Findings also suggest the importance of strategic thinking on the part of both funders and fundees when it comes to investing resources in mandated evaluations.