Due 5/1

PADM 804 – IGR AND IGM Dr. Harry McGinnis

Professor Rosemary O’Leary University of Kansas

Collaboration Across Boundaries as a Leadership and Management Strategy:

10 Compelling Ideas

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Dr. O’Leary is a colleague and friend from the American Society of Public Administration (ASPA) and National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA). She remains a Distinguished Professor at The University of Kansas.

Thanks Rosemary, for the use of some of your PowerPoint slides.

2

Collaboration

“101 Definitions of Collaboration” • Collaboration means working

across boundaries and in multi- organizational arrangements to solve problems that cannot be solved – or easily solved – by single organizations or jurisdictions.

3

SES Survey Results: 304 Members • 304 out of 305 use collaboration as a leadership and

management strategy • Why? [in order of importance]

• Explicit mandates • Implicit mandates (culture/values) • Improve outcomes • Improve problem-solving processes • Build better relationships and credibility

4

Three Types of Collaboration Most Often Mentioned in Literature

(From a review of over 200 articles)

Interorganizational

Group of Individuals

Public Participation

5

Example: Interorganizational • Metropolitan Alliance of Community Centers (MACC) • Coalition of 13 human service organizations in Minneapolis-St. Paul • Competitors collaborated for funding • Shared resources in finance, human resources, technology

6 (Source: www.e-parc.org and www.maxwell.syr.edu/parc/eparc)

Example: Group of Individuals (also includes workplace team)

• Young Professionals Network for the Arts • Purpose: Develop the next generation of civic arts leaders • Bring together volunteer oriented young professionals to build arts

above ground and below ground infrastructure in central Florida.

7 (Source: www.e-parc.org and www.maxwell.syr.edu/parc/eparc)

Example: Public Participation • Collaborative budgeting in Menlo

Park, California (“Your City/Your Decision”)

• Phase One: Survey • Phase Two: Community Workshops • Findings: Community preference for

combined approach of cost reductions, taxes, and fee increases (not reduction or service elimination).

8 (Source: www.cacities.org)

Collaborative Public Management: What is it?

Collaborative public management is a concept that describes the

process of facilitating and operating in multiorganizational arrangements

to solve problems that cannot be solved or easily solved by single

organizations.

9 Agranoff and McGuire

Networks

10

• Can be formal or informal • Public goods or services planned,

designed, produced and delivered • Public, private, non-profit

Structures of interdependence, involving multiple nodes – agencies and

organizations – with multiple linkages

#3 Why the Growth of Collaborative Public Management?

• Most public challenges are larger than one organization • New approaches to addressing public issues • Doing more with less • Technology is flattening hierarchy • Changing views of leadership and management • Greater role for public

11

#4 Major Challenges

• All networks/collaborations are not created equal • Motivation to collaborate varies • Collaboration not always wise • Trent toward short-term “couplings” • Calls for new management and leadership strategies and skills • Paradox: Collaboration can yield conflict

12

The Complexity of Organizational Networks

13

• Networks are interorganizational and interpersonal

• Multiple members • Members bring both disparate and

common missions • Each network organization has a

different organization culture • Each network organization has a

different method of operation

The Complexity of Organizational Networks

• Network organizations usually have different stakeholder groups and different funders

• Network members have different degrees of power • Often multiple issues • Multiple forums for decision-making • Variety of governance structures available to networks • Conflict within network and the public

14

#5 Paradox

• Those who work in networks must work both with autonomy and interdependence.

• Members and networks have both common and diverse goals • Members work with both a smaller number and a greater variety of

groups • Members need to be both participative and authoritative

15

#6 Some Factors Affecting the Success of Collaborations

• Context • Purpose and Mission • Member Selection and Capacity Building • Motivation and Commitment of the

Collaborators • Structure and Governance • Power

16

• Accountability • Communication • Perceived Legitimacy • Trust • Information Technology • Personal Attributes of Collaborators • Other?

#8 The Leadership Challenge

• More than 90% of global executives surveyed by the Center for Creative Leadership said collaboration is vital for leadership success.

• But less than half of those same executives said the leaders in their organizations were actually good at it.

17

#9 The Leadership Challenge

18

“Leading when you are not in charge”

The Leadership Challenge

19

Solutions often transcend the position of any single participant

Salamon (2005) “…[S]hifts the emphasis from management skills and the control of large bureaucratic organizations to enablement skills, the skills

required to engage partners arrayed horizontally in networks, to bring multiple stakeholders together for a common end in a situation of

interdependence.”

#10 Skills Needed to Collaborate Across Boundaries

• Facilitation • Collaborative problem solving • Conflict management • Negotiation • Individual Attributes • Strategy/Vision • Substantive/Technical Skills

20

When Not to Collaborate

• When there are no common goals and benefits • When support structures are weak • When there are people problems that cannot be overcome • When there are process problems

21

REFERENCES

O’Leary, Rosemary, & Gerard, Catherine. (2012). Collaboration across boundaries: Insights and tips from

federal senior executives. IBM Center for the Business of Government, 1-50.

O’Leary, Rosemary, & Gerard, Catherine. (2013). Collaborative governance and leadership: A 2012 survey of

local government collaboration. In The International City/County Management Association (Ed.),

Chapter 6: The Municipal Yearbook (pp. 43-56). ICMA.

O’Leary, Rosemary, & Vij, Nidhi. (2012). Collaborative public management: Where have we been and where

are we going? American Review of Public Administration, 42, 507-522.

22