ABSTRACT
The past three decades have seen a plethora of scholarly work on the topic of collaboration. From Barbara Gray’s (1985) early work to the present, the extant literature is rife with books and articles that examine the preconditions, processes, and outcomes of collaboration in a variety of settings and circumstances. An important assumption in most of this work is that collaborative arrangements require certain inputs, process those inputs in a specific manner, and produce measurable and tangible goods or services as a result of that effort. In short, collaboration is often conceived of as a form of organization. However, the intellectual roots of collaboration are often attributed to the network theory literature (see Agranoff & McGuire, 2003; Mandell, 2001; Meier & O’Toole, 2004). In this conception, collaboration is the result of a group of loosely connected individuals who share common interests, and work together to achieve common goals. Depending on its specific form, collaboration may consist of like-minded individuals, likeminded agencies (or other more traditional organizations), or a combination of the two (Moore & Koontz, 2003). For collaborations that fall into the latter two categories, there are often clear elements of interorganizational theory present in the setting, as collaboration effectively becomes a form of interaction between organizations in a given environment. Often overlooked in these efforts, however, is an important observation: collaboration often carries network theory beyond its boundaries into something that takes on the characteristics of a traditional organization. Thomson and Perry (2006), for example, conceive of collaboration as a set of inputs and preconditions, which in turn lead to a series of identifiable work and management processes, which results in the production of outputs. This same conceptual ‘picture’ has been adopted by many others, including Wood and Gray (1991), Morris, Gibson, Leavitt and Jones (2013) and Sabatier et al. (2005). In a sense, these collaborations exhibit more of the characteristics of more traditional (and formal) organizations, and fewer of the characteristics of networks. While we would certainly not dismiss the importance of networks, particularly in the early formation of
the group, the extant literature tends to ignore collaboration as an organizational form. It is our contention that collaborations may be thought of in terms of organizational theory. To that end, this chapter makes an argument that functioning collaborations are, in principle and fact, organizational forms. If this is the case, then we suggest that there is much to be learned about collaboration through the application of the literature in organization theory as a means to more fully understand collaboration. This chapter provides an extension of the literature by testing the efficacy of collaboration as a form of organization, and thus extending our knowledge and understanding of collaboration. Our case in point for this chapter is the application of Anthony Downs’s (1967) concept of the “life cycle” of organizations.1 Downs’s notion that organizations move through discrete and identifiable phases during their existence provides the basis for our exploration into the applicability of the organization theory literature to collaboration. Because Downs’s model captures a variety of organizational processes, a comparison of these processes to those found in collaboration will provide an indication of the viability of the exercise. It is important to note that the formal study of collaboration is relatively new, as is the use of collaboration (as we know it) in the U.S. context. Because of this, the ability to identify and study existing collaborations that have been in existence long enough to empirically test Downs’s model is exceptionally limited. Although life-cycle models have been applied to many kinds of organizational settings, including hospitals (Burns, 1982; Burns & Mauet, 1984), city councils (Waste, 1983), the National Aeronautic and Space Administration (McCurdy, 1991), and forprofit businesses (Lester, Parnell, Crandall, & Menefee, 2008), it does not appear that the life-cycle model has been applied to collaborative settings. To that end, the purpose of this chapter is to theorize about how a life-cycle model of organization might be applied to collaboration. This chapter begins with a review of Downs’s (1967) model, along with some other empirical studies that have applied the life-cycle model in more traditional organizational settings. We then present a model of the life cycle of collaboration, drawing on Downs’s work to examine the degree to which his model can inform our knowledge of collaboration. We conclude with some observations about the viability of this comparison, and some suggestions about how organization theory may provide additional insights into collaborative processes and outcomes.
