The Tangled Web: Unraveling the Principle of Common Goals in Collaborations

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Vangen, Siv; Huxham, Chris
• 署名单位: Open University - UK; University of Strathclyde
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION RESEARCH AND THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1053-1858
• DOI: 10.1093/jopart/mur065
• 发表日期: 2012
• 页码: 731-760
• 关键词: NETWORKS; implementation; partnership; strategies; management; FRAMEWORK; matters; DESIGN; work

摘要

This article addresses a goals paradox that suggests that both congruence and diversity in organizations' goals influence success in collaboration. Using extensive empirical data, we develop a framework that portrays goals as an entangled, dynamic, and ambiguously hierarchical web of variously perceived, higher- and lower-level goals that can be characterized across six dimensions: level, origin, authenticity, relevance, content, and overtness. We then explore the paradox in terms of the framework and so propose a much elaborated theoretical understanding of it. This provides theoretical and practical understanding relevant to management and governance in and of collaboration.