Paradoxical partnerships in emergent organizational forms: The effects of organizational structure on intraorganizational networks
Description
While research on organizational transformation has largely focused on the prevalence of new interorganizational relations among firms, sociologists have paid little attention to new organizational arrangements among public agencies and non-profit organizations, in spite of their proliferation. New organizational forms have emerged as a result of the federal government's devolution responsibilities for social welfare provision and these new hybrids provide an opportunity for sociologists to better understand interorganizational relations and alternative organizational structures. The central question of this research is how do participants in an organization premised on shared power and decision making define a collective agenda and whose interests prevail if there is a lack of consensus? I employed a multi-method comparative case study design that relied on qualitative and quantitative data from two university-community partnerships. For both cases, I relied on extensive participant observation, semi-structured interviews, analysis of archival documents, and a network survey of key organizational participants. These multiple sources of data provided insight into participants' understandings of organizational charts, missions, their experiences, and their relational ties Data from both of these cases indicated that entrenched inequalities and participants' contradictory interests created difficulties for administrators and participants who ascribed to collaborative and democratic ideals. Moreover, participants did not share clear understandings of authority structures and relationships beyond the upper echelon of management. In an organizational form in which participants eschew open acknowledgment of inequality, participants' perceptions of hierarchical organization can undermine trust and create barriers to interorganizational collaboration When findings from these case studies are viewed in conjunction with work on non-rational organizational forms; then democratic or high participation organizations in which dependents are afforded and institutionalized voice, are likely to be characterized by permanent or persistent failure. The structural constraints imposed by differential legitimacy of partners meant that the sponsoring university's interests prevailed over the agendas of other partners. Thus, to the extent that these new forms rely on pre-existing and legitimated social structures to carry out the partnership's work, participants' contradictory interests and unequal social power are likely to perpetuate ambiguities and reinforce traditional hierarchies that impede organizational change and partnership