دانلود رایگان مقاله چرا ما باید همکاری کنیم؟ بررسی تعاملات همکاران در فضاهای روانی اجتماعی یک همکاری سازمانی

Abstract

The study explores the interplay between collaborative and independent action in inter-organisational collaborations (IOCs). Towards this aim, the research suggests the use of psychosocial spaces as an innovative perspective that allows exploring how collaborative and non-collaborative actions unfold, as partners (re)identify themselves in relation to the changing needs of the collaboration. Following a qualitative longitudinal study, the paper contributes the concept of psychosocial space as a distinctive approach to examine IOCs. In this way, the study offers an alternative way to perceive IOCs as interactive spaces characterised and transformed by the collaborative and independent activity embedded within them. It also proposes that collaborative and independent actions emerge in IOCs through identity development processes. Finally, the research suggests that identity interactions in IOCs are not a burden in need to be resolved for the achievement of a common collaborative identity.

7. Conclusions

By employing the concept of the psychosocial space, the study offers the following implications for the exploration and understanding of IOCs. Firstly, as the study has illustrated, IOC unfolds as partners engage in everyday working relations produced in and by (inter) actions in different psychosocial spaces (Van Marrewijk & Yanow, 2010). These interactions can be both collaborative and independent. Collaborative actions offer to the partners spaces of continuity where they follow the rules, the protocol and their job responsibilities in order to achieve stability in the collaborative process. On the other hand, independent actions offer to the partners spaces of flexibility where they can develop innovative ways to respond flexibly to the changing needs of the collaboration. As such, this research proposes an alternative way to understand IOC as an interactive space continuously in-the-making (Bouwen & Hovelynck, 2006) characterised and shaped by the collaborative and independent activity that is embedded within it.