Intra-Organisational Collaboration: A Story of Gains and Losses
| Author | Sue Roberts,John Diamond |
| Published date | 01 September 2006 |
| DOI | 10.1177/014473940602600204 |
| Date | 01 September 2006 |
Teaching Public Administration, Autumn 2006, Vol.26, No.2, pp.28-36
INTRA-ORGANISATIONAL COLLABORATION: ASTORY
OF GAINS AND LOSSES
JOHN DIAMOND (Edge Hill University) and SUE ROBERTS (Victoria
University, Wellington, New Zealand)
Introduction
In the UK the "partnership" discourse has been one
of
the pre-dominant themes
in public policy for the last
20
years. "Partnership working" has become the
norm across and between the public, private and voluntary sectors. It has shaped
the re-organisation and restructuring
of
public agencies and led to the creation
of
new ones. It encompasses new ways
of
organising and shaping the provision
of
public services as well as the ways in which public services are
commissioned, monitored and evaluated. Arguably, it has shaped the emergence
of
anew set
of
professional practitioners; ones for whom collaboration and
multi-agency approaches are the norm rather than the exception.
For those
of
us who are directly engaged both with the practice
of
collaboration and multi-agency working and the education and training
of
such
"new" professionals these changes bring with them adifferent set
of
challenges.
The purpose
of
this paper is to identify such challenges; to locate them within a
particular institutional setting and to reflect upon that experience and the lessons
which we learnt.
The language and practice
of
"partnership" working lays claim to away
of
working for which there are several explicit benefits and few disbenefits. In a
sense the language used can be seen as representing a"commonsense" approach
to public service delivery and public policy making. As such many
of
the
advocates
of
partnership working appear to adopt an ahistorical or anti-
theoretical approach to their work. Whilst this may be evident in the public
policy papers
of
the Government or national state funded agencies it has, to
some extent, also permeated the academic discourse. Aconsequence
of
this
approach is that it represents an additional challenge for those who do wish to
engage in collaborative working but who may wish to question or to reflect
upon the assumptions which underpin national initiatives. In this next section
we rehearse some
of
the claims made about partnership working and identify
the challenges it represents for practitioners.
Rehearsing the claims: setting out the challenges
For two decades or more public agencies have experienced rapid changes in the
ways in which they are organised as well as in the way in which their particular
28
To continue reading
Request your trial