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Going separate ways: ex-post interdependence and the dissolution of collaborative relations

  • Interdependence is typically regarded as the cause of inter-organizational collaboration. But it is also a consequence. Collaboration itself creates new interdependence as partners become more entwined in one another’s operations and experience the vetoes, compromises, delays, and risks inherent in joint working. This paradox – mitigating one set of interdependencies by creating another – renders collaborative relations inherently unstable. Dissolution may occur if “ex-post” interdependence becomes more troublesome than the original “ex-ante” trigger for the partnership. We test this proposition through comparative analysis of 13 sustained, aborted, and dissolved inter-municipal cooperations in English local government. Ex-post interdependence was most pronounced in those partnerships that ended in dissolution, and informed the design of replacement arrangements. It was also a contributory factor in the abortive cases. But ex-post interdependence was minimized in the group of sustained collaborations by management actions that streamlined the coordination burden imposed by joint working. These findings have implications for partnership design, the collaborator’s skillset, and theories of collaborative public management.

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Metadaten
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Author(s):Thomas Elston, Maike Rackwitz, Germà Bel
Parent Title (English):International Public Management Journal
Publication year:2023
Publishing Institution:Hertie School
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1080/10967494.2023.2271468
Release Date:2024/02/08
Hertie School Research:Centre for Digital Governance
Licence of document (German):Metadaten / metadata
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