Supraorganizational Collaboration: The Canadian Environmental Experiment

A unique experiment has begun in Canada to address environmental protection by replacing adversarial relations with a nationwide multiparty collaboration involving all segments of society. An analysis of this experiment was conducted to inform our knowledge of the theory and practice of large-scale collaboration. The negotiated order perspective espoused in recent collaboration theory at the interorganizational level was found to provide an adequate framework for analyzing collaboration at the societal level. This framework, however, must be recast in a social ecology perspective to account for the fact that supraorganizational collaboration processes are themselves embedded in larger social processes. Institutional economics is suggested as a model for further developments. In addition, two factors were found to be essential to the success of large-scale collaboration: the institutionalization of roundtables to mediate between philosophical ideals and practical problem solving, and the institutionalization of the principle of shared responsibility to provide the social bond necessary for the permanence of supraorganizational partnerships.

[1]  R. Freeman.  Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach , 2010 .

[2]  S. Waddock,et al.  CATALYTIC ALLIANCES FOR SOCIAL PROBLEM SOLVING. , 1990 .

[3]  D. Bromley.  Institutional Change and Economic Efficiency , 1989 .

[4]  Barbara Gray,et al.  Collaborating: Finding Common Ground for Multiparty Problems , 1989 .

[5]  S. Waddock.  Understanding Social Partnerships , 1989 .

[6]  W. Scott.  The Adolescence of Institutional Theory. , 1987 .

[7]  Jeffrey L. Cruikshank,et al.  Breaking The Impasse , 1987 .

[8]  M. L. Livingston.  Evaluating the Performance of Environmental Policy: Contributions of Neoclassical, Public Choice, and Institutional Models , 1987 .

[9]  Peter Söderbaum,et al.  Environmental Management: A Non-Traditional Approach , 1987 .

[10]  C. Whalen.  A Reason to Look Beyond Neoclassical Economics: Some Major Shortcomings of Orthodox Theory , 1987 .

[11]  Gail Bingham,et al.  Resolving Environmental Disputes: A Decade of Experience , 1986 .

[12]  Barbara Gray,et al.  Political Limits to Interorganizational Consensus and Change , 1986 .

[13]  Eric Trist,et al.  Paradigms for Societal Transition , 1986 .

[14]  G. Hodgson.  The Rationalist Conception of Action , 1985 .

[15]  B. Gray.  Conditions Facilitating Interorganizational Collaboration , 1985 .

[16]  Arieh A. Ullmann.  The Impact of the Regulatory Life Cycle on Corporate Political Strategy , 1985 .

[17]  T. Ilgen.  Between Europe and America, Ottawa and the Provinces: Regulating Toxic Substances in Canada , 1985 .

[18]  Joseph Galaskiewicz,et al.  Interorganizational relations : implications for community development , 1985 .

[19]  W. Ouchi.  The M-Form society. , 1985, Human resource management.

[20]  Glen W. Atkinson.  Political Economy: Public Choice or Collective Action? , 1983 .

[21]  J. McCann.  Design Guidelines for Social Problem-Solving Interventions , 1983 .

[22]  Eric Trist,et al.  Referent Organizations and the Development of Inter-Organizational Domains , 1983 .

[23]  R. Lewicki,et al.  Managing conflict at organizational interfaces , 1982 .

[24]  L. Preston,et al.  Research in Corporate Social Performance and Policy , 1981 .

[25]  William J. Baumol,et al.  Economics, Environmental Policy, and the Quality of Life , 1979 .

[26]  T. Williams.  The Search Conference In Active Adaptive Planning , 1979 .

[27]  Robert N. Stern,et al.  The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective. , 1979 .

[28]  John W. Meyer,et al.  Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony , 1977, American Journal of Sociology.

[29]  E. Trist,et al.  The Causal Texture of Organizational Environments , 1965 .

[30]  L. Zucker.  Institutional patterns and organizations : culture and environment , 1989 .

[31]  J. Piette.  La protection de l'environnement au Canada et aux États-Unis , 1988 .

[32]  S. Carpenter,et al.  Managing public disputes : a practical guide to handling conflict and reaching agreements , 1988 .

[33]  Maryse Grandbois.  Le droit pénal de l’environnement : une garantie d'impunité ? , 1988 .

[34]  Perry L. Davis,et al.  Public-private partnerships : improving urban life , 1986 .

[35]  John M. Hartwick,et al.  The economics of natural resource use , 1986 .

[36]  Bill Devall,et al.  Deep Ecology: Living as if Nature Mattered , 1985 .

[37]  S. Jasanoff,et al.  Controlling Chemicals: The Politics of Regulation in Europe and the United States , 1985 .

[38]  F. Massarik,et al.  Human systems development , 1985 .

[39]  J. Quiggin.  Private and common property rights in the economics of the environment , 1984 .

[40]  Michael Wheeler,et al.  Resolving environmental regulatory disputes , 1983 .

[41]  W. Powell,et al.  THE IRON CAGE REVISITED: , 1983, The New Economic Sociology.

[42]  D. Walker,et al.  Institutional Economics: The Changing System , 1980 .

[43]  S. Holmberg.  Corporate Behavior and Social Change , 1978 .

[44]  E. Trist,et al.  Towards A Social Ecology , 1973, Springer US.

[45]  P. Lawrence,et al.  Organization and environment , 1967 .

[46]  M. Olson,et al.  The Logic of Collective Action , 1965 .

[47]  Harold J. Leavitt,et al.  Readings in managerial psychology , 1964 .