Capacity for Joint Action

The capacity for joint action in a CGR is a combination of four necessary elements: procedural and institutional arrangements, leadership, knowledge, and resources.

Procedural and institutional arrangements refer to the protocols used to manage the interaction process and organizational structures over time.  They must be defined at both the intra-organizational level (i.e., how an actor governs and manages itself in the collaborative initiative) and at the inter-organizational level (i.e., how the groups of actors work together in the CGR and integrate with other external parties).

Leadership is not solely a driver for CGR initiation (as discussed above) but also a significant outgrowth of collaboration. According to Bryson and colleagues (2006), collaborative governance demands and cultivates multiple opportunities and roles for leadership.  

Knowledge, in many ways, is the currency of collaboration.   In essence, collaboration requires the aggregation, separation, and reassembly of data and information, as well as the generation of new, shared knowledge.

Resources are the final element of the capacity for joint action. One benefit of collaboration is its potential for sharing and leveraging scarce resources (Thomson & Perry, 2006).  Adequate budget support and other needed resources are also instrumental to successful collaboration.

 
References:

Bryson, J. M., Crosby, B. C., & Stone, M. M. (2006). The design and implementation of Cross‐Sector collaborations: Propositions from the literature. Public administration review, 66, 44-55.

Emerson, K., Nabatchi, T., & Balogh, S. (2011). An Integrative Framework for Collaborative Governance.(June 2009), 1–29. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. https://doi. org/10.1093/jopart/mur011.

Thomson, A. M., & Perry, J. L. (2006). Collaboration processes: Inside the black box. Public administration review, 66, 20-32.

 

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