This paper highlights the need for collaboration among groups, individuals and organizations in order to understand the performance of public firms. Collaborative behavior has for a long time been central to organizational behavior. Most studies and research before this paper have focused mainly on the collaboration that exists between sectors and organizations. The research carried out in this paper focusses on the effect of collaborative behavior especially among peers, work units, superiors and subordinates on the performance of the organization. Interwork and interpersonal collaborative behaviors are given more priority in this paper. The approach used is based on the fact that organizations are viewed from three levels: the structural level, the socio-psychological level and the ecological level.
This article aims at developing a model that principally focusses on two types of behavior with regards to collaboration: horizontal and vertical collaboration between people and collaboration between work units.
This hypothesis is tested empirically using data from the federal government of the United States. The data obtained pertains to the perception of the performance of public agencies and the collaboration between the various units in the public sector. Nonlinear effects in the data are well accounted for.The focus of the research is on three main hypotheses. These three hypotheses are centeredon interpersonal and inter-work collaborative behavior. These two relationships give useful insight into greater outcomes. There are four factors that are controlled while carrying out the research. These are job satisfaction, accountability, empowerment and resources.
The researchers enquire whether organizations which hold their employees accountable have higher work unit performance. They also seek to find whether organizations with clear and straight forward visions and missions make work units more effective. Third is whether the presence of adequate resources has a bearing on the performance of units. They also seek to establish whether decentralization of functions and structure aids in decision making or whether it wastes time. The effect of management procedures is pointed out as one of the factors that are required for improved performance of work units in organizations. Training and high levels of professionalism also stick out as important contributors to collaborative behavior among work units.
The research concludes that internal collaboration in an organization has a huge impact on the organization’s performance. The research also find that horizontal collaborative behavior among organizations and workers has the largest impact among the types of collaboration on the organization’s performance. This is followed closely by vertical interpersonal collaboration and lastly by work-unit collaboration.The research has been able to show that the different types of collaboration result in different effects. The research further supports previous research findings that interpersonal relationships and collaboration have a net effect of improving the performance of an organization. Though, it adds, more subjective measures need to be put in place to assure such performance. Such measures include work group solidarity and a sound management structure.
References
Whitford, Andrew, et al. "Collaborative Behavior and the Performance of Government Agencies." International Public Management Journal (2010): 321-349.
