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Partnerships/inter-organizational relationships

21 July, 2015 - 16:55

The justification for forming inter-organizational relationships is theoretically well founded, given the diversity of theoretical paradigm  1 explaining those relationships – Transaction Costs Theory 2, Resource Dependency Theory 3, Stakeholder Theory 4, Organizational Learning Theory  5 and Institutional Theory 6. These multiple contributions coming from social sciences such as Economics, Sociology or Management, reflect the fragmentation in the literature and is also the consequence of the multi-faceted nature of inter-organizational relationships, which often involve a combination of motivations, intentions and objectives 7, 8.

Since none of these theories alone completely explain the establishment of inter-organizational relationships 9, this study takes the contributions of Resource Dependency Theory  10 and the Theory of Overlapping Spheres of Influence 11. This author argues that schools implementing practices that promote strong school, family and community partnerships should be more able to help children succeed academically because these outreach activities create greater consistency between children’s home and school contexts. School, Family and the Community are responsible for children’s socialization and education and share common objectives with regard to children/young people, such as their overall development and scholastic success, which will be more easily attained through joint action 12. The need to join forces and unite support in the community arises from the multiplicity and specificity of the resources required to fulfil educational projects relevant for preparing children and young people for the challenges of today’s society, which are unlikely to be within the reach of each school per se 13, 14.

Inter-organizational relationships can take various forms, including alliances 15, inter-organizational networks  16 and others, which can be distinguished by the intensity of the connection between participants 17. In  18 partnership structures are likely environments for implementation of educational projects aiming to develop the skills and competences that contribute to increased human capital, with this being defined from a broad perspective as the set of academic qualifications and formal and informal skills held by an individual.

In reference  19 the concept of‘social partnership’ as a form of collaborative, voluntary and temporary action in which organizations from different sectors, both public and private, interact to reach common objectives, namely solving complex social problems reflecting a common concern that is in some way identified as an aspect of the public policy agenda that one organization would not be able to deal with individually. The objectives of social partnerships are normally established so as to have a short or long-term impact on a given area of public policy, but their most immediate objective benefits participants directly, without which there would be no incentive for collaborative interaction.

In  20 is also presented a typology of social partnerships based on the characteristics of the problem to be solved in collaboration, namely its complexity or extent and the hierarchical level of the partner organizations for which the problem is relevant. Therefore, this author presents three types of social partnerships: systemic, federative and programmatic.

When the problem is relatively complex, the number of organizations involved will be greater and it will concern partners’ highest hierarchical levels. In this case, the partnership will be of the systemic type. However, if the problems to be solved concern a specific group of actors, only a small number of key organizations will be involved and the hierarchical level concerned in solving the problem will be intermediate (or high, in the case of smaller organizations). In this case, the partnership will be of the federative type. Then again, when the problems are relatively structured, they require the interaction of fewer organizations and the lowest hierarchical level will be involved. In this case, the partnership will be of the programmatic type, since its focus will be on developing specific programmes to respond to partners’ needs 21.