6: Managing within and between organisations
Managing interorganisational networks is unquestionably a difficult job. At the least, it is most certainly a different job that requires different skills. (Kettl, 2006: 16)
This chapter explores some of the existing evidence and contested positions around the contrasts and comparisons between managing within the confines of organisations, as opposed to managing between organisations in forms of collaboration. Researchers and practitioners come to various conclusions on the key questions relating to the extent to which managing in collaborative forms of governance requires a unique form of management or not, and if so, the skills and competencies middle managers need to be effective in this form of management. Figure 6.1 suggests that these can be crudely mapped across a spectrum of positions from those who see it as broadly the same, those who judge it to be not quite the same, and those who see it as definitely different.
The school of thought that considers that management in the two forms of governance is different, takes the view that this stems from broadly contextual reasons relating to the form, structure and purposes inherent in the respective contexts. The consequence being that the management and behaviour of middle managers needs to be different. O’Toole and Meir (2010: 324) underscore this perspective in their observation that:
inducements to and constraints inhibiting cooperation across organisational boundaries in networked and collaborative settings are different from – and typically more challenging than – generating successful cooperative implementation via unified organisations. Authority is typically weaker in interorganisational situations, and encouragement toward cooperation must perforce rely less on established communication channels, routines, and shared worldviews than it does within hierarchical agencies.
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