Interorganisational collaboration in the public sector

Abstract

The research applies the contextual context, content, and process (CCP) framework to explore the contextual and processual factors that are associated with implementing interorganisational collaborative arrangements in the public sector. Collaborative arrangements in the public sector are found to be complex, difficult to implement, and liable to failure when not fully explored and recognised. Background theory reveals the absence of a multilevel lens that can embrace the multifaceted nature of interorganisational collaborations, the multiple contextual levels, the process stages and micro-actions, and the interplay between the process and the context. By identifying the need to explore contextual and processual factors, the background theory informs the focal theory which proposes an extended CCP framework as a useful multilevel lens to elucidate the research problem. The framework is developed and validated through multidisciplinary literature synthesisation, the pilot stage, and the main fieldwork which applies qualitative methods based on multiple case studies from the public sector in Oman as data sources’ techniques. The originality of this study stemming from developing and validating a novel multilevel contextual framework. The emerged multifaceted CCP framework, used to explore contextual and processual factors when implementing collaborative arrangements in the public sector, is found to be an applicable, feasible, and useful analysis tool. It can help public policy-makers, public management, academics, change agents, and collaborating organisations in identifying the inhibitive, supportive prerequisites, and in general influencing contextual factors. It helps also in elucidating and minimising uncertainty about the nature and micro-actions of the processual stages.