Supraorganizational Collaboration: The Canadian Environmental Experiment

Abstract

A unique experiment has begun in Canada to address environmental protection by replacing adversarial relations with a nationwide multiparty collaboration involving all segments of society. An analysis of this experiment was conducted to inform our knowledge of the theory and practice of large-scale collaboration. The negotiated order perspective espoused in recent collaboration theory at the interorganizational level was found to provide an adequate framework for analyzing collaboration at the societal level. This framework, however, must be recast in a social ecology perspective to account for the fact that supraorganizational collaboration processes are themselves embedded in larger social processes. Institutional economics is suggested as a model for further developments. In addition, two factors were found to be essential to the success of large-scale collaboration: the institutionalization of roundtables to mediate between philosophical ideals and practical problem solving, and the institutionalization of the principle of shared responsibility to provide the social bond necessary for the permanence of supraorganizational partnerships.

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