The Effect of the Position of Educational Organizations within the Social Network on Their Collaboration Levels

Abstract

In this research, it has been aimed to determine the opinions of administrators serving in the public education organizations at the central districts of Sinop on inter-organizations collaboration (collaboration levels). The study, in the descriptive survey model, has been carried out by a mixed research approach where qualitative, quantitative and social network analyses have been used collectively. At the qualitative phase of the research, 36 school administrators have been interviewed, and then the interview inventory has been subjected to content analysis. In the social network analysis phase of the research, the Collaboration Levels Scale developed by the researcher has been applied to 36 school administrators. The obtained data have been analyzed in the UCINET 6.0 software. The density, structural holes, centrality degrees of the responses of the administrators to the items included in the scale have been calculated and network maps have been generated. In the quantitative phase of the research, whether the positional characteristics of the administrators within the organization and network demonstrated variations depending on variables or not has been analyzed with the Mann-Whitney U and Kruskall Wallis Test, since the distribution was not normal. According to the conclusions reached in the study, 36 education institutions have established a collaboration network of 68 actors, including themselves. From these organizations, 39 are education organizations, while 29 are public, private sector and non-governmental organizations. All education organizations at the provincial center have established a collaboration network. There are no isolated organizations. According to the density analysis, 57% of the maximum relations that the organizations could achieve among themselves, has been established. Accordingly, the education organizations have both close and distant connections within the collaboration network. According to the research findings, the education organizations at the provincial center display a structure that is very close within themselves – but closed to the outside. While the areas where the collaboration potential could be used the most in proportion are data sharing, financial resources sharing and administrator opinion exchange, the lowest levels have materialized in working on a common project, institutional health and safety. Among the collaboration levels, from the five levels that are networking, cooperation, coordination, coalition and collaboration, the highest achieved collaboration is the collaboration level. In conclusion, meaningful differentiations have been determined between collaboration subjects and levels, depending on the positions of the organizations within the network (central actor, effectiveness level and betweenness condition). Positions within the network have an impact on the collaboration levels of organizations.

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