Collaboration in Public Policy and Practice: Perspectives on Boundary Spanners by Paul Williams

Author:Paul Williams [Williams, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, Public Policy, General, Social Policy
ISBN: 9781847428479
Google: JjNQaWLjj58C
Goodreads: 13226511
Publisher: Policy Press
Published: 2012-01-15T07:30:13+00:00

Alliance managers and management

The management of alliances, joint ventures, partnerships and other forms of cooperative strategies are often vested in dedicated individuals (the boundary spanners), operating individually or sometimes within defined alliance management units (see Table 6.1). The key functions of such a dedicated strategic alliance capability include improving knowledge management, increasing external visibility, providing internal coordination and helping to eliminate accountability and intervention problems (Dyer et al, 2001). In the context of managing multiple alliances, Doz and Hamel (1998) refer to the role of the network manager as offering a focal point for communication and exchange, a watchdog for free riders, a central repository of information and member performance, and finally, a maintainer of behaviour norms. Child et al (2005) point to the importance of ‘intercultural boundary spanners’ within international joint ventures needing to bridge two different organisations or two or more people from different cultures.

A number of references are made to the existence of different stages in the alliance management life cycle with different roles requiring different alliance staff (dealmaker, launch manager, alliance chief, alliance operating staff and corporate alliance manager). Bamford et al (2003, p 186), for instance, assert that ‘an alliance lifestyle has seven distinct stages. The skill sets required from an alliance manager are different in each one of those stages – a visionary is called for at one stage and a facilitator at another’. Yoshino and Rangan (1995) identify five tasks that are critical to the job of being an alliance manager: establishing the right tone, particularly in relation to trust; monitoring the contributions and obligations of partners; recognising the importance of information flows; reassessing strategic viability; and focusing on internal relationships through being seen as a champion, fostering organisational understanding, maintaining links at all levels and managing internal demands and expectations.

Particular attention is focused on the social aspects of alliance management and the pivotal role of personal relationships. Hutt et al (2000) refer to the social network of a strategic alliance and the need for boundary spanning to occur at multiple levels: top management, middle management and operational personnel. They emphasise the importance of interpersonal relationships being superimposed over a formal structure, and being able to expedite communication, conflict resolution and learning, build trust, speed decision making and uncover new possibilities for partnership working. Communication is seen to be especially influential because it helps to produce a shared interpretation of goals and agreement on roles and norms. The role of personal relationships is a theme picked up by Adobor (2006), and he suggests that although alliances often proceed through early, growth and maturity stages, the benefits of personal relationships are mostly realised in the early stages, and the dysfunctions of personal ties are more likely in later stages. He provides a balanced view of the advantages and disadvantages of personal ties. The main advantages include speeding up the alliance formation process, reducing relational risk, building and strengthening trust and helping to reduce uncertainty, as against the disadvantages of conflict of interest, pursuit of

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.