Collaboration Challenges in Community Telecommunication Networks

Telecommunication Networks As An Example Of Collaboration

Collaboration is the pooling of resources (e.g., information, money, labour), by two or more stakeholders or partners³, to solve a set of problems, which neither can solve individually (Gray, 1985). It involves an interactive process whereby organizations, using shared rules, norms, and structures, act or decide on issues related to a problem domain (Wood & Wood, 1991). The intentional goal-oriented collaborative arrangement that emerges is that of a network (Poyhonen & Smedlund, 2004).

Networking represents a particular form of organizing or governing exchange relationships among organizations and is an alternative to markets and hierarchies (Ebers, 2002, p. 23). Network partners maintain their autonomy and retain residual property rights over their resources that have been pooled to achieve mutually agreed outcomes (Bailey & McNally-Koney, 1996; Brown et al., 1998; Gray & Hay, 1986; Huxham & Vangen, 2000; Oliver & Ebers, 1998). The principal coordination mechanisms for allocating resources are negotiation and concurrence. Informal social systems, rather than bureaucratic ones, coordinate complex products or services and reduce uncertainty (Jarillo, 1988; Jones et al., 1997).