NEW RESEARCH | When no one is in charge – how work is organized in large social partnerships

Businesses, governments, universities and non-profit organizations come together in large collaborations – often supported by mission-driven innovation policies to solve major societal problems. But how does this work in practice when no one has a mandate to tell anyone else what to do?

This is the question at the center of John-Erik Bergkvist’s thesis. He will soon defend his thesis at the Stockholm School of Economics on organizational design in cross-sectoral partnerships. This is a phenomenon that has become increasingly common in addressing complex societal challenges such as health and sustainable transition.

– What makes these partnerships theoretically interesting is that there is no hierarchy and no manager with a mandate to decide. Instead, you have to find other solutions together on how to distribute and coordinate the work, he says.

Two ways to divide the work

The study shows that work in innovative partnerships without formal authority is often organized in two broad ways.

One is a collaborative and democratic way of working, where participants jointly discuss what tasks should be done and who should do what. This can be inclusive, but also carries risks.

– The democratic principles of governance become the focus and the knowledge component can be obscured. Not everyone involved in decision-making necessarily has the knowledge required to perform the task.

The second way is a self-selecting approach, where individuals draw on their own knowledge and experience, initiate tasks and bring together others who want to contribute their expertise in the specific area.

– It is individuals who shape tasks and take them on, and others can qualify if they feel they have relevant knowledge or interest, explains John-Erik Bergkvist.

Knowledge dependencies and coordination

Whatever the approach, there are what are known as knowledge dependencies – situations where individuals’ actions depend on their knowledge of what others can and do. In more democratic ways of working, participants try to deal with this by building a shared understanding of each other’s relationship within a specific task.

– They try to get to know each other, share information and create informal information structures to cooperate better.

In self-selecting groups, coordination is instead achieved through similarity.

– It tries to bring together those in the collaboration who have the same type of knowledge. It is easier to work together if you already “speak the same language”, explains John-Erik Bergkvist.

When solutions go too far

A key finding of the research is that both approaches can be problematic in their extremes. The collaborative approach can lead to an excessive focus on joint activities – something John-Erik Bergkvist calls joinholism.

– It becomes very time-consuming to constantly get to know each other, especially when people come and go. There is a risk that there will be a lot of talk and little action, he says.

The self-selecting approach can instead lead to alignophilia, where the pursuit of homogeneity becomes exclusionary.

– The point of these partnerships is that no one has all the necessary knowledge. If the similarity is taken too far, important perspectives risk being lost.

A long-term approach thus requires both balance and tolerance for different ways of participating.

Individuals make things happen

As the partnerships lack formal mandates to give directives or provide incentives such as salary or promotion, the individual perspective becomes crucial.

– It is individuals who make things happen. So you have to focus on their motivation, knowledge and what information they have to coordinate themselves.

John-Erik Bergkvist’s advice to those leading or participating in large-scale social partnerships is clear:

– Focus less on agreeing on targets at the organizational level and more on creating the conditions for individuals to actually contribute time, knowledge and effort, he urges.

Contact johnerik.bergkvist@hhs.se

More about the thesis
John-Erik Bergkvist will defend his doctoral thesis Behavioral Foundations of Grand Challenge Partnerships: Essays on Control, Coordination, Channelization, & Crowdsourced Search in Conditions of Absent Formal Authority at the Stockholm School of Economics on 18 December.