Tenants and residents associations and council collaboration: rhetoric and reality

Abstract

The aim of the thesis is to fill a gap in knowledge about collaboration and the possibilities that exist for the achievement of collaborative advantage by examining in detail the way that institutional pressure and power impacts on tenants and residents association (TARA) and council collaboration. Three levels of analysis are used to examine relations between institutional forces and power at the macro-level (including legislation, traditions and customs) and their affect on the political environment within which organizations are located and collaborate at the meso-level and individuals in organizations act at the micro-level. The thesis uses ideas and concepts that are part of institutional theory and theory on power to show what affect the national political environment has had on mandated TARA and council collaboration. The focus is on how effectively existing theory on collaboration and collaborative advantage deals with institutions, the ways in which they can impact on relations between collaborating organizations and the role of mandated collaboration when there are large inequalities of power between collaborating organizations with very different cultures and values. The research design comprised a longitudinal single case study to examine and analyse TARA and council collaboration. I adopted an ethnographic and grounded research approach to obtain people’s views and perspectives on collaboration for later coding and categorization that led to the emergence of various ideas, concepts and relations. My new concept that helps to explain how organizations can be involved in a process where they are disadvantaged in collaboration is introduced and developed