Research on Collaboration in Action

"In this paper I will focus on the psychological dynamics of multiparty collaboration, illustrated by two projects in which I have been engaged. First I describe what I mean by multiparty collaboration. Next, I outline the principles of designing and executing action research projects. The theoretical background for these principles is derived from the domain of Organization Development and from a psychodynamic perspective on organizations and organizational change. Subsequently I present my experiences with running a complex behavioral simulation of multiparty processes. I share some main observations pertaining to the social difficulties people encounter when working across system boundaries. The second project concerns an action research project of an organizational change process in a nursing home. I describe the action research process and my role as a consultant. I then review some generic issues related to multiparty processes that are typical for both projects. I end with some reflections on universities and multiparty collaboration." (author's abstract