Exploring relationships among organizational capacity, collaboration, and network change

Abstract

Is the collaborative activity of organizations in a network associated with the capacity of individual organizations? How might the structure of collaborative activity and the location of high capacity organizations in a network be related to the network's overall ability to influence community conditions? This article explores these questions among 23 local organizations providing women and new mothers with health care, advocacy, and other services in a single US city. Changes in the interorganizational network of collaborations are depicted in four time periods spanning 12 years and analyzed over time using both whole network and local network measures. Organizational attributes associated with dimensions of organizational learning and organizational effectiveness are examined in relation to interorganizational network changes over time. Results indicate that more adaptable organizations and those with higher capacity were not necessarily central in the network. Overall, findings suggest that increases in cohesion across a structurally diffuse network, relatively well dispersed high capacity organizations, and strategic relational investments may have influenced the reduction in health disparities for infants and expecting mothers. Although community-level interventions often focus on building a strong, central group of high capacity organizations, these findings suggest a need to also take into account the strategic action of a range of individual organizations, their local networks, and how they may advance change in the broader network over time.