How do inter-institutional teams succeed? A case of national project

Abstract

Abstract. Considering phenomenon of inter-institutional collaboration, the paper aims to investigate the issues of inter-institutional collaboration in Lithuanian public organizations. The paper is based on the study of collaboration aspects relevant to the project implemented by the Lithuanian Republic Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Based on theoretical discussion related to the success of project implementation and team work, two studies were conducted. Firstly, a sample comprised of seven project managers expressed the assumptions about decision-making process, obstacles of project implementation and measures for efficiency. Secondly, 65 responses were collected from project participants representing different public institutions. The results revealed that inter-institutional projects in public organizations are still characterized as following traditional and strictly hierarchic structure. The project leaders underestimate the potential of project group members and do not involve them into the decision-making process. The findings let us develop recommendations for managers and policy makers involved into inter-institutional projects.Keywords: inter-institutional collaboration, project, team work, success factors, decision making, leadershipJEL Classification: M1, M12, M19IntroductionInter-institutional collaboration has become an increasingly prevalent phenomenon in contemporary world. Some forms of collaboration have emerged in business and have gained popularity in particular industries such as: ship building (Ahola et al. 2008), film-making (Bechky 2006) and etc. Inter-institutional collaboration requires combining efforts of different organizations by implementing various projects in a limited time period. Hence, temporary nature of collaboration is a distinguished feature impacting interaction process. However, prevailing discussions revealed that inter-institutional collaboration is slow process and provides mixed results (Levering et al. 2013).Public organizations are confronted with the growing pressure to integrate and increase quality of services while lowering costs (Drach-Zahavy 2011). Corresponding to these pressures organizations aim to apply approaches prevailing in business field. Hence, inter-institutional projects have been gaining considerable attention of managers and policy makers in such fields as: health sector (Jones et al. 2004) and higher education (Tadaki, Tremewan 2013). Collaboration is mainly based on five pillars: prevailing common goals, reciprocal trust, and exchange of information, share of resources and capabilities and share of risks (Raisiene, 2011). The barriers to effective collaboration include mistrust, different priorities of organizations, different values and goals (Palinkas et al. 2014).Notably, collaboration of organizations requires considerable efforts of various teams. However, effectiveness of teamwork is seen as a challenge, impacted by increasingly complex and innovative tasks and environmental disruptions (Harvey et al. 2014). In addition, inter-organizational teams are confronted with even more complex problems than organizational teams. Collaboration issues in public sector arise due to traditional hierarchical command and control structures and the need to coordinate across organizational boundaries (Piercy et al. 2013). Hence, decision-making process becomes complex and impacts interaction of various stakeholders.The paper aims to investigate the issues of inter-institutional collaboration in Lithuanian public organizations. The paper is based on the study of collaboration aspects relevant to the project implemented by the Lithuanian Republic Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) in 20122013. The research is grounded on the survey of 84 project participants representing different public institutions and interviews of project managers.The remaining of paper is organized as follows. The first part provides insights into the success of project implementation. …