Why Not Partner With Local Government?

Abstract

Service delivery partnerships with local government offer both opportunities and challenges for nonprofit agencies, but the normative and institutionalist tendencies of the collaboration literature tend to downplay the rationales for avoiding partnerships and the influence of managerial characteristics on the decision to collaborate. Nonprofit executive directors across the state of Georgia were asked about factors that might inhibit them from collaborating with local government agencies. Principal components analysis created four dependent variables from these answers, which were regressed on various respondent, organizational, and community characteristics. The resulting analysis finds that managerial attitudes about collaboration are not monolithic: They reflect underlying political and social dynamics that should be understood as distinct constructs, linked to experience and personal background. The findings suggest that future research should specify the exact nature of collaborative barriers, examine the individual backgrounds of those charged with collaborative responsibility, and integrate theories of organizational and human behavior.