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Power Dynamics and Learning in Collaborations
Nuzhat Lotia
Department of Management, University of Melbourne, Parkville VIC
Abstract
This paper examines the learning process within collaborations from a political perspective and explores the implications of power for the process of learning. The central argument is that the processes of collaboration and collaborative learning are inherently influenced by dynamics of power that occur at the organisational, collaboration and collaboration-environment levels. These power dynamics develop as a consequence of the interactions among collaborating organisations and their power bases. The paper presents a theoretical basis for considering the nature and impact of power dynamics at the various levels on the collaborative learning process and outcomes and sets forth some propositions that provide an agenda for future research.
Studies of collaborations and interorganisational relations have grown rapidly over the recent years (Oliver & Ebers 1998; Barringer & Harrison 2000). This research has contributed to our understanding of collaborations through a rich variety of theories (Powell & Smith-Doerr 1994) and while a large volume of research on collaboration exists (eg Hamel, Doz & Prahalad 1989; Gray 1989; Waddock & Post, 1995; Powell, Koput & Smith-Doerr 1996: Hardy & Phillips 1998; Larsson, Bengtsson, Henriksson & Sparks 1999; Gulati, Nohria & Zaheer 2000), several challenges can be identified.
First, much of the literature on collaborations takes a functionalist approach to collaborations (Hazen 1994; Hardy & Phillips 1998). Collaborations have been viewed as the answer to problems such as growing environmental complexity, globalisation, social problems and scarcity of resources: and ideas such as reciprocity, resource sharing and collectivism have been stressed (Hardy & Phillips 1998). While there is acknowledgement of the threat of opportunism and constraining alliance interdependencies (eg Praise & Cahser 2003; Milgate 2000; Nooteboom, Berger & Noorderhaven 1997) the literature tends to be functionalist and prescriptive by suggesting approaches such as the alliance-portfolio approach (Praise & Casher 2003), experience sharing among managers (Tsang 2002), 'black-box' protection strategy (Milgate 2000) for individual organisations to effectively manage their collaborations. As a result, issues such as asymmetrical power relations, interests being served, diverse goals and exploitation and domination in collaborative relationships have not been fully explored.
Second, the literature acknowledges that there is a learning and knowledge exchange element in collaborations (eg Praise & Casher 2003: Milgate 2000: Powell et al 1996), however, the focus continues to be how a collaborator can gain both explicit and tacit knowledge from other collaborators and not on how collaborating organisations can learn collectively. Thus, the socio-political processes influencing collaborative learning have not been fully explored and the research on learning in interorganisational collaborations continues to be structural and macro in focus (Salk & Simonin 2003). Issues such as who participates in a collaboration, whose knowledge and ideas get shared, how these get interpreted, legitimised and institutionalised bring in a political dimension that needs to be explored. Undertaking studies of learning in networks of organisations and focusing on political processes in learning has also been highlighted as an emerging challenge in the organisational learning research (Bethoin Antal, Child, Dierkes & Nonaka 2001).
Third, research on collaborations requires a change in focus from the organisation to the collaboration and the interorganisational domain levels. However, the majority of research has focused on relationships around a focal organisation in a collaboration with the application of such well-developed theories of the firm as resource dependence, transaction cost economics, strategic choice, institutional arid stakeholder theories to collaborations (Barringer & Harrison 2000). While useful, such research does not look at dynamics of the interorganisational collaboration, collective activities of a collaboration and collaborations' influence on its external environment.
This paper addresses these challenges by integrating three streams of literature on collaborations, organisational learning and power and politics. Specifically, it addresses the question: What is the impact of power dynamics among the collaborating organisations on collaborative learning and the collaboration process? Synthesising current theories of power and organisational learning, a theoretical model and a set of propositions to address this research question are developed and the specific relations of power and their impact on collaborative learning and the collaboration process explored. In doing so, I focus on multiparty collaborations that involve more than two collaborators. The paper seeks to contribute to the collaboration, power and collaborative learning fields by integrating these streams of research. In doing so, it makes explicit how power dynamics impact collaborations and collaborative learning.
The first section reviews the existing literature on collaborations and organisational arid collaborative learning to develop a theoretical context. The second section uses the traditional, critical and postmodern constructs of power to develop an integrating conceptual framework to describe the dynamics of power and learning in collaborations. Lastly, implications for theory and practice are presented.
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